Wireless for Lombards

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Tom Callaway - 22 Jul 2005 05:01 GMT

I have a friend who wants me to help him set up his powerbook lombard to
work with a wireless network in a restaurant near where he lives, so he
can access his AOL account from there.

The reason I said I'd try to help is because I have an identical lombard
and would like to use it on the road at truckstops to read and send email.

Both computers run 9.2.2 and OS X 10.1.5. My friend uses OSX
exclusively, and I mostly use 9.2.2.

My question is this: what wireless pc cards will work with both
operating systems on these computers. I have googled the hell out of
this and I'm really confused.

Some say I need a card with a Broadcom chipset. Some say I need to
upgrade to 10.2.x.

Will any card with a Broadcom chipset work? Will any card work with
10.1.5, if so which ones? One source said I need Airport 3.1.x for
Airport Extreme, which means OS 10.2. Apple has a version of Airport
Extreme for 10.1.5 (3.04) but they say it won't work with any third
party cards.

Any suggestions for a combination of card and software would be greatly
appreciated.

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Richard Chang - 22 Jul 2005 13:47 GMT

> I have a friend who wants me to help him set up his powerbook lombard to
> work with a wireless network in a restaurant near where he lives, so he
[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]
> operating systems on these computers. I have googled the hell out of
> this and I'm really confused.

Well, if you have to have one card that works for OS9 and 10.1, you
can try Cisco/Aironet's 340 or 350 series (available for cheap on eBay).
The Cisco driver's are a bit klunky but functional for both OS 9 and X.
I had a similar setup for my Wallstreet. Cisco/Aironet drivers are
available here:

<http://www.cisco.com/public/sw-center/sw-wireless.shtml>

Cisco's website is terrible --- very difficult to find where to download
drivers.

The alternative is to have separate cards for OS9 and OSX. They are not
so expensive. I now use a Belkin 802.11g card on OSX and a Lucent
Wavelan card for OS9. I'm running 10.3 on my Wallstreet so I don't know
about 10.1.5 compatibility.

-R.

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Fred McKenzie - 22 Jul 2005 17:27 GMT

> The alternative is to have separate cards for OS9 and OSX. They are not
> so expensive. I now use a Belkin 802.11g card on OSX and a Lucent
> Wavelan card for OS9. I'm running 10.3 on my Wallstreet so I don't know
> about 10.1.5 compatibility.

Richard & Tom-

I agree with Richard's use of the Belkin and Lucent cards. They each work
with Apple's software as if they are Airport cards. The Lucent is
recognized by OS 9, the Belkin by OS X. (I'm running 9.2.2 and 10.2.8 in
my Wallstreet.)

There is one problem with Belkin - they changed their chip set a while
back, and the newer model with the same part number (F5D7010) is NOT
Airport compatible. The new one comes in the white box, and has a small
label indicating it is
VER. 3000 or higher. The label is on the card as well as on the bottom of
the box. The older model that IS Airport compatible with OS X, comes in
the red and silver box, and has a lable in the VER. 1000 or 2000 series.

If you want to use another card, or one of these with the other OS, check
out http://www.ioexperts.com/ and their drivers.

The card I started with is an 802.11b Asante FriendlyNET model AL1011-DP.
Using the supplied drivers, it works with both OS 9 and OS X. See
http://www.asante.com/.

One reason to use the Airport-equivalent cards, is that a program called
MacStumbler (and the OS 9 version, Classic Stumbler) only works with
Airport or equivalent. Using the program, you can find wireless base
stations as you drive around town.

Fred

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H.B. Elkins - 22 Jul 2005 20:43 GMT

>I have a friend who wants me to help him set up his powerbook lombard to
>work with a wireless network in a restaurant near where he lives, so he
>can access his AOL account from there.

One option is to get one of the discontinued D-Link DWL-122 USB wireless
adapters. Some places still have them available as refurbished models.

I have one and it works with my old Lombard. Requires OS X 10.2.2 and will run
on nothing later; may also run on some newer versions of 10.1.x.

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Mac Forum / General / Portable Macs / July 2005

Wireless for Lombards