What would be a good, cheap USB dongle for my iBook?

[Ariii]

Hi ! I pretty much gave up on getting the original AirPort card to work with my iBook, so I think I would need a dongle to work with my iBook G3... Most that I've seen don't have PowerPC support or are experimental. Has anybody else tried any dongles that work well in PowerPC Linux?

[skinniezinho]

as I told on the FAQ, pretty much all based usb dongles based on ralink chipset support either powerpc mac.
About linux, yes they support linux too, about powerpc linux, I don't know, but I guess it will do.
Almost every cheap usb dongle on ebay has ralink chipset.
Asus and SMC make them too.

[skateny]

Originally Posted by skinniezinho

as I told on the FAQ, pretty much all based usb dongles based on ralink chipset support either powerpc mac.
About linux, yes they support linux too, about powerpc linux, I don't know, but I guess it will do.
Almost every cheap usb dongle on ebay has ralink chipset.
Asus and SMC make them too.

I agree. Many of the Ralink chips are compatible with PowerPC.

When my Airport card crapped out, I got a cheap WiFi dongle with a Ralink chip on eBay. The only problem I had was that it came with a mini-CD to install the driver, which I wouldn't put in my iBook's optical drive. I spent a good deal of time searching for a site on which I could download the driver instead.

During my search, I stumbled over more than one post in which it was stated that the drivers that came with the dongle were not for PowerPC with OS X. I later confirmed this by inserting the mini-CD in a friends tray loading drive.

After a time, and when I was out and about during the blackout following hurricane Sandy, I noticed that I wasn't getting very strong signals from the dongle. So I bought a USB WiFi Signal Booster, also with a Ralink chip. I again had to search for the driver. I'd learned from my original search that I needed to track down the driver based on the chip (Ralink 3070), and not on the name of the dongle. It was a quick search, and I now get extremely strong signals wherever I go compared to the original dongle and the AirPort Extreme card.

As a bonus, where I live the cable companies piggy back on each other's WiFi networks so as to provide more widespread coverage. I don't even need to sign in to the other cable providers' WiFi networks -- the system works automatically.

So now I have a WiFi signal booster that works incredibly well, and a backup in case these cheap Chinese products fail. I paid a total of $17 for both.

[skinniezinho]

Originally Posted by skateny

I agree. Many of the Ralink chips are compatible with PowerPC.

When my Airport card crapped out, I got a cheap WiFi dongle with a Ralink chip on eBay. The only problem I had was that it came with a mini-CD to install the driver, which I wouldn't put in my iBook's optical drive. I spent a good deal of time searching for a site on which I could download the driver instead.

During my search, I stumbled over more than one post in which it was stated that the drivers that came with the dongle were not for PowerPC with OS X. I later confirmed this by inserting the mini-CD in a friends tray loading drive.

After a time, and when I was out and about during the blackout following hurricane Sandy, I noticed that I wasn't getting very strong signals from the dongle. So I bought a USB WiFi Signal Booster, also with a Ralink chip. I again had to search for the driver. I'd learned from my original search that I needed to track down the driver based on the chip (Ralink 3070), and not on the name of the dongle. It was a quick search, and I now get extremely strong signals wherever I go compared to the original dongle and the AirPort Extreme card.

As a bonus, where I live the cable companies piggy back on each other's WiFi networks so as to provide more widespread coverage. I don't even need to sign in to the other cable providers' WiFi networks -- the system works automatically.

So now I have a WiFi signal booster that works incredibly well, and a backup in case these cheap Chinese products fail. I paid a total of $17 for both.

Well my PCI card is from Ralink, and it is brand is Conceptronic, Conceptronic doesn't say nothing about mac support, but with "vanilla" drivers it works fine on my powermac g4:
http://www.ralinktech.com/en/04_supp...ort.php?sn=502

I have an usb dongle with ralink chipset, but I haven't tried it on my powermac, but I suppose it will work just fine.
I paid about 10eur for it on a local store.SMC branded.

[MisterKeeks]

Originally Posted by Ariii

Hi ! I pretty much gave up on getting the original AirPort card to work with my iBook, so I think I would need a dongle to work with my iBook G3

Have you tried multiple cards?

[Ariii]

Originally Posted by skinniezinho

as I told on the FAQ, pretty much all based usb dongles based on ralink chipset support either powerpc mac.
About linux, yes they support linux too, about powerpc linux, I don't know, but I guess it will do.
Almost every cheap usb dongle on ebay has ralink chipset.
Asus and SMC make them too.

Thanks ! I decided that I'll go with this:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/150Mbps-WiFi...item484af19b21

Originally Posted by MisterKeeks

Have you tried multiple cards?

Yes, both on my Lime and Indigo iBooks as well. They worked in MacOS 9 and Mac OS X, but in Debian and MintPPC they had problems that were unresolved.

[skateny]

Originally Posted by Ariii

Thanks ! I decided that I'll go with this:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/150Mbps-WiFi...item484af19b21



Yes, both on my Lime and Indigo iBooks as well. They worked in MacOS 9 and Mac OS X, but in Debian and MintPPC they had problems that were unresolved.

I'm pretty sure your iBooks don't support USB 2.0.

[Ariii]

Originally Posted by skateny

I'm pretty sure your iBooks don't support USB 2.0.

USB 2.0 accessories are backwards-compatible with USB 1.1.

[skateny]

Originally Posted by Ariii

USB 2.0 accessories are backwards-compatible with USB 1.1.

You're good then.

[Ariii]

Yay ! My iBook's AirPort card started working again for no reason in Debian !

Does anybody have an idea how this could have happened?

I'd get an authentication error upon trying to join any networks (Even though it can see them), and then I'd end up occasionally not being able to see any at all.