[geeks] Are there any USB wifi adapters that use the Apple Airport driver?

[Geoffrey S. Mendelson]

On Mon, Oct 09, 2006 at 02:40:41PM -0500, Micah R Ledbetter wrote:
> I can't seem to find a definitive answer on the web, but it seems  
> like the answer is no. If you want USB wifi on your Mac (because, for  
> example, an Airport card is stupid expensive), you must use a  
> different driver.

Yes. The closest thing is a D-Link DWL-G122 revision B, which uses a
RaLink chipset and there is a driver for it. It's not integrated into
the operating system, so it works, but not as an airport card.

 
> Doesn't this also mean that I can't use the Airport menu item to  
> control it? I'd like to be able to use the menu item, since I'm doing  
> this for my sister.... I'd like it to "just work".

There is no such thing. None of the third party drivers work like an
airport card. I've used both RaLink's, and I/O experts (with a PCMCIA
card).

There are other issues too. If you have a USB 1 port on the iBook, it
will run at 11mb between the dongle and the iBook. You may find that
the dongle is too close to the computer to work without the extension
cable. I had that problem on a Pismo.

> Note: I can't use wirelessdriver.sf.net, because it only works for  
> PCMCIA cards, and I need this for an iBook, which doesn't have a  
> PCMCIA slot.

You probably don't want to use it anyway, it's way out of date. It only
works on OSX 10.1 and 10.2. 

If you want to be able to use it with no headaches buy an airport card.

Geoff.

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