[rubydog]

My girlfriend just discovered she lives in a hot spot and would like to do away with her dial up service. She has a g4 466.

What are her best options? A pci card? Airport Extreme card? I've looked at the Sonnet Aria Extreme pci card. Does anyone like this card?

Thanks, Steve

[mduell]

A USB wifi adapter. Even at USB 1.0's practical bandwidth (4-6Mbps), it's more than fast enough for the 'net (at typical hot spot speeds). Plus they're cheap.

[rubydog]

All the usb devices only list windows under system requirements. Do I need to download drivers or is usb universal? Neither D-Link or Belkin offer mac downloads.

Steve

[ghporter]

Take a good hard look at this forum back about three months. There's been a LOT of discussion of a few apparently well-behaved USB devices that will work with MacOS.

I personally feel a wireless bridge is a better option. While a bridge is more expensive, it connects to your computer via ethernet, so there's NO driver or compatibility issue, and they're pretty robust besides. Plus many/most feature external antennas - sometimes two - that gives them significantly better radio performance and thus better range and speed.