Mac Forum / General / Networking / December 2005

Dylan & Coop-

That is an impressive list.

Since Coop mentioned USB, I assume his PowerBook may be the 12 inch model
that doesn't have a CardBus/PCMCIA slot.  I have the Belkin model F5D6050
USB adapter.  It works somewhat under OS 10.2 in my old Beige G3-266
MiniTower.  It was necessary to download the drivers from Belkin, and
getting it to work under OS 9 was tricky.  It is the older 802.11b system.

If the PowerBook has a CardBus/PCMCIA slot, one of the cards with the
Broadcom chipset should work as if it were an Airport card (except plugged
into the CardBus slot!).

I use the Belkin F5D7010 (802.11g) in my Wallstreet PB G3-300 under OS
10.2, which does not appear on the above list.  That may be because Belkin
changed chipsets but did not change the model number!  The older VER. 1000
or 2000 series seems to have the Broadcom chipset, but the newer VER. 3000
and above series do not.  If you find one, be sure it comes in the older
red and silver box.  The new versions come in a white box.

Although non-Apple drivers may be available for other adapters, it is
cleaner to have one that works with the Apple drivers.  (There is a
program called MacStumbler that only works with Airport or equivalent
cards, and is handy for finding wireless hotspots.)

Fred