Linksys WMP11 + Powermac G4 = not supported?

Question

Linksys WMP11 + Powermac G4 = not supported?

howdy,

i'm trying to connect to a wireless network using my quicksilver G4, running 10.4.5.

i've installed an older Linksys WMP11 networking card and the green lights on the card turn "on" when i boot my mac. however....

the wireless card does not seem to be recognized in my system pref > network.

is there a driver i need to download or should tiger automatically recognize this older card?

any help is greatly appreciated...
ryan

PowerMac G4 QS/733mh /1.25G RAM/60G HD, Mac OS X (10.4.3)

Posted on Mar 10, 2006 6:57 PM

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Answer 1

Camelot

Level 9

58,575 points

Mar 10, 2006 8:31 PM in response to rye.yan.matthew

If the card doesn't appear in System Preferences you will need to install a driver for it.

LinkSys don't provide any drivers for this card, so it's quite likely you're out of luck. I haven't seen any PCI-based Wireless cards work in any Mac, probably because most Macs (including the QuickSilver) have an internal AirPort card and therefore the market for such devices is miniscule.

If I were you I'd look for an Apple AirPort card for this machine. You should be able to pick one up easily enough.

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Answer 2

Tim Haigh

Level 7

24,198 points

Mar 11, 2006 2:34 AM in response to rye.yan.matthew

is there a driver i need to download or should tiger automatically recognize this older card?

Prior to the release of airport 3.1 you had to hack the airport driver in order to make 3rd party wifi cards work on a mac.

The current airport driver works with 3rd party Broadcom-based PCI and CardBus cards. So check to see what chipset the card uses to see if it is supported. The problem with linksys is that they generally don't specify what chipsets they use in their devices and often change chipsets.

Having not seen or used a linksys WMP11 I can't comment on what chipset it uses.

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Answer 3

Mar 11, 2006 10:14 PM in response to Tim Haigh

thanks for the info,

i'll probably just end up buying an airport card.

it seems to be the easier option.

the linksys card was free, so... no loss there.

anyways, thanks again!
ryan

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Answer 4

Tim Haigh

Level 7

24,198 points

Mar 12, 2006 2:27 AM in response to rye.yan.matthew

thanks for the info,

i'll probably just end up buying an airport card.

it seems to be the easier option.

Here in the UK an airport card will cost you £100 and will only give you the slower wireless B standard. A PCI based 54G card will cost you £30.

As I stated in my earlier post airport 3.1 or higher does support other 3rd party wirless cards.

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Answer 5

Mar 17, 2006 3:34 PM in response to Tim Haigh

thanks for the tip,

i ended up getting a sweet 108mbs Netgear PCI card running an Atheros chip.

using a wireless driver supplied by OrangeWare, the connection is fantastic.

my only worry, it (the driver) runs a terminal script upon load - via my "library/startupitems" folder as root (similar to adobe versioncue). i understand it's necessary... but with all the "oompaloompa" hype out there - i'm keeping that folder is under high scrutiny.

cheers,
ryan

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