Imac Wireless USB Adapter

[boogieman]

I recently introduced me mom and dad to the world of mac with my older imac core duo 20 inch. The problem is they live about 1000 feet from me and we were sharing wireless off of my linksys wrt54gx router. They had a old lindows laptop that had a wireless linksys usb adapter I had ran up in the top of their roof for a good signal. My problem now is that with the imac it cannot use this. Is there a alternative I can use for them in a wireless usb adapter? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[negatv1]

You could buy a WRT54G, or similar router and connect to your network as a wireless client. You'd just have to run ethernet from the imac up to the roof ,or wherever you find the best reception to your house

 

[negatv1]

Also, the Dlink g122 usb adapter works under OS X , if you a were set on going the usb route.

 

[strider42]

An ethernet based adaptor is a great solution. it requires a wall outlet (except for a model by macsense.com which uses USB for power, but ethernet for the connection), but work without drivers under any OS. Linksys makes the wet54. i use an older version and its been great. Belking, dlink and macsense all make similar adaptors. These are sometimes called gaming adaptors.

 

[boogieman]

You could buy a WRT54G, or similar router and connect to your network as a wireless client. You'd just have to run ethernet from the imac up to the roof ,or wherever you find the best reception to your house

Is this something that is easy to do? I have a wrt54g something at home as a extra I take on vacation with me. So I just need to set it up as a basically to see my real network from my house and use the ethernet from it to the imac?

 

[balamw]

Is this something that is easy to do? I have a wrt54g something at home as a extra I take on vacation with me. So I just need to set it up as a basically to see my real network from my house and use the ethernet from it to the imac?

The stock Linksys firmware may not support client mode, and so you may have to install a third party firmware on it. Personally, I use OpenWRT, but there are others DD-WRT and on...

Once installed, you'll have to configure it, which'll use a web based interface.

B

 

[negatv1]

I could not remember if the stock firmware did support client mode or not. I've made it a habit just flashing them to DD-WRT straight out of the box.

It's a fairly simple process even if you do not have al ot of experience doing such things. But after that the WRT54G (or similar supported (and cheap) routers such as the Buffalo WHR-54GS) becomes a very stable and versatile device.

Plus, you'll be able to easily add an external antennae to the router, should you need to in order to improve reception.