Apple
Introduction
This is a guide page for the use of Apple gear in a WiFi environment, including cross-platform issues in connecting with Windoze and *nix machines. It is intended as a place for all users in Melbourne Wireless to add tips, hints, links and questions. Shared resource, please use with care.
Open to all members using, intending to use, connecting to, or curious about:
- Apple Macintosh laptops, desktops, servers and clones
- Apple-branded ("Airport" or "Airport Extreme") 802.11 or WiFi hardware
- Macintosh operating systems, Classic and OS X
- Linux and Unix on Mac hardware
- Windows emulation on Mac hardware
- Newton and Apple eMate
Airport = Wifi = 802.11
First question most newcomers have is whether or not their Apple Airport gear will connect to an 802.11b/WiFI network. As mentioned in the FAQ, the short answer is yes.
Airport is simply Apple's brand name for their wireless equipment and software, much as Proxim market their wireless wares under the Skyline brand. The data format and radio specs of the equipment is identical to other standards-compliant 802.11 products, and provided you have all your control panel settings sorted, you should experience no more complication connecting to a WiFi network than any other kind of cross-platform network </humour>
Tech Tips
- What's the absolute minimum requirement for wireless access on a Mac?
- The newest drivers from Orinoco (see below) and Apple will automatically upgrade your card to 128 bit WEP, turning your Orinoco/Enterasys/Avaya/Cabletron Silver into Gold
- Another research paper topics about upgrading an Orinoco Silver Card to Gold
- WEP keys entered into a powerpoint presentation the Airport control panel need a $ sign at the start to signify a hexadecimal number.
- This article describes a security flaw with OS X which affects wired and wireless networks.
- Yes you can repair a dead first-generation "Graphite" Airport Base Station: details below under Advice and Howtos
- Some third-party cards can't connect to an Extreme Base Station in "Compatibilty" (.11b and g) mode: Apple Tech Note. The workaround is to drop back to .11b mode, and/or update firmware at both ends.
Unsolved Problems
Put in a brief desription of your problem here, and maybe someone will come along and solve it for you.
I can't get the PCMCIA/PCI adaptors that were on the TIB a few months ago to work. They were the ones that had the Ricoh chipset. I cannot find a driver for it anywhere essay writing service. I've tried it in a 7500/8500 and a G3. No luck under OSX or OS9. Anyone else tried this? - RyanM
Anyone had any luck getting Lucent cards (AirPort) to connect to Intel Pro/8211 AP's? I've had no success - regardless of the model of card or version of driver, they simply refuse to see the AP (slight variance: KisMac on a 466 iBook with AirPort will see the AP, but the AirPort software on the same 'Book will not). Keith
I've just installed the Orinoco drivers (7.2) for a Dell TruMobile card and got an old Powerbook 1400c (133 MHz) working with the card - rather slow, but works OK and even does the encryption. The machine has Mac OS 8.6. Now I want to repeat the exercise, but this time with a 166 MHz 1400c running Mac OS 8.0. I can do an upgrade to 8.1 or to 9.0/9.1, but I'd prefer to just leave the machine as it is. I believe the 7.2 Orinoco drivers won't work with Mac OS 8.0, but that some of the earlier (6.0?) drivers might do the trick. I can't locate any web site which currently has the drivers. Having said that - it looks as though there were compatibility problems with the 1400 anyway, using the older drivers - see the Solved Problems below, so I may have to upgrade to 9.x anyway. Does anyone know if earlier drivers are available, and what the compatibility problems were?
dave2002
- 8.0 was a slow, buggy dog of an OS - I would highly recommend upgrading to 8.1 at least. As you note, 8.6 will let you use the 7.2 drivers, but if your 1400 has 32 megs of RAM or less stick with 8.1 if possible. I wouldn't recommend 9.1 unless you have the full 64 megs of RAM and can strip down the extensions set for a minimal boot OS. 9.1 is the last version that will run on the 1400, 9.0 again is too buggy to bother with. Both of the x.1 updates are free downloads from the older software page at Apple (links below) Clae
Solved Problems
Some of the links for Orinoco drivers work now.
