![]() Since AirPort 3.1 solves the problem in OS X, the only ones left out in the cold are those who had hoped for classic Mac OS support for 802.11g. UPDATE: In June, Belkin announced that it would not be delivering Mac drivers for its 54g PC Card. $80Īccording to TidBITS, Belkin has promised classic Mac drivers for their 802.11g hardware that will support “extreme” wireless networking on Mac OS 8.6 and later. F5D7000 54g Wireless Desktop Network Card.F5D7010 54g Wireless Notebook Network Card.F5D7130 54g Wireless Network Access Point.Appears to include a 4-port 10/100 ethernet switch. F5D7230-4 54g Wireless Cable/DSL Gateway Router.Their 54g Wireless Networking products include Belkinīelkin used to be known as a cable company, but they’ve really branched out into networking. $49 at .Īccording to the TidBITS article, Buffalo has provided limited Mac support in the past. WLI-CG-G54 AirStation G54 Wireless Cardbus.WBR-G54 AirStation G54 Wireless Broadband Router.Their AirStation G54 hardware includes just two items: I have no experience with Buffalo Technology, so I can’t predict how well they will support Mac users. Linksys has announced four 802.11g products: Its Wireless-G hardware may well work with Macs, but according to several members of our mailing lists, Linksys comes as close to being Mac-hostile as any hardware vendor they know. Linksys has a long reputation for very poor or nonexistent Mac support. UPDATE: Since the release of AirPort 3.1, users have discovered that the Belkin, Buffalo, and Linksys PC Cards work flawlessly without any need for non-Apple drivers. Prices are in US dollars and are from the manufacturer where possible, from online vendors otherwise. That still leaves iMacs and iBooks out in the cold, but these companies are providing support for older Macs – something Apple isn’t doing. The good news is that these companies not only have wireless hubs that cost less than Apple’s AirPort Extreme hub, but they also offer PC Cards for PowerBooks, and some have PCI cards for desktop Macs as well. According to an article on TidBITS, Belkin, Linksys, D-Link, and Buffalo Technology are also in the “extreme” camp. Apple Is Not Aloneįortunately, Apple is not the only company to make or announce 802.11g wireless networking products. The hardware is not backwards compatible with the AirPort slots in older Macs. 802.11gįor those who missed it, AirPort Extreme is based on the 802.11g specification (which has not become a formal standard yet), has 54 Mbps bandwidth (almost five times as fast as 11 Mbps 802.11b AirPort), and is backward compatible with the existing 802.11b wireless standard.Ĭompatibility with older Macs, for one thing.Īpple’s AirPort Extreme card currently works with exactly two Macs: the 12″ and 17″ PowerBooks. The new PowerBooks ( Big Al and Little Al) are nice enough, but I think that the new five-times-as-fast AirPort Extreme will have much more impact in the long run.
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