PCI-E WiFi options for a Late 2005 Powermac

[thorns]

Hey,

I'm having troubles connecting to a Wifi router. Relocating the router is not an option. I am currently using a mediocre RALink-based USB Wifi dongle which doesn't get a stable link. I think that the internal antenna in the G5 is not of much help either and the standoff card for the wifi adapter is still around 80USD which is way too high.

Now, do you know an USB adapter with a better antenna (possibly external so I can move it around) or can I use an internal PCI-E adapter card by putting a mini pcie card from a Mac Pro in (possibly giving me the full Airport experience)?

I had looked around the internet once and recall someone doing the last option but I can't remember where I've read it or if I was mistaken completely.

Thanks for your input!

 

[Jethryn Freyman]

I have the Alfa AWUS06H USB wireless card. it comes with a metre long USB cable and a detachable antenna and it is BRILLIANT. Nothing else comes close. Expensive though, but it'll serve you well.

 

[thorns]

This sounds great, but I can't find the AWUS06H, only the AWUS036H ready to buy. Any experience with those adapters? Judging by some google research, people aren't very happy with Mac OS X performance (esp. Leopard)

 

[Jethryn Freyman]

This sounds great, but I can't find the AWUS06H, only the AWUS036H ready to buy.

Oops, I left out the 3. That's what I meant.

Any experience with those adapters? Judging by some google research, people aren't very happy with Mac OS X performance (esp. Leopard)

That's weird, it's always been perfect for me. I've run it on a G5 Power Mac, two Macbook Pros, a Core Duo iMac, and a 6 year old PC laptop and it's always been perfect. Make sure you download the drivers (just Google for them, Alfa have them on their website. Very easy to install and uninstall.)

 

[thorns]

Okay, I ordered the 36H anyway, just to give it a try. I hope it works as well as your experience would suggest

 

[Tyroler]

You mean that http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/250895758...DXX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1436.l2649#ht_800wt_936


or that


http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/370421728...XX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1436.l2649#ht_1484wt_754


or that

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/200579106...XX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1436.l2649#ht_2915wt_877

 

[thorns]

Just to give feedback, using the 36H can be quite a bit of a hassle. It has really great reception, but sometimes the connection itself is not very stable, this seems to be a problem on my end and not the router. I can produce kernel panics when I unplug the device when it can't find the associated wifi any more. I can get it to work if I reboot, however. This is my experience using it in 10.5.8, haven't tried using it in 10.4.11 yet.

 

[VanneDC]

i found that all Ralink chipsets on leopard are trash and love to give you a holiday to KP land.

Ive since swapped (when i had my ppc PM) over to a netgear wg111 usb stick and its been solid gold.
not one trip to KP land and great reception.. there are netgear speccific drivers also for 10.5, and 10.4.

 

[thorns]

Well, the RTL8187L chipset in the ALFA adapter does stuff like fully supporting KisMAC. You are right about Ralink chipsets though, I had used a RT3070-based USB stick before which wasn't very stable nor had good reception.

 

[VanneDC]

come on mate, your seriously worried about supporting KissMAC? packet injection is too hard work mate. >

 

[Jethryn Freyman]

I'm running the 36H on 10.5.8 and reception has always been 100% flawless (seriously, 100%) and I've never had a single crash of kernel panic or bit of trouble from it...