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Resolved Suggestions for WiFi

eyoungren

eyoungren

macrumors Nehalem
Original poster
Aug 31, 2011
30,010
29,111
So…I have been thinking of a return to coffee shops with my Mac. The Mac in question being my A1013, 17" PowerBook. Normally, this wouldn't be any sort of issue. The Mac has an Airport Extreme card and I've tethered to my iPhone before with it.

But…for reasons unknown to me, with the Airport card active and the kext files in the proper location the Mac has a habit of KPing every once in a while. So at one point I removed the kexts (but not the card) and have the Mac solely on ethernet. I've never had a problem since.

I suspect a bad Airport card, but I'm not interested in doing what I need to do to replace it. I do have a couple of USB/WiFi dongles, one which I have used with this Mac before and that I know works. But I hate that whole separate connection app (which must stay running) stuff.

I was looking on eBay for some ethernet to WiFi adapters (they exist) but also ran into USB/WiFi dongles. Given that there has been quite some time since the launch of 5ghz WiFi I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for a WiFi dongle.

Preferably it'd be something that would act like native Airport, but I'm willing to take what might be out there. We have not been to the specific coffee shop I am thinking of in quite some time so I'm going to assume they're running 5Ghz and at least WPA2. That'd be my basic requirement of this then.

I have other laptops I can take, but I'd rather take the A1013.

Anyone have any ideas?
 
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eyoungren said:
So…I have been thinking of a return to coffee shops with my Mac. The Mac in question being my A1013, 17" PowerBook. Normally, this wouldn't be any sort of issue. The Mac has an Airport Extreme card and I've tethered to my iPhone before with it.

But…for reasons unknown to me, with the Airport card active and the kext files in the proper location the Mac has a habit of KPing every once in a while. So at one point I removed the kexts (but not the card) and have the Mac solely on ethernet. I've never had a problem since.

I suspect a bad Airport card, but I'm not interested in doing what I need to do to replace it. I do have a couple of USB/WiFi dongles, one which I have used with this Mac before and that I know works. But I hate that whole separate connection app (which must stay running) stuff.

I was looking on eBay for some ethernet to WiFi adapters (they exist) but also ran into USB/WiFi dongles. Given that there has been quite some time since the launch of 5ghz WiFi I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for a WiFi dongle.

Preferably it'd be something that would act like native Airport, but I'm willing to take what might be out there. We have not been to the specific coffee shop I am thinking of in quite some time so I'm going to assume they're running 5Ghz and at least WPA2. That'd be my basic requirement of this then.

I have other laptops I can take, but I'd rather take the A1013.

Anyone have any ideas?
Click to expand...

Give a WPC600N a try. It’s what I use in my 17-inch PB, which I’ve used to connect successfully at coffee shops.
 
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elvisimprsntr said:
Put it on eBay and use coins towards a new MBP/iPad

www.ebay.com

Powerbook G4 17 for sale | eBay

Get the best deals on Powerbook G4 17 and find everything you'll need to improve your home office setup at eBay.com. Fast & Free shipping on many items!
www.ebay.com
Click to expand...
I have to assume that you responded to this thread through the MacRumors forum spy. I assume that, because this thread is in the PowerPC Macs section of MacRumors. So thank you for your suggestion but it's not really what I'm looking to do.

I own:

2009 Mac Pro, upgrade to a 5,1 with three video cards, connected to two 30" Cinema Displays, 2 24" Cinema Displays, a 20" Acrylic Cinema Display and a 55" HDTV. 32GB ram, a 1TB SSD boot drive, a 4TB second drive, a 2TB third drive and a 3TB fourth drive.

2009 (Late) Mac Mini with 8GB ram and a 500GB SSD

2009 (Early) Mac Mini with 4GB ram and a 320GB HD

2008 MacBook Pro with a 500GB SSD and 4GB ram.

2006 MacBook Pro 17" with a 500GB HD and 2GB ram

2x 2006 Mac Minis

2006 PowerMac G5 Quad, 16GB ram and three video cards

2006 PowerMac G5 2.3Ghz Dual Core, 8GB ram with three video cards

2005 PowerMac G5 2.7Ghz Dual Processor with Radeon FireGL X3 AGP card, 1TB HD

2004 PowerBook G4 12" with a 250GB HD.

2003 PowerBook G4 17", 128GB SSD, 2GB ram <--the subject of this thread

2000 PowerMac G4, 2GB ram, PCI-SATA card, 1GB Ethernet NIC and three SATA drives (1-250GB, 2x 3TB)

1999 PowerMac G3 B&W, 1GB ram, PCI-SATA card, 2x 1GB Ethernet NICs and a 2TB RAID.

In addition, my work Mac is a 2015 MacBook Pro with a 256GB SSD and 16GB ram. It runs my two 30" Cinema Displays via a KVM.

I'm interested in solutions for the problem I posted - not turning in an old Mac for yet ANOTHER Intel Mac. I own this PowerBook because I want to.

Thank you though.
 
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eyoungren said:
I have to assume that you responded to this thread through the MacRumors forum spy. I assume that, because this thread is in the PowerPC Macs section of MacRumors. So thank you for your suggestion but it's not really what I'm looking to do.

I own:

2009 Mac Pro, upgrade to a 5,1 with three video cards, connected to two 30" Cinema Displays, 2 24" Cinema Displays, a 20" Acrylic Cinema Display and a 55" HDTV. 32GB ram, a 1TB SSD boot drive, a 4TB second drive, a 2TB third drive and a 3TB fourth drive.

