[LlamaBoy]

Let me begin by saying that I have been searching as much as possible for the answer to these questions. There are many posts about this, but unfortunately no complete answers that I could find.

What I know so far:

The 12" Powerbook supports 802.11g/Airport Extreme right out of the box, but you must buy the card.

The 17" Powerbook includes the 802.11g/Airport Extreme card.

The 15" Ti Powerbook (which I have) supports the 802.11b Airport card, but not the 802.11g Airport Extreme. Unfortunately, the reception and range isn't very good. I have used other 802.11b PCMCIA cards (currently using Linksys WPC11 and the wireless drivers from Sourceforge)

http://wirelessdriver.sourceforge.net

Here's my question:
Does no one make an 802.11g PCMCIA card that works with the 15" Powerbook? I heard rumors that maybe the D-Link card was compatible? I would even accept a USB based solution.

Thanks in advance.

[Angus_D]

Do you *really* need a g solution? Is your net access faster then 4-5Mbps? If so, you're a lucky SoB and you should stop complaining!

[LlamaBoy]

Originally posted by Angus_D:
Do you *really* need a g solution? Is your net access faster then 4-5Mbps? If so, you're a lucky SoB and you should stop complaining!

Good point about the speed, but it's the added distance with the 802.11g that I am really interested in.

[Evinyatar]

Networks are used for more than just internet connections you know. Personally, I'd love to be able to stream my DivX/3ivx movies from my G4 to my 15inch PowerBook G4 (once it arrives, that is... any day now ), but I'm afraid the 801.11b just won't be enough.

Anyway, to answer the question, some Korean has been spotted with a TiBook which had the internal AirPort card replaced with an 802.11g card (forum post here). If anyone finds a tutorial or more information on how to do this that'd be really cool.

[killer_735]

...I'd tend to agree. Unless you're running a DNS or Apache server or something on that notebook (WHY?) and need sick amounts of network bandwidth.... For just about any internet connection, 802.11b isn't going to be the bottleneck, so much as what the servers can dish out.

[buddhabelly]

Originally posted by Evinyatar:
Networks are used for more than just internet connections you know. Personally, I'd love to be able to stream my DivX/3ivx movies from my G4 to my 15inch PowerBook G4 (once it arrives, that is... any day now ), but I'm afraid the 801.11b just won't be enough.

I can happily stream Divx movies over Airport to my Pismo.

[[APi]TheMan]

Originally posted by buddhabelly:
I can happily stream Divx movies over Airport to my Pismo.

You can play DivX movies on your Pismo?

Heh, my 400 mhz Pismo isn't very good at playing anything other than DVD's, MPEG1's, and MPEG2's. That'll all change when I get my 900 mhz G3 upgrade... should be here any day now.

http://www.powerlogix.com/products2/...smo/index.html

To get back on topic... 802.11b is 11Mbps. That seems like it'd be perfectly fast enough to stream DivX/3ivx. 11Mbps is around 1.3MBps, which is more than enough to stream highly compressed video file.

My 2 cents.

[Karim]

The range on 802.11g is less than that of 802.11b for running at maximum rated speed.

Cisco sells the most powerful 802.11b prosumer basestations with the highest output power.

802.11g will just barely allow for a streamed DVD in native DVD format as long as there isn't a hell of alot of motion. More compressed video transfers fine.

Real world transfer rates on my 17" with AE basestation are around 22MBPS even though it is rated at 54MBPS.

Remember that 802.11x are half duplex formats so actual bi-directional transfer rates will be at most half that of the rated total speed. IE 802.11b is limited to around 5.5MBPS bi-directional and 802.11g is limited to around 27MBPS.

802.11b with a good basestation and external PC card 802.11b on a Tibook 15" will give you the best range.

[mosch]

The range for AE isn't particularly amazing, but to those of you who claim the speed isn't needed, remember that some people might want to do more than surf the web over their wireless connection. It was a noticeable improvement when dealing with large files.