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Wireless Hacks for G4 PowerBooks? 61

Posted by Cliff from the no-wireless-for-you! dept.
NunDLess asks: "G4 PowerBooks have absolutely dreadful wireless range due, I've been told, to the fact that the internal antennas are underneath that slick Titanium case. Has anyone heard about a way to set up an external wireless antenna on a PowerBook? I've been looking for supported PCMCIA wireless cards, but haven't found one with Mac OS X drivers."
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Wireless Hacks for G4 PowerBooks? More

Wireless Hacks for G4 PowerBooks?

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  • Heard good recomendations for the Cisco 350 stuff:

    http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/archives/feb02/022202 .h tml

    http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/cc/pd/witc/ao35 0a p/prodlit/a350c_ds.htm

  • Prism Support (Score:2, Informative)

    by dadragon ( 177695 )
    Apparently Orinoco/Prism cards are supported through a third party driver at Wirelessdriver [sourceforge.net]

    It may be worth a look.
    • To my understanding, the AirPort card is a relabeled Lucent/Orinoco card.

      If you're looking at attaching an external antenna, you're probably better off attaching it to an AirPirt card. Not only is the AP card cheaper (last I checked), but it has also the socket to attach an antenna to (which aren't on many (any?) other current cards).
    • I use the wirelessdriver from wirelessdriver.sourceforge.net [sourceforge.net] and it works great with my Linksys wireless PCMCIA card and my PDQ G3 Series. Give it a look.

  • Common Sense AirPort Performance Tips (Score:5, Informative)

    by daviddennis ( 10926 ) <david@amazing.com> on Friday May 03, 2002 @05:03PM (#3459704) Homepage
    At least if your computer already includes an AirPort card, you should try it out before rejecting it out of hand. Better yet, find a friend who already owns it and run a few tests.

    I found that AirPort with my Titanium PowerBook/400 worked very well, as long as I kept my desktop G4 on top of my desk, and my AirPort base station on top of my desktop. It would be even better on top of a tall bookshelf.

    Of course your mileage may vary, depending on where you use your system. If you have an enormous house, it's going to be harder than if you have a small apartment or (as in my case) a small but cozy two-bedroom house. If you tend to use your TiBook in one specific room, place it as close as possible.

    If you put your AirPort base station on your home ethernet network and connect that to a DSL or T1 connection, you have a lot of flexibility as to where the base station can be situated. Use that flexibility to your advantage. Remember, it doesn't have to be near anything save the Ethernet hub.

    So position your AirPort base station near the center of your house, as high up as possible. That will help you a great deal.

    Hope that helps.

    D

    • Re:Common Sense AirPort Performance Tips (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Sleepyguy ( 12339 ) on Friday May 03, 2002 @05:17PM (#3459807) Homepage
      Height isn't probly that much of an issue. The radiation pattern on the base station is roughly spherical (well probly more like a bloated torus).

      The titaniums definatly have problems though. Side by side with my Pismo (previous powerbook model) the tiBook consistantly has two less "bars". Both cards are mounted internally.

      It is my understanding that the rev. 2 tiBooks have slightly better range than the rev. 1s .. I haven't heard any reports about the new tiBooks.

      I haven't heard of anyone doing this but I belive the antenna itself is flat, it seems like you might be able to mod the case to get the antenna on the outside. Though it would probly impact the tiBook's good looks.

      _
  • the simplest solution is to just use the internal airport card with an external antenna. just plug a wire (with the proper connector) into the airport card, bypassing the internal antenna. route the cable near the edge of the laptop, dremel a small hole, poke the cable through, get an adaptor for those larger antenna cables and buy/make yourself a better antenna. I hear pringles cans work good for longer distances.
    • route the cable near the edge of the laptop, dremel a small hole, poke the cable through, get an
      *GASPS*

      dremel a small hole in my TiBook?? Are you out of your mind? I barely had the courage to insert a theatre light-gel behind the screen so that my glowing apple glows red.

