Wallstreet II wireless card

[theos911]

I have a Powerbook G3 Wallstreet II 300 and am trying to get it on my wireless network. I'm not sure what card to get and am looking for ideas.

My best-case-scenario is a card that under 9 can connect to open or WEP, and under X can connect to WPA. I'm looking at pretty much a/b/g only, no need for N. Thanks for any suggestions b:

 

[J English Smith]

I know that an Orinoco Silver or Gold card are seen by OS 9.2 as a native Airport card - no additional drivers needed. I have only used it in a Lombard, but I imagine this would also work in a WSII. These are readily available on eBay for less than $10.

Unfortunately my one Lombard has developed an odd tic, it's no longer seeing my home network. Not sure what went wrong, but I'm thinking I will change the OS to 10.3.9 and see what that does...I hate to drop OS 9, it's certainly nice and zippy on the Lombard with 256mb of ram.

 

[theos911]

Thanks, but I don't think an Orinoco will do WPA, even under X.

 

[jruschme]

I think your best case is either two cards (one or 9 and one for X) or one card for WEP under both.

For 9, I'd go with one of two cards... Lucent/Orinico WaveLAN (seen as an Airport card under 9) or a Cisco Aironet 340 or 350.

For X, if you're going with a late enough version, then I'd say get a Broadcomm-based 802.11g card which would been picked up natively as an Airport Extreme.

If you want one card for both, I'd either go with the Cisco (which has drivers for Classic and X) or the WaveLAN and a third party driver for X.

JR

 

[coius]

Mint PPC will do WPA on Airport/WaveLan. OS X just won't do WPA with the original 802.11b.

In fact, 802.11b is completely within the WPA standards (got done doing a networking+ class). and can prove it that I have done that on a Lombard with a WaveAccess Gold PC Card on my Lombard under Linux MintPPC (Which works wonderfully, provided you have at least 320MB RAM)

I think you should throw Linux Mint PPC on it, and you can get the full benefit of WPA, without the slowness/issues of OS X.

It's pretty quick and I was relatively surprised by it being quick, even on an old system like that.

 

[highlandcattle]

I too have a wallstreet 2 and I was wondering why it doesn't recognise my original Airport card. it keest ejecting it on start up and then the computer just completely freezes

 

[coius]

Airport cards (made by apple) will only work in the airport slot of an airport capable Mac. It will not work in a PC Card slot.

Airport card is very similar to the Lucent Wavelan, with a few alterations to keep it from being used in a PC card slot

The reason being was apple's airport was cheaper than the wavelan which Lucent was selling at the time and in order to use the technology, apple couldn't compete with Lucent. So it switched some pins on the Airport keeping people from buying it for $100 then proceeding to use it on a PC at cheaper than Lucent was selling it for (almost double what apple wanted for their wifi card)

By making it only work in a mac computer with the special slot, it was the only way for them to get the technology, without directly competing with Lucent.

After that, when wireless came standard, the Airport Extreme was nothing more than a regular Mini-PCI card (I know, because I have used it in a PC) so it was electrically compatible with any Mini PCI slot. So there is nothing special/limiting about the Extreme that would keep it from working in a PC (Except a thinkpad, why oh why does Lenovo restrict people from using regular wireless cards in their machines???)

Either way, I threw an AP Extreme N into a Dell and it pulled up wonderfully. It still works to this day (at 802.11b/g/n in my friend's laptop.

 

[bibilit]

Cisco Aironet 340 or 350.

hi,

I have a Cisco Aironet 350, tried this one on my Wallstreet (Mac Os 10.2. 8) but never worked for me.

The Cisco driver (hard to find) should be working, but i have the "radio not found" message and nothing more.

 

[highlandcattle]

@ coius Well, that's silly. It is really ashame because airport cards are plenty and cheap in belgium!

 

[bibilit]

@ highlandcattle

Can you advise average price in Belgium for original Airport cards ?

 

[theos911]

i think you should throw Linux Mint PPC on it, and you can get the full benefit of WPA, without the slowness/issues of OS X.

Deja Vu! (/lombardthreadreference)

I do intend to put MintPPC on it, but it is the last of my worries, as I know anything supported under 9 OR x will be work in linux.

@ coius Well, that's silly. It is really ashame because airport cards are plenty and cheap in belgium!

I have no airport-ready macs, but i do have an airport card. :lol:

OS X just won't do WPA with the original 802.11b

Did a bit of research:

"Editor's note: Last year we published How About an 802.11g Card for the Original AirPort Card Slot? One reason we proposed this was speed; the other was for WPA support. It turns out that the firmware in Apple's original 802.11b AirPort Card can be updated to support WPA. You must be running Mac OS X 10.3.3 or later and use AirPort Software 3.3 or later to update the firmware. Even after that, the original AirPort Card cannot support the newer, more secure WPA2 encryption. dk" -http://lowendmac.com/misc/10mr/mb0311.html#1

Yes, I do know WPA from WPA2 and no, I do not need WPA2. My Wireless AP has a mode to accept both WPA2 and WPA connections & also b or g or both.

And to make it official:

"Requirements for WPA

 

To join a WPA network, a Macintosh computer must have:

 

an AirPort or AirPort Extreme card (see Note)

Mac OS X 10.3 or later

AirPort software version 3.3 or later for the AirPort Card (available via Software Update)

AirPort software version 3.2 or later for the AirPort Extreme Card (available via Software Update)

-Apple"

So my question is: Would a Lucent/Orinico WaveLAN be close enough to allow it to be seen as and used an original airport by OS X for WPA?