Third party wireless router

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Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
I have an old Powerbook G3 and an iBook (shell) and both have Airport card installed. I got those Airport cards when I bought my old graphite Airport Base Station back in 2000. Now my ABS is dead, I'm thinking about buying a third party wireless router namely Netgear or D-link. Do they have units that compatible with my old Airport card? If so, which model should I get?

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  • Reply 1 of 14
    mattyjmattyj Posts: 898member
    I don't know about those makes of router, but I'm using a Linksys wireless G ADSL gateway and it works quite well, but I've been having problems with it where the wireless connection will dissapear seemingly at random, even with signal strength at 75%, so I'd avoid Linksys lol.
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  • Reply 2 of 14
    nofeernofeer Posts: 2,427member
    go to ebay and get the airport B save some money, no drop off easy setup
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  • Reply 3 of 14
    I am using a D-Link base station. It works fine, no drop offs either.
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  • Reply 4 of 14
    I use Linksys. It works fine.
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  • Reply 5 of 14
    maccrazymaccrazy Posts: 2,658member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by sasori390

    I have an old Powerbook G3 and an iBook (shell) and both have Airport card installed. I got those Airport cards when I bought my old graphite Airport Base Station back in 2000. Now my ABS is dead, I'm thinking about buying a third party wireless router namely Netgear or D-link. Do they have units that compatible with my old Airport card? If so, which model should I get?



    I've got a netgear router DG834G, it's brilliant, very good signal strength, i have three floors in my house and they all get the signal; perfectly. Also got an office in the garden, blocked by a huge hedge and signal gets thorough that as well. Very easy to set-up and works well with PCs and Macs. Good security options and has four ethernet ports for printing etc.
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  • Reply 6 of 14
    gongon Posts: 2,437member
    A few months ago I was going to set up a wireless router. I bought a D-link because it was the cheapest. Three broken D-Link routers later I took my return cash, paid a tad more and got a SMC. That was broken too. I grew tired, quit the project and just got a wired hub. I wouldn't buy anything more complicated than a hub from D-Link anymore. I could try SMCs again, I got a good impression in general and one faulty unit can happen with any manufacturer. Also the customer service weren't flaming idiots like D-Link's.
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  • Reply 7 of 14
    gongon Posts: 2,437member
    One more thing about D-Link. The packaging said "Windows, Linux, Mac OS / Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator supported". I used Mozilla. When I was troubleshooting stuff with the customer 'service', they asked about my IE version. I said I used Mozilla, but I could go and get Netscape if they wanted me to. Their response? "No, that'll probably work worse. Can't you do the configuration with IE?" So, the view of the customer service was that the router configuration is expected to work properly on IE 5+ only. Bye bye "Linux and Mac OS" support. I suspect that an intact router would have worked with Mozilla though, but they were all broken.
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  • Reply 8 of 14
    I have a wireless g/108 router from netgear, It works great everywhere in my house, except my room.



    If works sporatically in there because it was an addition to the house, and is made almost entirely of metal (aluminum).



    Inside the room (10% signal), One step out the door (75% signal)



    Go figure, but a great router none the less, i just wish airport cards supported the 108mbps feature that it has.
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  • Reply 9 of 14
    pbg3pbg3 Posts: 211member
    How do you go about setting something like that up? I have a new iBook with Airport Extreme built in, can I just go out an buy any Wireless Router and hook it up to my DSL modem and iMac downstairs? Any special drivers needed? There are wireless routers for about $90 CDN here, which would be much nicer than blowing $179 on an AirportExpress...any help would be appreciated.
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  • Reply 10 of 14
    No drivers are needed.



    Just make sure whatever wireless router or access point you buy supports the 802.11b/g standard(s) (99% of them do).
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  • Reply 11 of 14
    maccrazymaccrazy Posts: 2,658member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by PBG3

    How do you go about setting something like that up? I have a new iBook with Airport Extreme built in, can I just go out an buy any Wireless Router and hook it up to my DSL modem and iMac downstairs? Any special drivers needed? There are wireless routers for about $90 CDN here, which would be much nicer than blowing $179 on an AirportExpress...any help would be appreciated.



    Macs are extremely easy, you literally plug in the router and your computer will instantly find the network (click the airport button in the menu bar) Select the network you want. That's it. Once you've connected you can edit the network preferences by connecting to the routers settings (different depending on the router) My router, a netgear, is managed using an internet browser - no software needed. PCs are more tricky.
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  • Reply 12 of 14
    Quote:

    Originally posted by sasori390

    If so, which model should I get?



    I got a Microsoft MN700.

    It is vastly better than the Belkin I bought my parents ( easier to setup, reliable ).



    It was plug and play for me. Plug in my ADSL modem, connect over a cable to initiate a connection and turn on wireless, then boom, airport is working on my ibook.



    The best bit, they are discontinued and on special. My local radio shack is selling them for $27. I got mine from Costco for about $35.



    It does b and g wireless, so if you get a new machine in the future it will grow with you, and it has a four port ethernet hub.
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  • Reply 13 of 14
    I use Belkins and they work fine. Got a couple strung across the house repeating one another. Can't get any simplier to set up, but then I do work with networking alot...



    But you have to really look at the expandabilties in these wireless routers. The microsoft MN700 for example, are easy for novices to set up, but lack advanced configuration options, such as wireless bridging, which is critical in my situation since one wireless router can't reach to the other side of the house.

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  • Reply 14 of 14
    dfilerdfiler Posts: 3,420member
    Don't buy a NetGear MR314.



    I bought one only to discover (after a few months) that it couldn't maintain a connection to verizon dsl. Specifically, it always lost access to dns. NetGear basically said, ha ha, you're screwed. I'll never buy from NetGear again.
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