Orinoco (now Avaya) has released new Mac drivers for their client cards, which resolve the compatibility problem with older laptops such as the 1400. Download version 7.2 via FTP or HTTP. Thanks to Jamie Lovick of Sydneywireless for the second link.
Links
Software, Firmware, Drivers
- Apple Updates
- Airport Admin Tool for Windows
- Point of Sale Software
- FTP directory for Orinoco/Lucent/Agere/Avaya/Cabletron etc etc etc. Includes Win/DOS, Linux and documentation.
- pool filters
- There's also a link for drivers for System 7 at System 7 Today under Software Index -> Hardware drivers
- AirportLinux - run Linux on your ABS or Lucent RG1000, a router minidistro designed for Seattle Wireless
- Wirelessdriver, an open source driver for MacOS X and Darwin This works with an Enterasys or Avaya Gold under Panther. I needed to install twice to get the client working as suggested in the wirelessdriver forum (exidyboy)
- IOXperts sell a Prism-2/Lucent chip set driver for 2400, 3400, G3 and G4 Powerbooks. MacWorld says "... easy to install and use ... performs acceptably and stably.... no Keychain support or ability to save configuration settings for multiple networks."
- Houston Doctors
- Where can I sell a diamond ring
- OS X driver for Atheros chipset cards driver by OrangeWare - $US15 or free with any 3Com card
- Multi-card Newton driver $US10 shareware
Advice and Howtos
- A definitive list of wireless hardware and MacOS/driver compatibility. NB the oldest OS mentioned is 8.6, but as see elsewhere on this page, some cards can be used with versions of System 7.
- Macwireless.com have a brief but handy FAQ including basic wireless networking information and a card/Mac model compatibility guide
- Secure wireless email - an article
- IBM DeveloperWorks Article on ABS and AX, setup, iTunes etc
- Lots of links to 802.11g cards that work in OS X
- Brilliant article on getting older Powerbooks working with wireless
- Add a pigtail to internal Airport cards on TiBooks - might work for some other 'Books
- This guy added an external antenna from a clamshell iBook to his TiBook - it's ugly, but it improves the range.
- Extreme Wireless for Older Macs discusses third-party 802.11g solutions, compares with Airport Extreme. Includes links to manufacturers.
- Positive user reports on expensive Cisco wireless hardware with solid OSX and OS9 support
- How to get unsupported USB wireless adapters to work in OS X
- Cross-Platform Wireless Networking includes a fix for WEP+Orinoco+OS9 problem
- Airport Base Stations
- Wireless hacks for G4 Powerbooks A Slashdot column
- How to add Wavelan/Airport/Cabletron/Enterasys PCMCIA support to Linux/PPC
- More LinuxPPC wireless info here and here.
- Yes, you can use your Newton! Newton Wireless LAN FAQ
- Various Apple wireless projects here, including adding Airport 1.2 to MacOS 8.6
- Gamba's Homepage - lots of useful info and downloads for older Macs, home of the Low-End Mac FAQ, info on repair and dismantling, upgrading
Operating Systems
Hardware
wireless hardware
- medical machining
- Proxim Skyline PCI carriers and Carrier/Card bundles for Mac
- Note the bundle will not work with some G3s. See here for details
- All Proxim gear for Mac
- MacWireless make a range of wireless products for Macintosh funnily enough. hid kit
- Note their PCI .11b card has the same restrictions as the Proxim, although they do also sell a USB or an Ethernet solution for these and older models.
- This user claims he has been able to use a Belkin F5D6000 PCI-PCMCIA adapter with a Lucent Silver and IOXperts drivers. Belkin generally seem to support Macs better than most network hardware vendors.
- Expensive Cisco wireless hardware with solid OSX and OS9 support
- Engenius make wireless gear with Mac drivers, including PCMCIA cards with dual antenna connectors and 200mW output BTW this is a Senao (exidyboy)
- Power Over Ethernet MacWireless Power Over Ethernet
Scanning Tools
No, you can't really hack this from a google link.
Title search for local apple pages
CategoryHowTo
Version 56 (current) modified Mon, 26 Jul 2021 12:49:28 +0000
[EditText] [Spelling] [Current] [Raw] [Code] [Diff] [Subscribe] [VersionHistory] [Revert] [Delete] [RecentChanges]