Computer Question Re: crapintosh craptop and airport cards

[Winston Smith]

I have an apple g3 powerbook. It has a slot on the side for what looks like a modem. I"m guessing that this is where an airport card gets slotted in, but I dunno. Is it?

And also, do airport cards allow me to access all wireless internet or just the ones given out by airports?

Also, In the control panels for internet I could see nothing about wireless, although that was with os 9.0, now I'm installing 9.2. But do I have the necessary software?

Thanks alot for your help.

Ps: I only got such an old school computer because it was cheap as hell.

[Phantom Warrior]

I'm not up on my Mac hardware.  I'm guessing that's a general purpose slot, not a slot specifcially for Airport cards.  There are probably other cards designed for that too.  But yes, that is where the Airport card would go.

Last I checked, Airport is just Apple's name for wireless, not specific too airport terminals only.  Yup.  Here is the Wiki on Airport.

AirPort is a local area wireless networking system from Apple Computer based on the IEEE 802.11b standard (also known as Wi-Fi) and certified as compatible with other 802.11b devices. A later family of products based on the IEEE 802.11g specification is known as AirPort Extreme, offering speeds up to 54 megabits per second and interoperability with older products.

And yeah, you won't see anything until you plug in the card and install the software.  That's what happened with my USB wireless card on my old computer.

[Harold Tuttle]

do you have firewire or is this a bronze keyboarded black G3?

the side slot is a PC Card slot
on the new ones theres one PC slot and a firewire cardslot with an antenna lead

PS.. calling your new machine a crapintosh will make the woz cry and cause random ramm failures

[garrettwc]

Winston, the slot is a standard PCMCIA slot. It will take a variety of cards. On most of the Apple notebooks, the Airport card is an internal device. There is a slot on the motherboard for it.

And yes, Airport is the name Apple gave their WI-FI hardware. It is not specific to location. IIRC WI-FI wasn't native on the operating system unti OS10. However, the Airport card should have an install disc for those running "Classic" Mac. Stop in your local mom and pop Apple store and they should be able to fix you up.

[lee n. field]

Airport base stations are standard wireless.

There's a special place for the Airport cards under the keyboard, in all recent Apple laptops I've seen.

Check system profiler -- it it says nothing about the airport, you don't have one.  Internet control panel wouldn't have airport settings, network would (because it's a network interface).

[Guest]

Winston, there's a huge number of PCMCIA/"PC Card"/"Cardbus" cards out there.  "Cardbus" the later 32bit flavor and I'm pretty sure you're compatible with that.

However, not all PCMCIA family cards have Macintosh drivers available.  A lot do.

"Airport" is a brand of "WiFi" cards.  "WiFi" is the sort of wireless connection you can often find a free connection with in urban areas, esp. San Francisco.  The cards are pretty cheap, so yeah, you might want to try such a thing.  LOTS of people tie their DSL or cable modem lines to WiFi and don't put a password on it, so it's almost like "which neighbor's connection do I want to jack into today?!".  (This is fine SO LONG AS you don't do serious bandwidth hogging...EMail and forums, yeah, major movie downloads or ANYthing illegal on their signal is way bad mojo and of course don't go raiding their system!  And run a hardcore software firewall at a minimum with security settings on "ugly" so they can't crawl around inside your rig.)

If you have USB2.0 ports, you can also get USB-compatible WiFi devices at around the same cost.  The advantage there is if you've got a weak signal, you can take a 10ft USB extention cable and run the device (with it's internal antenna) closer to a window or up higher or away from some piece of radio frequency interference that's right near your desk, like a flourescent desk light.  This ability to raise/move the antenna with a USB WiFi device is rather cool.

Now, if you want to play with WiFi, fine.  If you can kick loose $60 a month and startup hardware costs in the $200 range, you can get an "EVDO card", which is PCMCIA from a company like Verizon.  It's basically a complete cellphone on a card that gives you a DSL-grade connection in urban areas, dial-up speed anywhere a Verizon cellphone signal works.  $60/mo "unlimited" - unlimited airtime, but the rules of use rule out massive file transfers on a regular basis (they don't yet have enough shared bandwidth) and if you violate the "terms of use" too often they'll cancel you (ug!).

