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Best wireless solution for older G5

I acquired a G5 after my FW800 MDD's power supply died. I also want to go wireless with the G5 to my airport extreme base station. The guy I bought the used G5 from wanted to sell me a little do-dad that looked like a USB antenna and card all in one that plugs into a USB port, cost about $25. He implied it would solve my problem.-- Really?

Details: running 10.5.8 OS X on the G5, dual 2 Ghz June 2004 w/ 3 GB Ram. Airport Base station is Extreme type running on 2nd floor, G5 is in the basement, big chimney in middle of the house may be a disrupter.

Question #1: So this little do-dad can take the place of both the T shaped antenna(need to buy) and the extreme airport card(also, need buy)? Or is that thing targeted to newer G5's?

Question #2: HARD Drive transfer. It would be real handy if I could mount my old FW800's ATA hard drive in the SATA G5. Any way to make this happen? or better solution so I can KEEP the old hard drive up and runnig with the G5?

thanks!

Posted on Mar 5, 2013 11:34 AM

Best reply

rccharles

Level 6

12,957 points

Posted on Mar 5, 2013 11:59 AM

I'd go with his dongle, but he will have all the software installed. Laptop and iPad have wifi & wire doesn't stick out of box.

Ethernet Bridge

Ethernet Bridge "The versatile Wireless-G Ethernet Bridge can make any wired Ethernet-equipped device a part of your wireless network." from linksys example:

http://www.amazon.com/Linksys-RE1000-Wireless-N-Range-Extender/dp/B005FDXMJS/ref =sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1314563758&sr=8-1

Airport Express

USB dongle

The letters n/g/b correspond to the speed of the data transfer. You should match the speed to your existing router. You best match on the highest speed. N is the highest. G is middle. b is lowest.

Newer Technology MAXPower 802.11n/g/b USB Adapter. New Technology has made these adapters for a while.
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Newer%20Technology/MXP3802NU2C/

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29 replies

Mar 24, 2015 5:46 PM in response to Laish Morse

I re-read rccharles remarks again. This may be important to you. It appears you have to buy the right one or it may be "tunable" to the correct band:

The letters n/g/b correspond to the speed of the data transfer. You should match the speed to your existing router. You best match on the highest speed. N is the highest. G is middle. b is lowest.

BDAqua

Level 10

239,363 points

Apr 12, 2013 4:52 PM in response to Laish Morse

Hi, what signal strength is the Wifi Utility showing?

Is this 10.4 or 10.5 you're running.

Apr 12, 2013 6:20 PM in response to BDAqua

Hi. Thanks for the suggestions. The last couple of days I had it plugged directly into one of the USB ports on the back of the quad rather than using the cradle. The link status says Link Quality: 100% and Signal strength 1 and 2 hover between 89 and 94. I'm wondering if some of the appearant slowness was due to me being used to having it hardwired lol. I do know that on the first couple days I used it it seemed to hang for far too long.

I had just re-installed my hard drive from scratch and I had forgotten to enter the OpenDNS addresses which I did last night and that made things better. I'm using 10.5.8. I am definately going to get a newer Airport Extreme base station since all of my equipment is wireless now.

I think "it is what it is", but not being used to being completely wireless with older equipment kind of threw me off. Still if there's anything else I should look into to tweak things, let me know.

Thanks again,

Laish

BDAqua

Level 10

239,363 points

Apr 12, 2013 6:52 PM in response to Laish Morse

I was goung to suggest OpenDNS, glad you did that.

In my experience the USSB dongles work far better than the built in Airport/Wifi cards, right now on my G5, te Newertech picks up 11 stations + plus my old Saucer AEBS, the Airport card sees only my AEBS, using the cradle & USB extension cables I can get even better reception.

At home I even use a USB Wifi device because it has better range speed than the iMac's built-in 802.11n card.

I've slit a hole in the side of a Swiss Miss can, inserted the dongle & can get even more distance, speed & directional control.

Make a New Location, Using network locations in Mac OS X ...

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2712

10.5.x/10.6.x/10.7.x instructions...

System Preferences>Network, click on the little gear at the bottom next to the + & - icons, (unlock lock first if locked), choose Set Service Order.

The interface that connects to the Internet should be dragged to the top of the list.

Apr 12, 2013 7:25 PM in response to BDAqua

Thanks,

I added the location as you suggested. I had forgotten about that. With it being Friday night, my bandwidth is a third of what it is normally so everything crawls.

The Swiss Miss can contraption sound interesting although there is only a couple of other wifi networks anywhere near close to me. I'm going to start actively looking for a newer AEBS now for sure. I'm going to give the cradle another go.

Not having the ethernet cable running across the floor has been really nice as well not having my desk location set in stone.

Thanks again foe the help and suggestions.

BDAqua

Level 10

239,363 points

Apr 12, 2013 9:35 PM in response to Laish Morse

Yeah, day of week, hour of day can really afffect speed.

On the Swiss Miss can, used to be a free Wifi at the city park about a half mile away USB dongle in SM can could pick that up, built in Airport/Wifi could'nt see that in a dream.

Also 802.11b/g is Half duplex, 802.11n is full duplex but doesn't handle obstructions like walls & such nearly as well as b/g does.

Apr 14, 2013 5:57 AM in response to BDAqua

I have another quick question. There is a greyed out DNS Server as well as a greyed out Search Domain (Westell.com). Is it alright to leave them in there or should they be removed as well? I'll have to access the router software to do that abviously.

Thanks again,

Laish

BDAqua

Level 10

239,363 points

Apr 14, 2013 10:27 AM in response to Laish Morse

You can leave them, likely from your Router/Modem?

But I like to add more DNS numbers myself.

rccharles

Level 6

12,957 points

Apr 14, 2013 11:03 AM in response to Laish Morse

Note: To increase the 'size/range' of your wifi network, you could:

Add

-- range extenders. These are wireless repeaters.

They retransmit any wifi signal they see. (somehow they work. )

-- more routers. -- You will need to cable all routers together.

Robert

Mar 24, 2015 5:46 PM in response to BDAqua

Hello guys, OK, now I am a bit confused.

What is this Open DNS deal you two are referring to? I can't find anything about that in either the Wireless utility dialog or the Network prefs. . .

I am wondering if I am missing out on something that may help mine go faster. thx. Brian

Apr 14, 2013 3:52 PM in response to Community User

This is the reference I used when I looked into it. It was definitely an improvement over my ISP's.

http://www.labnol.org/internet/tools/opendsn-what-is-opendns-why-required-2/2587 /

Laish

BDAqua

Level 10

239,363 points

Apr 14, 2013 6:01 PM in response to Community User

Try it, it's easy enough to change if it doesn't help. 🙂

Tons of flack going on in u7nseen places here about using OpenDNS, but in my decade or so of using it & recommending it, I''ve seen no drawbacks, nor complaints... only a dozen or so where it made no difference. 🙂

Mar 24, 2015 5:46 PM in response to BDAqua

Hey guys, thanks. I am now signed up for OpenDNS on one of my MacBook. Will convert the iPad and others over today. . . this makes nothing but sense. It is amazing what you can learn on the forums. The internet is always amazing me, but having the wisdom and kindness of others available by simply sending out a few electrons tops it all!

Thanks again and have a great day gentlemen. Regards, Brian

BDAqua

Level 10

239,363 points

Apr 15, 2013 2:18 PM in response to Community User

Great to hear, thanks Brian! 🙂

Best wireless solution for older G5