[englandmademe]

I think my airport card is corrupted or something similar since my wireless speeds are half of what they should be.

I wanted to get a USB Wireless adapter, to see if using this resolved the issue.

I bought a Netgear WG111 v3 which the box with 2009 copyright, proudly claims "Works with Mac OS 10.3 and above, driver available at www.netgear.com"

However when you go online, they only have drivers up to 10.5. A call to their technical support team confirms that 10.6 isn't supported!! Argh! Totally misleading packaging.

The question is does anyone know of any of these USB Wireless Adapters that will DEFINITELY work with 10.6.
I cannot seem to find ANY online which state Snow Leopard compatibility specifically.

I'm based in the UK, BTW.

cheers
Paul

[Big Mac]

Have you looked at my very similar thread about Ethernet WIFI adapters?

I don't like USB-based networking specifically because of the type of problem you've run into. If you go with an ethernet-based device you don't have to worry about drivers.

[englandmademe]

Thanks for the reply. I had a quick look at your thread, but not quite sure I understand it, particularly in terms of 'bridges' and airport express etc.

My airport card/antenna is under-performing so I'd like to try something external but it would need to work with my 24" white intel iMac (2006) so obviously I can't plug in any cards etc.

At the Router end of things everything works okay... it's just the client side of things (ie my iMac) which needs an alternative wi-fi signal to be sent to the router.

Any more info would be appreciated.

[Big Mac]

We use the term WIFI bridge and WIFI adapter interchangeably. The devices are sometimes sold as gaming network adapters. I just recommend staying away from one that connects to the client through USB because I have found USB to be an unreliable networking option (the interface wasn't designed with networking in mind). The other option you can go with is Ethernet powerline adapters, which can be very reliable. With them you extend your LAN by plugging one adapter into an AC outlet and connecting it by ethernet to your router, and then you connect the other one to AC and to the ethernet port of the client device you want to add to the network. Going this route you don't have to concern yourself with getting the adapter successfully on an existing secured WIFI network - the pair link up usually automatically and you're good to go. Go for a pair rated at 200Mb like these Brite-View adapters that I just started using on my WIFI-less G5.

[englandmademe]

Thanks - that device looks like a really good product. I will have to have a look on amazon here in the UK to see if they have something equivalent.

[Big Mac]

Glad to help. They've worked flawlessly for me so far. But if you're going to go the WIFI adapter route instead - which may be 10 or 20 pounds cheaper than the Ethernet powerline adapters but also more complicated to set up - definitely go for one that connects to the client through Ethernet, not USB. The difference is, Ethernet is a native networking interface, while USB is a universal bus that handles many different things (and consequently requires extra driver support to serve as a networking interface).

Oh, and if you're shopping for the Ethernet powerline adapters, make sure not to confuse Ethernet over powerline with power over Ethernet devices. They're two different and opposite standards with names that look almost identical and can easily confuse even savvy consumers. Ethernet over powerline transmits a network signal over the powerline, while power over Ethernet transmits electricity through the Ethernet cable. Power over Ethernet adapters are more common, so make sure that the product specifies either 85Mb or preferably 200Mb connection speed; that way you know that you're getting an Ethernet over powerline adapter product.