  • Faulty soldering (Score:3, Informative)

    by d0n quix0te ( 304783 ) on Friday May 03, 2002 @05:40PM (#3459958)
    Caused a lot of the reception problems in earlier Powerbooks. Have it checked if your machine is still under warranty. My signal improved dramatically after my TiBook came back from Apple.
    I can use it very comfortably even on the throne (which I assume is the main attraction of Wireless :)

    • the throne is hardly the main attraction. having it on one's lap in the living room during the simpsons so you can check the accuracy of snpp [snpp.com]'s episode summaries is what god and steve jobs intended.
  • Anyone know the feasibility of using the case itself as a big antenna? I'm not sure if it would cause any interference issues, or if Ti would even work as a antenna, and it sure wouldn't be FCC compliant, but...
  • I find it hard to believe reception on the TiBooks really is that bad. For one thing, the antennae are on the outside of the case, the two short strips on the side. Wouldn't that make it have a better range than the plastic-encased iBooks?

    I have yet to see any proof of the range being shorter, at least nothing in Macaddict and MacNN.

    How do you know that the problem isn't in your head?

    • I've seen it. It's lousy. My wife had been using a Toshiba laptop with a Netgear (Prism) based card while sitting on the sofa in the livingroom, whlle the hub (Netgear MR314 combo firewall/router/hub thingy) was in the home office, with 2 rather thick steel/concrete walls in between. It received a good, strong signal.

      When she replaced the Toshiba with a Powerbook Ti back in January, it was only able to get a signal if you held it at a particular angle and a particular height. Turn it even 10 degrees and it'd lose signal completely.

      In the end I got around the problem by running 30ft of neatly stapled-down CAT5 from my main switch to a cheap Netgear ME102 AP which sits discreetly on top of a bookcase in the livingroom. The wiring's non-obtrusive, the cost of the extra access point is comparable to that of a WiFi card, and both the PowerBook and my Airport-equipped PowerMac seamlessly switch between the two APs depending upon which room they're used in. It's not a solution for everyone, but it worked for me.

      • That's exactly my situation: I replaced my toshiba 2805 w/ Orinoco Silver with a TiG4 550 & internal Aiport (not easy to install!). Downstairs became "too far" even though it's line of site and not more than 35 feet. Thanks for the suggestion.

    • A case in point (Score:2, Informative)

      by ulbador ( 541826 )
      Where I work I have my IBook and a Tibook... We have a Linksys Wap 11, hacked [wi2600.org] which is used for an occasional HP or Sony notebook with addon cards, and basically all time access for our Mac's... The signal strength between the Tibook and Ibook is more than negligible.. This is measure in Yellow Dog [yellowdoglinux.com] linux using the WaveMon program on freshmeat [freshmeat.net] Generally speaking, on a scale of from the restraunt next door(a four or five on the WaveMon program on the ibook, which translates to a 0 on the Tibook> to within 2 feet of the wireless access point the difference between the ibook and the tibook is always at least 10 points, with the tibook on the low end.... If this isn't empirical evidence I don't know what is...
    • It really is pretty bad. I've used my TiBook in 3 different locations. At work even with several high gain antennas (on the base side), the TiBook always had much worse range than the G3 Wallstreet's did.

      It was so bad at home that I opened up my airport and added an external antenna as to try and help performance. Its just a small Lucent 2.5db that I had laying around. It helps a bit, but really its the laptop that needs the better antenna.

      At both my last house and my current home, the TiBook has only been able to get roughly 30ft from the base station when there are any walls involved. I've never had a situation where it has a long line of sight, so I can't say what that would be like.
    • I own both a TiBook and a clamshell iBook Graphite "special edition", both with AirPort cards and an original Airport Base Station. I can't walk out my front door with my TiBook and get any signal. With the iBook, I can get to the end of my 50 ft. driveway and still have "two bars" worth of signal!