2009 (Late) Mac Mini with 8GB ram and a 500GB SSD

2009 (Early) Mac Mini with 4GB ram and a 320GB HD

2008 MacBook Pro with a 500GB SSD and 4GB ram.

2006 MacBook Pro 17" with a 500GB HD and 2GB ram

2x 2006 Mac Minis

2006 PowerMac G5 Quad, 16GB ram and three video cards

2006 PowerMac G5 2.3Ghz Dual Core, 8GB ram with three video cards

2005 PowerMac G5 2.7Ghz Dual Processor with Radeon FireGL X3 AGP card, 1TB HD

2004 PowerBook G4 12" with a 250GB HD.

2003 PowerBook G4 17", 128GB SSD, 2GB ram <--the subject of this thread

2000 PowerMac G4, 2GB ram, PCI-SATA card, 1GB Ethernet NIC and three SATA drives (1-250GB, 2x 3TB)

1999 PowerMac G3 B&W, 1GB ram, PCI-SATA card, 2x 1GB Ethernet NICs and a 2TB RAID.

In addition, my work Mac is a 2015 MacBook Pro with a 256GB SSD and 16GB ram. It runs my two 30" Cinema Displays via a KVM.

I'm interested in solutions for the problem I posted - not turning in an old Mac for yet ANOTHER Intel Mac. I own this PowerBook because I want to.

Thank you though.
Click to expand...
You have quite the museum going there.
 
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B S Magnet said:
Give a WPC600N a try. It’s what I use in my 17-inch PB, which I’ve used to connect successfully at coffee shops.
Click to expand...

eyoungren said:
Well, that was fast. I have a tracking number. :D
Click to expand...

Do you get faster performance with this card? I searched it and it seems it’s an N spec card that’s also dual band.

I use ethernet most the time on my PowerBook’s because the airport cards are noticeably slower just loading web pages. I like the fact that it’s PCMCIA since on the newer G4s with FW800 and USB2 I have no use for the cardbus slot. I often forget it’s even there…
 
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9D1E3F53-98CD-4786-9EB0-0242FD11BF91.jpeg

I got this for the Mac mini, has been working great.
 
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Project Alice said:
Do you get faster performance with this card? I searched it and it seems it’s an N spec card that’s also dual band.
Click to expand...

Relative to the on-board AirPort Extreme card, it is appreciably quicker — both when retrieving raw data from the loading of a web site and also when moving files via AFP. I’ve never bothered with running any kind of major benchmarks because, idk, I’m lazy.

It is an N-spec card, rated to reach as high as 300Mbps (gross, not accounting for packet overhead); in practice, I typically see speeds closer to the 160–220Mbps range when I’m nearby the router. For me, that’s good enough.

The only issue I have is, occasionally, the card will go “offline” in that it appears active, but it is no longer on the network. Usually this can be remedied by powering off the card (from the menubar), ejecting the card, then re-inserting it. After doing this, it tends to work fine again (though the AirPort icon in the menubar will show it incorrectly as powered “off”).

Mind you, my card has been through a bit of use, so that might be part of the reason. For instance, I bumped it by accident around the end of December 2019. I thought I’d broken it, but it continued to work fine (with exception to the LED indicator lights in the part which sticks out, which no longer light up).

Project Alice said:
I use ethernet most the time on my PowerBook’s because the airport cards are noticeably slower just loading web pages. I like the fact that it’s PCMCIA since on the newer G4s with FW800 and USB2 I have no use for the cardbus slot. I often forget it’s even there…
Click to expand...

My other PowerBook (the one I use for SL-PPC testing) relies solely on ethernet because both the wifi/bluetooth card and the PCMCIA card connections to the logic board cause kernel panics early in the boot process (the logic board, the one which came with the Powerbook, is clearly a refurb — it lacked a serial before I added one in — though not everything works on it). Consequently, I can’t use the WPC600N on that PowerBook, nor can I use Bluetooth or AirPort.
 
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B S Magnet said:
:success kid meme:

Wow yeah, I forgot how the LEDs on there looked! My LEDs died a while ago due to negligence on my behalf. I’m so glad your A1013 has a new lease on wifi life! :D

I guess we can file this one… RESOLVED. :Law and Order clunk-clunk::
Click to expand...
Yeah, it's resolved. :D

The card is 802.11n, but for web browsing at a coffee shop? On TenFourFox? Running on a PowerBook G4 from 2003?

Does. Not. Really. Matter! :)

The important part to me was WPA2 and dual band, both of which it has and which I can expect the coffee shop to have. Even so, it'll tether just fine.

Had to put my kexts back and repair permissions to get it to work though. I had ripped all that stuff out previously.
 
eyoungren said:
Yeah, it's resolved. :D

The card is 802.11n, but for web browsing at a coffee shop? On TenFourFox? Running on a PowerBook G4 from 2003?

Does. Not. Really. Matter! :)
Click to expand...

If you have a battery or a long adapter cable, you could, if you wanted to. :)

Or you can now futz around the house carrying it about and using it like a cutting edge tech kid in 2003.

There are so many possibilities…


eyoungren said:
Had to put my kexts back and repair permissions to get it to work though. I had ripped all that stuff out previously.
Click to expand...

Yikes!
 
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Macbookprodude said:
How did you get the dark mode to work on your powerbook ?
Click to expand...
For MacRumors?

Preferences -> Style…

Preferences | MacRumors Forums - Vivaldi.png

Or do you mean the menubar and OS theme?

forums.macrumors.com

Black Mac OS X

Over the time I've been here, there have been a few enquiries about the black theme I use on my Macs. I've put up a few pieces as asked, but now I am going to post everything here in this thread and leave it up. Firstly, I use Magnifique and the Black OS X theme. Don't ask me how I tracked this...
forums.macrumors.com forums.macrumors.com

The browser itself is using FTDeep Dark…the Linux version.
 
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