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Wireless Hacks for G4 PowerBooks?

Posted by Cliff on from the no-wireless-for-you! dept.

NunDLess asks: "G4 PowerBooks have absolutely dreadful wireless range due, I've been told, to the fact that the internal antennas are underneath that slick Titanium case. Has anyone heard about a way to set up an external wireless antenna on a PowerBook? I've been looking for supported PCMCIA wireless cards, but haven't found one with Mac OS X drivers."

19 of 61 comments (clear)

  1. Prism Support by dadragon · · Score: 2, Informative

    Apparently Orinoco/Prism cards are supported through a third party driver at Wirelessdriver

    It may be worth a look.

    --
    God save our Queen, and Heaven bless The Maple Leaf Forever!
  2. Common Sense AirPort Performance Tips by daviddennis · · Score: 5, Informative

    At least if your computer already includes an AirPort card, you should try it out before rejecting it out of hand. Better yet, find a friend who already owns it and run a few tests.

    I found that AirPort with my Titanium PowerBook/400 worked very well, as long as I kept my desktop G4 on top of my desk, and my AirPort base station on top of my desktop. It would be even better on top of a tall bookshelf.

    Of course your mileage may vary, depending on where you use your system. If you have an enormous house, it's going to be harder than if you have a small apartment or (as in my case) a small but cozy two-bedroom house. If you tend to use your TiBook in one specific room, place it as close as possible.

    If you put your AirPort base station on your home ethernet network and connect that to a DSL or T1 connection, you have a lot of flexibility as to where the base station can be situated. Use that flexibility to your advantage. Remember, it doesn't have to be near anything save the Ethernet hub.

    So position your AirPort base station near the center of your house, as high up as possible. That will help you a great deal.

    Hope that helps.

    D

    1. Re:Common Sense AirPort Performance Tips by Sleepyguy · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Height isn't probly that much of an issue. The radiation pattern on the base station is roughly spherical (well probly more like a bloated torus).

      The titaniums definatly have problems though. Side by side with my Pismo (previous powerbook model) the tiBook consistantly has two less "bars". Both cards are mounted internally.

      It is my understanding that the rev. 2 tiBooks have slightly better range than the rev. 1s .. I haven't heard any reports about the new tiBooks.

      I haven't heard of anyone doing this but I belive the antenna itself is flat, it seems like you might be able to mod the case to get the antenna on the outside. Though it would probly impact the tiBook's good looks.

      _

      --
      b
    2. Re:Common Sense AirPort Performance Tips by daviddennis · · Score: 4, Informative

      In my testing, I found that I had problems until I raised my base station up high. So yes, height really does help, probably for the same reason it helps any form of radio reception.

      Unfortunately, I think the AirPort card is pretty deep in the TiBook case - I seem to remember that the installation process is a horrid mess, so I think extending the antenna would be likewise, alas.

      D

  3. just use your airport card by 01000111 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    the simplest solution is to just use the internal airport card with an external antenna. just plug a wire (with the proper connector) into the airport card, bypassing the internal antenna. route the cable near the edge of the laptop, dremel a small hole, poke the cable through, get an adaptor for those larger antenna cables and buy/make yourself a better antenna. I hear pringles cans work good for longer distances.

    --
    011001110110110001100101011011100110001001101111
    1. Re:just use your airport card by b_pretender · · Score: 2
      route the cable near the edge of the laptop, dremel a small hole, poke the cable through, get an
      *GASPS*

      dremel a small hole in my TiBook?? Are you out of your mind? I barely had the courage to insert a theatre light-gel behind the screen so that my glowing apple glows red.

  4. Faulty soldering by d0n+quix0te · · Score: 3, Informative

    Caused a lot of the reception problems in earlier Powerbooks. Have it checked if your machine is still under warranty. My signal improved dramatically after my TiBook came back from Apple.
    I can use it very comfortably even on the throne (which I assume is the main attraction of Wireless :)

    1. Re:Faulty soldering by macsox · · Score: 3, Funny

      the throne is hardly the main attraction. having it on one's lap in the living room during the simpsons so you can check the accuracy of snpp's episode summaries is what god and steve jobs intended.