      It's NOT in my head, and I don't need MaCNN to prove it to ME.

      ...ROMeyn
  • Cisco Aeronet PCMCIA cards work very well in my Wallstreet, which has no internal antenna, of course. Cisco has OS X and OS 9 drivers for these cards.

    I would still go with the Airport card if I had a TiBook.

  • my solution: a pigtail and external antenna (Score:5, Informative)

    by ubiquitin ( 28396 ) on Friday May 03, 2002 @06:57PM (#3460376) Homepage Journal
    The lucent/orinoco pigtails that are sold on eBay and other places will work with the TiBook. Just run the wire out through the PCMCIA slot. The internal wireless card is on the same side as the PCMCIA slot, parallel to it actually, with the antenna connector at the edge of the external titanium shell so it all works suprisingly well. If you're willing to have a wire hanging out of your TiBook, just leaky coax will improve signal, but a nice passive high-gain antenna does wonders for increasing both signal to noise and range.
  • I'm on a new 800mhz Titanium, I'm at least 150 feet away from a D-LINK base station, inside a coffee shop in Downtown San Jose... I'm getting between 2 bars and full signal depending on if a truck is in my way. I'm on the ground floor and the office transmitter is on the 6th floor of the building across the road. I find it hard to believe that range is an issue here.
  • If you want, you can get one of teh Lucent/Orinoco cards and attach an external antenna to it. Right now I am writing this response on a bronze key G3 (no internal wireless) using a lucent wavelan card.

    I'm using the wireless drivers from the project mentioned above on sourceforge...
  • I'm using Apples card right now, cause its so
    nice having it inside the case where I can't
    break it (bust an antenna off an orinoco and say DOH). Range is ok. But for extreme range
    I also have a Cisco 350, if you dig around the
    driver frontend you will find that you can crank
    it up to 100 mw (orinoco/apple are 30) and I
    have found that in most cases range/speed are better than an orinico with the desktop extender.

  • Antenna Recipe (Score:4, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 03, 2002 @07:49PM (#3460642)

    I have *very, very, very* good performance from my homemade antenna on the tibook. In the business they call it a "quarter wave whip" omnidirectional. It will take you two minutes to build.

    Here, get these:

    http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?catalog%5F na me=CTLG&category%5Fname=CTLG%5F005%5F003%5F001%5F0 05&product%5Fid=910%2D0607
    http://www.fab-corp.co m/ (go to "Radio Pigtails", and you want the top item, "12 inch ORiNOCO / Avaya to N-Male Pigtail")

    Get some 12-gauge copper wire from your hardware store, cut a piece to be exactly 1.21 inches, and stick it in the nub of the N-female (the thing from radioshack above). Tape it or solder it in place. Then pop open the tibook, string the pigtail from the airport card through the PC-card opening, (you have to remove the bottom panel to do this), and screw the N-Male end into the N-female connector.

    Voila. First time I did this I discovered 2 networks in my bedroom.

    If you want more power, you can get a big 40oz can of any Nalley product (chili con carne, beef stew, etc), convince someone else to eat the contents, and put a hole in it for the end of your antenna. It's a waveguide, much more powerful than those Pringles yagis.

    For more info on where to put the hole see http://www.turnpoint.net/wireless/cantennahowto.ht ml

    Enjoy!

    • I would love to have more details about this process, maybe pictures even. I have a ti-book with an Apple card and a Linksys 4-port switch/ wireless ap > cable modem setup here at home. I find I can get service in my back porch, front porch and most of the inside of the house but I would still love to extend the range.

