USB wireless network card on an iMac?

Hi Guys,
I just bought an old iMac Tangerine on eBay and I wondered if it would
be possible to use something like this.....
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/USB-Wireless-8...QQcmdZViewItem

to connect it to my home network which uses a US Robotics wireless
router.
What do you think?
Cheers,
Steve

wrote:
>
> Hi Guys,
> I just bought an old iMac Tangerine on eBay and I wondered if it would
> be possible to use something like this.....
> http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/USB-Wireless-8...QQcmdZViewItem
>
> to connect it to my home network which uses a US Robotics wireless
> router.
> What do you think?

If you can get it to work at all it will be slow as the usb port is only
12Mbps, a better solution would be a wireless access point which you
plug into the ethernet port, these do not need any drivers and will give
you better range and speed, the only thing is it will need an external psu.

--

apax63 'at' dsl 'dot' pipex 'dot' com

Hi Tom,
Can you provide a link to such a device or a name I can search for. I
ain't got too many smarts but I don't recognise the term "wireless
access point ".
Maybe it's a language thing. I'm in UK and if you are somewhere else,
we may know it as something else.
Cheers,
steve

wrote:
>
> Hi Tom,
> Can you provide a link to such a device or a name I can search for. I
> ain't got too many smarts but I don't recognise the term "wireless
> access point ".
> Maybe it's a language thing. I'm in UK and if you are somewhere else,
> we may know it as something else.
> Cheers,
> steve

Hi Steve, I am in the uk too, I think that's what they are normally
called but maybe there are other names for them.

If you put wireless access point into ebay you should find one,
something like this:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...tem=5816293334

Maybe if you only want web access a 802.11b one would do, but try to get
a faster 802.11g one.

They are similar to a wireless router but only have one ethernet port,
although that does not stop you connecting it to a hub if you want to
connect more than one machine to it at some point.

The best thing about doing it that way is the access point does not need
any drivers, usb wireless adapters that do work for macs are notorious
for breaking after software updates etc.

Tom



--

apax63 'at' dsl 'dot' pipex 'dot' com

In article <. com>,
wrote:

> I just bought an old iMac Tangerine on eBay and I wondered if it would
> be possible to use something like this.....

Steve-

Does the old iMac have a socket inside for Airport? If it did, that would
be the cleanest way to go.

I have a USB wireless interface from Belkin. It has drivers available for
download from the Belkin web site. Whatever you choose, be sure there are
Mac drivers compatible with the OS you want to use.

I've tried various other methods including wireless routers, access points
and bridges. They all seem to work as base stations, not as clients. The
closest I've found was the bridge, but some of them won't work in client
mode.

What I'm currently using is a bit more elaborate. It has a Buffalo
WBR-G54 Wireless Router with upgraded firmware as a base station. It uses
the Wireless Distribution System (WDS), with an identical unit configured
as a WDS client and attached to the computer via Ethernet.

The Apple Airport Extreme base station can be used the same way and is
much easier to configure. However, it is much more expensive and only has
one LAN port.

Fred

<> wrote:

> I just bought an old iMac Tangerine on eBay and I wondered if it would be
> possible to use something like this.....
> http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/USB-Wireless-8...ps-Dongle_W0QQ
> itemZ5814870893QQcategoryZ45002QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewIte m
>
> to connect it to my home network which uses a US Robotics wireless
> router. What do you think?

A better choice would be an Ethernet-to-wireless adapter such as the
D-Link DWL-G810 <http://www.dlink.com/products/?sec=0&pid=241>. They
cost more than USB dongles but don't require software drivers and can be
configured from a web browser.

<> wrote:

> Can you provide a link to such a device or a name I can search for. I
> ain't got too many smarts but I don't recognise the term "wireless
> access point ".
> Maybe it's a language thing. I'm in UK and if you are somewhere else,
> we may know it as something else.

To use a wireless access point (AP) or router to connect your iMac to
your existing USR wireless network, the AP/router would have to operate
in client, WDS, or bridge modes. Most AP/router devices can't do client
mode, and WDS usually works only with two APs/routers of the same brand.
(It doesn't look like the USR does WDS at all.) So you'd want a
"bridge", such as the USR805432
<http://www.usr-emea.com/products/p-w...rod=net-5432&l
oc=unkg>.

Neill Massello wrote:
>
> <> wrote:
>
> > Can you provide a link to such a device or a name I can search for. I
> > ain't got too many smarts but I don't recognise the term "wireless
> > access point ".
> > Maybe it's a language thing. I'm in UK and if you are somewhere else,
> > we may know it as something else.
>
> To use a wireless access point (AP) or router to connect your iMac to
> your existing USR wireless network, the AP/router would have to operate
> in client, WDS, or bridge modes. Most AP/router devices can't do client
> mode, and WDS usually works only with two APs/routers of the same brand.
> (It doesn't look like the USR does WDS at all.) So you'd want a
> "bridge", such as the USR805432
> <http://www.usr-emea.com/products/p-w...rod=net-5432&l
> oc=unkg>.

Apologies to the op, I thought all wireless access points could do this.

--

apax63 'at' dsl 'dot' pipex 'dot' com