[Stevil]

Does it matter if a router or adapter says that it supports Mac OS or not? If the router is broadcasting an 802.11b/g/a signal and I've got the adapter to support it, shouldn't it work? Sure I won't get all the extras because the drivers are for Windows only, but I'm right aren't I?

Any specific brands that you've found this to NOT be true with?

Thanks.

[larkost]

Should... yes. There are more and more flakey wireless routers commig out (although it is not just Macs that they have problems with. The ones that say they are Mac compatible tend to be so because they follow the standards (go figure). Often the problems are in bad implementations of the security protocols, turning them off can get the job done (with reduced security).

[Stevil]

Is that only true of routers? What about adapters? I need to get a PCI adapter for my G4 and a PCMCIA card for my PowerBook and finding inexpensive adapters that list as Mac compatible is really hard.

[larkost]

On the adapters side you have to make absolutely sure that you can find drivers for that chipset, and there are not many out for MacOS X. The problem is that Apple has been so successful with their Airport cards that no one is bothering to write the drivers. It is not hard, just not profitable.

MacWireless.com does a decent job of finding the available cards. I am not sure that they are %100 complete... but there is not much more. IT might well be cheaper to get a wireless bridge.