      Dude email me. let me ask some stupid questions. Like what that first link was supposed to go to :)
  • my university just installed wireless access points in all the libraries and checking out laptops with 802.11b cards in them, specifically, Cisco Aironet 350 cards. these cards have a small antenna that protrudes about 2cm from the slot. and cisco just released drivers [cisco.com] for OS 9.X and OS X.

    works great with my TiBook!
    • hows the built-in antenna sets work with airport card with this network? i go to LSU and they just installed the same thing, using cisco aironet cards, but i use my airport card and get nice reception. thanks.
  • Given titanium's heavy usage in applications like airframes where there are a wide variety of radio systems, I question that the PowerBook G4's poor reception is due this element. I suspect that Apple antenna design was poor.

    Any body who is knowledgeable about Ti and antennas care to comment?

    Lee Joramo [joramo.com]

  • Question: (Score:2, Interesting)

    by DiscoOnTheSide ( 544139 )
    Anyone know if you can use a wireless card (such as Airport or that WirelessDriver with another card) and use IPSec? I refuse to use wireless unless it's over IPSec. Oh, and since the Airport card is an Orinoco Silver card relabeled, can I just buy one and plug it into the Powerbook's internal airport slot and it will work? I can get a Orinoco card for cheaper than an Airport card and I dont want the external antenna, preferably.
    • 802.11b is just giving you the ethernet. IPSec operates at a higher layer of the OSI model so you shouldn't have any problems. If you can implement it on your Mac, you'll be able to use it w/ airport.
    • Is the internal Airport card and Orinoco Sliver or Gold? I know some of the older AP's and Airport cards were rebadged Silvers, but my TiBook/667 can do 128-bit WEP, which I thought was only possible with the Gold card.
  • While my Pismo doesn't suffer from the range limitations of the TiBook, I do have a need to occasionally increase my reach with an external antenna. The OS X driver mentioned in other posts, http://wirelessdriver.sourceforge.net/, works well with a Lucent Silver card I picked up for $50. My built-in Airport card remains port en1 and the external card shows up as en2.
    • I'm interested how much this solution increases your reach and which antenna you are using. I have a Pismo, too, and I'm satisfied with my reach so far, but sometimes I which I could go further...
      • I had a rather unusual requirment; being able to use the 'net from an underground tornado shelter in order to monitor weather bureau radar. My one use of the shelter had me feeling safe but isolated from the progress of the storm. My solution was to use the Pismo with the external Silver card attached to an enternal antenna mounted outside on one of the air ventilation pipes. The antenna, from http://www.fab-corp.com/ [fab-corp.com], is a 9.3 dBi directional patch 4.5 in. square. Casual trials before I mounted it allowed me to reach my AP from any point on my 2 acre property so if I was to guess I'd say the range increased by 300%.
  • 1) Does the base station make a difference? What if I bought one that wasn't an Apple base station. Anyone had experience using different ones? Which is the most powerful/best?

    2) How much better are the new Powerbooks for airport range? I'm probably going to buy one, but I would really like to know if this is any better on the new versions b/c the built in Airport is one of the reasons I'm chosing a laptop over a desktop Mac.
    • I have a 667-mhz tibook from november (not the newest one). I had an old airport basestation. The distance between them is maybe 30 feet, and it goes through one non-loadbearing wall (the base is on a shelf in a closet that backs up to my bedroom)

      I could turn my tibook a few degrees and go from 2 to 0 bars. I could turn my head and lose reception.

      I recently bought a new airport basestation (which supposedly has a better antenna) and got slightly better reception. I changed it to use channel 11 (instead of the default channel 1 or 3?) and that boosted my reception even more.. Maybe the higher frequency waves can get through one wall and travel that 30 feet better than the channel 3 waves.

      Since it still drops out, I went out and bought a Linksys basestation. It performed similarly to the new apple station, but was much more complicated to configure, so i took it back.

      Now I'm using the airport 2 station, and instead of a quality signal, I just curse a lot.

      - b
  • ... can be found at http://homepage.mac.com/robm

    When I had a Powerbook instead of this lovely G4 tower, I ran a Cabletron wireless card with the above driver, and it worked splendidly, provided that one didn't remove the card when the computer was expecting to use it.

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