[briangaas]

Hello,
I have set up my home with wireless G. Speeds and range have always been great. Recently a new girlfriend has moved in and she is using an older ibook;
G3
700mhz
14" screen
2-usb ports
100mhz memory bus
Her ibook has an internal airport card under the keyboard that only supports 802.11b. My problem is that her card is dragging the performance of the rest of my wireless devices to unbearably slow speeds. The airport card in her ibook appears to be PCMCIA but I am unsure if that is actually correct. No slot for Airport extreme's propriatary connection.
Has Apple abandoned users of laptops only a few years old to 802.11b wireless only?
Are there any 3rd party products that will work?

Any help or direction to other discussions about this topic are sincerely appreciated.

Brian

[mduell]

The Airport cards are indeed PCMCIA/PC Card/Cardbus/whatever we're calling it this week. The Airport Extreme cards are miniPCI.
Her iBook has been deprecated for wifi support from Apple. Since she has no PCMCIA slot with external access you can't put a 3rd party wifi card in.

My solution? Buy a (dirt cheap) 802.11b wifi AP for her. Probably cheaper than buying a Mac compatible PCMCIA wifi card anyway.

[ghporter]

Correction: While the original AirPort card IS of the PC card form factor, it is NOT a PC card. (The term "PCMCIA" is no longer used, by the way.) Briangaas, you don't mention what sort of access point or wireless router you're using; most have a setting that allows them to be significantly better at sharing traffic with both B and G devices.

Further, I think that while workable, mduell's suggestion of buying an 802.11b access point to accomodate your girlfriend's iBook is a really bad idea. It would require you to configure two different wireless networks, and that's never easy or fun. It would be better to get her a USB-based wireless device. There are some around that even state they're Mac-friendly. Like this one at Mac Connection for less than $40. What a deal! Really, I think this is a much better solution than making your network more complicated.

[mduell]

Originally Posted by ghporter

Further, I think that while workable, mduell's suggestion of buying an 802.11b access point to accomodate your girlfriend's iBook is a really bad idea. It would require you to configure two different wireless networks, and that's never easy or fun. It would be better to get her a USB-based wireless device. There are some around that even state they're Mac-friendly. Like this one at Mac Connection for less than $40. What a deal! Really, I think this is a much better solution than making your network more complicated.

Two APs, two channels, and two SSIDs should be pretty easy. If you set up the 2nd as a wired bridge instead running NAT/DHCP on it (most will let you do this), you can easily share files since you're all inside a single IP space.

mduell is not a fan of USB dongles. Too easy to break/lose.

[briangaas]

Good idea, I hadn't thought of that.

I can shell out for an 802.11b AP, was considering kicking her out to get the network back up to speed but I enjoy the rent check too much.

Thanks

[briangaas]

Thanks for your suggestion also ghporter, I may try both to compare results.

The wireless router is a Linksys WRT54GX2.