Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

You are here: MacNN Forums > Enthusiast Zone > Networking > Safecom USB Wireless Adapter

Safecom USB Wireless Adapter
Thread Tools
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Join Date: Dec 2006
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Dec 25, 2006, 01:06 PM
 
Hi,

I bought a Safecom USB Wireless Adapter SWMULZ-5400 for my G3 500MHz iBook running Mac OS 10.3.9. It works... to an extent, but it's pretty awkard and by awkward, this is what I mean - I need to do all this to get it to work reasonably:

1) Before I start-up my iBook, I need to make sure the adapter is NOT plugged in.
2) After I boot-up and login, a 'WLan' application automatically starts up. I don't know where this comes from. It's not in my login start-up app setting. It starts up and sits in my Dock.
3) I manually kill this WLan app because if I leave it running, it sometimes hogs a large percentage of the CPU. Killing it seems to make no difference to my ability to use the adapter.
4) I now plug in the adapter. Through System Preferences, under ZyDasWLan, I can see that I am connected to my wireless router.
5) Although I am now online, every now and again (once every 15 minutes, sometimes 30, sometimes 5 - it's just random) I lose connection to my router. The router signal strength and link quality are both high and my other laptop running Linux has no problem so I'm convinced it's this wireless adapter's fault. I then have to manually re-initiate my connection via System Preferences.
6) If I were to unplug the USB adapter while the iBook is on, the machine crashes.

As you can see, the Safecom wireless adapter is quite rubbish but does anyone know what's going on with this thing? Is there something I can tweak to make it more stable? I've already downloaded the latest driver from the Safecom site.

Thanks in Advance.
     
Moderator
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: Up In The Air
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Dec 25, 2006, 01:16 PM
 
whose chip is it? if you know this and there's another driver and application to control the adapter for that chipset, you might use it.

I, for example, use ralink drivers for d-link adapters that have the ralink chipset.
     
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Join Date: Dec 2006
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Dec 25, 2006, 09:50 PM
 
Originally Posted by vmarks View Post
whose chip is it? if you know this and there's another driver and application to control the adapter for that chipset, you might use it.

I, for example, use ralink drivers for d-link adapters that have the ralink chipset.
The chipset is Zydas 1211B. Does it mean I can take the driver from a completely different model that's based on Zydas 1211B and it should in theory work??
     
   
Thread Tools
Forum Links
Forum Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts
BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are On
Pingbacks are On
Refbacks are On
Top
Privacy Policy
All times are GMT -5. The time now is 04:42 PM.
All contents of these forums © 1995-2011 MacNN. All rights reserved.
Branding + Design: www.gesamtbild.com
vBulletin v.3.8.7 © 2000-2011, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd., Content Relevant URLs by vBSEO 3.3.2