Wireless networking a powermac G4

Discussion in 'Mac Basics and Help' started by jeffton, Jan 12, 2008.

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  1. jeffton, Jan 12, 2008

    jeffton macrumors newbie

    Joined:
    Jan 12, 2008
    #1
    Hi All,
    I'm new to mac's, I bought a g4 (gigabit ethernet) running 10.3 off a friend when my ancient pc exploded.
    I quite like the mac so im going to keep it for browsing and music etc, I would like to be able to connect it to my existing wireless network.
    I have a 3com 54g access point plugged into my router, I have looked at ways to connect to this without using an airport card but I've got a bit confused. Could someone please tell me if the following is true?

    1. I could use any usb dongle which has os x drivers
    2. I could get a pci card that uses the same broadcom chipset (seems hard to guarantee getting one of these) as the airport cards or a card with an RT2500 chipset ans use the ralinktech drivers?
    3. Or could I just connect it via the ethernet port to any other wireless bridge/access point which would in turn connect to the access point which is plugged into my router? (this being the cheapest I can find http://www.buffalo-technology.com/products/wireless/wireless-g/wireless-g-wi-fi-gamers-access-point/ )

    Thanks for any help!
     
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  2. iMpathetic, Jan 12, 2008

    iMpathetic macrumors 68030

    iMpathetic

    Joined:
    Oct 7, 2007
    Location:
    IMBY
    #2
    What you want is a Linksys WMP54G PCI card. Just put it in, reboot, and you have AirPort Extreme! I think it only works in 10.2.6 or later.
     
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  3. velocityg4, Jan 12, 2008

    velocityg4 macrumors 68040

    velocityg4

    Joined:
    Dec 19, 2004
    Location:
    Georgia
    #3
    You can purchase this driver and any of the cards on the list. It has worked for me before.

    http://www.orangeware.com/endusers/wirelessformac.html

    You search for a card that uses the broadcom chip. Then use a plist editior, such as Plistedit Pro which is free to try, to edit the io80211family.kext extension with its vendor and device id, this is what I did to use an Atheros card since new iMacs use an Atheros based airport card. If you can not find the ven and dev ids through google you would need to use a Windows PC to find them in device manager.

    iMpathetic's card recommendation looks good though since it has the same ven and dev id's as the airport card. If iMpathetic would be good enough to tell you the version of card used since there are several revisions of that model and sometimes they change chips.

    Here is a small list of Broadcom 43xx series cards
    http://bcm43xx.berlios.de/?go=devices

     
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  4. jeffton, Jan 14, 2008

    jeffton thread starter macrumors newbie

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    Jan 12, 2008
    #4
    Thanks for the help guys. I've found the linksys card iMpathetic mentioned but have no way of knowing what version it is. It seems to be a bit of a lottery with these cards whether I will get the right chipset or not.
    Would connecting the mac via ethernet to a wireless bridge work? Would this be relatively easy to set up?
     
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