Wireless - Airport or dongle

[And]

Hi all,

I have a G5 powermac (2.0 ghz dual processor, not dual core) and would like to use it on a wireless network. It does not have an airport extreme card installed. I know my options are to get one of these or a usb dongle. I did the latter, a netgear something or other, but found that the network I need to connect to will only support 'WPA/WPA2 enterprise'.

Can someone confirm that airport extreme will support 'enterprise'. I assume it will. I think I also need a T bar antenna too with this solution, which seem hard to come by.

Can someone recommend a dongle they know will support this protocol. When I have looked at the descriptions of dongles on amazon (for example) it seems this is a feature that is not mentioned either way and I could do without purchasing multiple dongles to find one which supports the protocol.

thank you for any assistance you can offer.

 

[Anonymous Freak]

The 802.11g "AirPort Extreme" systems have no problem connecting to WPA2 Personal or Enterprise in OS X 10.5 Leopard.

I once had my 802.11b "AirPort" (no Extreme,) system connect to a WPA2 Personal network in OS X 10.4 Tiger, but I haven't been able to repeat that. The network even shows up in my System Preferences as a saved network, with WPA2 Personal encryption, but it refuses to actually connect to it now.

 

[And]

The 802.11g "AirPort Extreme" systems have no problem connecting to WPA2 Personal or Enterprise in OS X 10.5 Leopard.

I once had my 802.11b "AirPort" (no Extreme,) system connect to a WPA2 Personal network in OS X 10.4 Tiger, but I haven't been able to repeat that. The network even shows up in my System Preferences as a saved network, with WPA2 Personal encryption, but it refuses to actually connect to it now.

Thanks for confirming enterprise in Airport Extreme.

I have got my usb dongle working via WPA2 personal on 10.5.8. with a g connection, but that does not work on the enterprise connection that I need.

 

[gooser]

what about those ethernet adapters? will they work?

 

[noodle654]

what about those ethernet adapters? will they work?

From the ones I have looked at (IOGEAR), it should work fine. It is acting like an Airport Express (which might work better). I would avoid USB dongles they use quite a bit of CPU power, at least on my G5. I am using an older Airport Express (N) hooked up to my G5 and works great.

 

[And]

what about those ethernet adapters? will they work?

Can you explain further, or point me to a product? If it is something that connects to an ethernet port and gets me wireless access then sounds interesting. I've not heard of ethernet adapters before.

 

[noodle654]

Can you explain further, or point me to a product? If it is something that connects to an ethernet port and gets me wireless access then sounds interesting. I've not heard of ethernet adapters before.

Look at the Airport Express. Very easy to use and it can be setup with any wireless network really. All you do it plug it into the wall and then hook up an ethernet cable to the Express and your Mac and you have wireless internet through your ethernet port.

 

[davidg4781]

I know AE has been highly recommended but are there any less expensive solutions? I hate to drop $75 (refurbed) so I can have better connectivity on a $100 iMac.

I'm reluctant to buy a used one on eBay or CL. I've bought 2 network devices from there in the past and both failed to work properly.

 

[three]

I purchased a Netgear Wireless Extender (for about $40) a couple months ago and use a wired connection from that to connect my iMac G3s and G4 to the internet. I was initially going to get the Airport Express but decided that I'd try this out before spending the money on the Airport Express. Haven't had any issues and it's still running fine.

 

[And]

I ended up deciding that I would go for an apple AE card and track down an antenna too. I ended up getting outbid on ebay a couple of times... However when searching I found a seller who sold a PCI card, with antenna, for £12 ($16?) inc. postage. Although not apple it apparently uses the same chipset and so is recognised as airport with no need for extra drivers. Given an earlier poster indicated that AE supported WPA2 enterprise I thought I would take a chance. It has paid off, card installed, recognised as airport by 10.5.8, works with WPA2 enterprise, and am now online with my G5. yay. go team.