Long Range Wifi Cards with Mac OS X?

August 7, 2007 8:36 AM

Wifi Shootout: powerbook g4 PCMCIA: what card and antenna combination will get me the most bang for my buck in terms of range?

I'm looking for that rare, high powered wifi card that has the necessary connectors to attach an external antenna, such as a cantenna, that has functional Mac OS X drivers. Ideally, really badass drivers that let you change power output, antenna diversity, etc.

Also, any ideas on antennas? Is tha cantenna worth it? or are there better, cheaper directional options?


thanks!

posted by Freen to Technology (9 answers total)

You might try this but I don't know if the driver gives you options to adjust the power levels.

The cantenna looks like a nicely packaged Pringle can; you can make your own.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 9:21 AM on August 7, 2007

Response by poster: hmm... doesn't look like it's all that high powered... Ideally, a 200mw or 300 mw pcmcia card. They are out there in abundance, I just don't have any clue which ones work with Mac OS X.
posted by Freen at 9:58 AM on August 7, 2007

Try a listed third-party, high-powered card with the open source OS X wireless driver.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 10:10 AM on August 7, 2007

Blazecock, which of those listed are high-powered and have MMCX connectors?
posted by OldReliable at 10:52 AM on August 7, 2007

I don't know, OldReliable, but I also searched Google on "300 mW PC Card" — a few of the results are models with Prism chipsets, which claims compatibility with the OS X wireless driver I linked to.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 10:54 AM on August 7, 2007

cool. I have been working on this issue as well.
posted by OldReliable at 11:00 AM on August 7, 2007

Orinoco Gold runs at +5 and have an external antenna connector.
posted by Ferrari328 at 11:05 AM on August 7, 2007

Response by poster: Ferrari, what do you mean by +5?
posted by Freen at 11:31 AM on August 7, 2007

Sorry, missed that, meant 5V as opposed to the 3.5V thats fairly common. Better range.
posted by Ferrari328 at 3:30 PM on August 7, 2007