If you go that route, compare deals with Sprint (not as nasty as Verizon on bandwidth limits) and Verizon.  If you travel a lot, Verizon's coverage area kicks butt.  Whatever you do, get a card that supports EXTERNAL ANTENNAS.  Trust me on this one - Verizon's latest card they sell in their retail stores don't have such a port and they suck wind both as a card and for lack of antenna upgrade.

The best EVDO card on the market is the Kyocera KPC650.  IF you go Verizon you'll have to shop around at a bunch of their retail outlets before finding one.

[mtnbkr]

Now, if you want to play with WiFi, fine.  If you can kick loose $60 a month and startup hardware costs in the $200 range, you can get an "EVDO card", which is PCMCIA from a company like Verizon.  It's basically a complete cellphone on a card that gives you a DSL-grade connection in urban areas, dial-up speed anywhere a Verizon cellphone signal works.  $60/mo "unlimited" - unlimited airtime, but the rules of use rule out massive file transfers on a regular basis (they don't yet have enough shared bandwidth) and if you violate the "terms of use" too often they'll cancel you (ug!).

Not quite.  If you're in an area supported by the EVDO network, you'll get upwards of xDSL speed (UP TO 2Mbps).  However, those areas are still pretty limited.  If you can't get EVDO, you'll fall back to 1xRTT (the older network) and get something between dialup and ISDN speeds.  It's advertised as 144kbps, but it's less than that in most cases.  If you're not on either network, you'll get standard dialup via the cellular network, which gives you something like 19.2kbps throughput.

I haven't heard anything about getting disconnected for excessive use.  I've been using it since the old 1xRTT system went public 4 years ago. I and many of my coworkers use it for business purposes.  I've had my bandwidth counter show total transfers in the hundreds of megs for a session.

All that said, I've had usable bandwidth from the DC area on down to almost North Carolina via I-95.  I've also had connectivity most of the way down I66 from NoVa to I81 and most of I81 from Front Royal to Roanoke.  I was able to get connected in Gatlinburg, Tn with the old 1xRTT card, but the newer EVDO card with it's crappy antenna couldn't quite do it.

If you're in an area with lots of WiFi access points, I'd stick with that.  It's faster and cheaper (assuming free access).  The Verizon system works well, but it's like having another cellphone with all of it's related contracts, etc.  With broandband, WiFi, etc becoming more common, I rarely pull out the Aircard anymore.  In fact, the times when I do need it due to lack of WiFI, I'm out of area or I'm riding in a car going on a trip.

I agree completly on the antenna aspect.  

Disclosure time: I WORK FOR VERIZON, BUT NOT THE WIRELESS GROUP.  MY VZW PRODUCTS AND ACCOUNTS ARE IDENTICAL TO WHAT CONSUMERS GET.

Chris

[Winston Smith]

Winston, there's a huge number of PCMCIA/"PC Card"/"Cardbus" cards out there.  "Cardbus" the later 32bit flavor and I'm pretty sure you're compatible with that.
However, not all PCMCIA family cards have Macintosh drivers available.  A lot do.
"Airport" is a brand of "WiFi" cards.  "WiFi" is the sort of wireless connection you can often find a free connection with in urban areas, esp. San Francisco.  The cards are pretty cheap, so yeah, you might want to try such a thing.  LOTS of people tie their DSL or cable modem lines to WiFi and don't put a password on it, so it's almost like "which neighbor's connection do I want to jack into today?!".  (This is fine SO LONG AS you don't do serious bandwidth hogging...EMail and forums, yeah, major movie downloads or ANYthing illegal on their signal is way bad mojo and of course don't go raiding their system!  And run a hardcore software firewall at a minimum with security settings on "ugly" so they can't crawl around inside your rig.)

So, wait... I can buy other types of cards, that will come with software, that will work with my box?

[garrettwc]

So, wait... I can buy other types of cards, that will come with software, that will work with my box?

Yup, as long as there are Mac friendly drivers for it.

Here are the results of a Google.com/mac search:
http://www.google.com/mac?hl=en&lr=&q=pcmcia+for+powerbook+g3&btnG=Search

Firewire, DVI, 56k modems, memory card readers, etc.

[Harold Tuttle]

buffalo makes a nice wireless 802.11g card with mac drivers

AirStation 54Mbps Wireless Notebook Adapter with Antenna Interface
http://www.buffalotech.com/wireless/products/airstation/WLICBG54A.html
NOTE: Apple's Airport" 3.1 or 3.1.1 software supports this card for use with Macintosh Powerbooks with an available CardBus slot.


50 bucks