Hi everyone, I recently bought a Powermac G3 b&w (400mhz). Its great, but I do not want to spend the steep price to buy an airport card for wireless networking/internet. are there any other cheaper third party wireless cards that I could put in it?
I would appreciate the help.
thx
The Blue & White G3 towers don't even support AirPort cards. There's no internal slot for the card, nor are there antennas in the case. You'll need to find a compatible PCI-based card.
WHat about a USB wifi adapter? Not just any adapter out there, though, because finding software for it would be an issue.
I am only familiar with classic os, so for me using an Orinoco USB external bridge would work... or one of those PCI-card adapters that can hold a pc card.
Sonnet makes (made?) an "Aria" pci card that supported OSX, but they were expensive.
Check Ebay; there are several products that claim they work with your machine; PCI cards, usb thumbdrive wifi adapters, etc.
The only USB adapter I'm aware of that comes with Mac drivers in the box is made by D-Link. However, the device is a piece of crap. I owned one, and promptly returned it after realizing its suckiness. Of course, there may be other USB WiFi adapters that work well on the Mac; use Google and you'll probably find one.
Get one of those jobbies (like sold for game consoles.) They don't suck (eg: USB adapters) and don't fill one of your precious PCI slots (eg: PCI wifi adapter.)
dan k
the ethernet adapter sounds like a good idea; because I already own an xbox and would be nice to have one for that too (the PCI cards are non interchangeable and cost the same). Thanks a lot for your suggestions
I would agree with the ethernet->wifi bridge. I got one a couple years ago (linksys wet-11?) and you can even hook it up to a switch, which helps with getting wireless to multiple older computers.
tried 3 cards and all were airport supported in tiger
Good point on the switch! You could also get a Duo with an ethernet mini-dock on WiFi with an adapter like that. Of course you'd have to pull a hack like the FireBook to get it all cool and snazzy. Man, a WiFi near-mini-dock for the Duo with it's own battery for the bridge... Ohhh, tasty!
Check the link in my sig. Hasn't been updated in a while, but yeah, as others have said, your options are PCI, USB or Ethernet.
All the broadcom Wifi chipsets are supported in 10.3 and 10.4. This is the cheapest (and worst) chipset, which means it's pretty easy to find a card that works cheap.
I have a B&W and if cheep is your way to go then Airlink USB and use D-link DWL-122 driver. Picked one up @ Fry's for $10.
I just saw some information that may be of help. Going to try it out myself to connect my Blue White G3 400 OSX10.3.9 to a wireless router. Basically get a Network Bridge that converts any ethernet connection to a wireless connection, independent of the device (os, pc, xbox, etc). http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000CEPCH/104-0812303-2519965?v=glance&n=172282
There was a mac article on it, but can't find the darn link now..
I have a PowerMac G3 B&W, and I went to www.macwireless.com and got the PCI wireless G card. Once I installed it inside the machine...I turned it on, and absolutely no configuration was required at all; it connected automatically to my network using the built-in airport software. Part of the ease of connection may have been because I am using Tiger...and Tiger is like..."RAWR! I will connect you with EASE! RAWR!" lol. The things at macwireless are expensive, but they work really great.
ok now my question is how many people here used these aftermarket parts for wireless before??? ive done some looking today but there isnt much love for OS9 anymore, which doesnt bother me too much if i can manage to get panther on my lombard. i have panther on my G4 at this time so im good there. im looking mainly for reviews of what people think of these things as well.