      --
      go get it
  5. How bad IS reception? by mr100percent · · Score: 2

    I find it hard to believe reception on the TiBooks really is that bad. For one thing, the antennae are on the outside of the case, the two short strips on the side. Wouldn't that make it have a better range than the plastic-encased iBooks?

    I have yet to see any proof of the range being shorter, at least nothing in Macaddict and MacNN.

    How do you know that the problem isn't in your head?

    1. Re:How bad IS reception? by jriskin · · Score: 2, Interesting

      It really is pretty bad. I've used my TiBook in 3 different locations. At work even with several high gain antennas (on the base side), the TiBook always had much worse range than the G3 Wallstreet's did.

      It was so bad at home that I opened up my airport and added an external antenna as to try and help performance. Its just a small Lucent 2.5db that I had laying around. It helps a bit, but really its the laptop that needs the better antenna.

      At both my last house and my current home, the TiBook has only been able to get roughly 30ft from the base station when there are any walls involved. I've never had a situation where it has a long line of sight, so I can't say what that would be like.

  6. my solution: a pigtail and external antenna by ubiquitin · · Score: 5, Informative

    The lucent/orinoco pigtails that are sold on eBay and other places will work with the TiBook. Just run the wire out through the PCMCIA slot. The internal wireless card is on the same side as the PCMCIA slot, parallel to it actually, with the antenna connector at the edge of the external titanium shell so it all works suprisingly well. If you're willing to have a wire hanging out of your TiBook, just leaky coax will improve signal, but a nice passive high-gain antenna does wonders for increasing both signal to noise and range.

    --
    http://tinyurl.com/4ny52
  7. Antenna Recipe by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative


    I have *very, very, very* good performance from my homemade antenna on the tibook. In the business they call it a "quarter wave whip" omnidirectional. It will take you two minutes to build.

    Here, get these:

    http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?catalog%5F na me=CTLG&category%5Fname=CTLG%5F005%5F003%5F001%5F0 05&product%5Fid=910%2D0607
    http://www.fab-corp.co m/ (go to "Radio Pigtails", and you want the top item, "12 inch ORiNOCO / Avaya to N-Male Pigtail")

    Get some 12-gauge copper wire from your hardware store, cut a piece to be exactly 1.21 inches, and stick it in the nub of the N-female (the thing from radioshack above). Tape it or solder it in place. Then pop open the tibook, string the pigtail from the airport card through the PC-card opening, (you have to remove the bottom panel to do this), and screw the N-Male end into the N-female connector.

    Voila. First time I did this I discovered 2 networks in my bedroom.

    If you want more power, you can get a big 40oz can of any Nalley product (chili con carne, beef stew, etc), convince someone else to eat the contents, and put a hole in it for the end of your antenna. It's a waveguide, much more powerful than those Pringles yagis.

    For more info on where to put the hole see http://www.turnpoint.net/wireless/cantennahowto.ht ml

    Enjoy!

    1. Re:Antenna Recipe by feldsteins · · Score: 2

      I would love to have more details about this process, maybe pictures even. I have a ti-book with an Apple card and a Linksys 4-port switch/ wireless ap > cable modem setup here at home. I find I can get service in my back porch, front porch and most of the inside of the house but I would still love to extend the range.

      Dude email me. let me ask some stupid questions. Like what that first link was supposed to go to :)

      --
      You like your Macintosh better than me, don't you Dave? Dave? Can you hear me Dave?
  8. Re:Is titanium case the real culpurit ? by dhartshorn · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Well, you start by putting aircraft antennas outside the plane.

  9. Question: by DiscoOnTheSide · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Anyone know if you can use a wireless card (such as Airport or that WirelessDriver with another card) and use IPSec? I refuse to use wireless unless it's over IPSec. Oh, and since the Airport card is an Orinoco Silver card relabeled, can I just buy one and plug it into the Powerbook's internal airport slot and it will work? I can get a Orinoco card for cheaper than an Airport card and I dont want the external antenna, preferably.

    --
    Viva La Revolucion! Buy a Mac!
  10. Using dual cards on PB G3 (Pismo) by cleal · · Score: 2, Informative

    While my Pismo doesn't suffer from the range limitations of the TiBook, I do have a need to occasionally increase my reach with an external antenna. The OS X driver mentioned in other posts, http://wirelessdriver.sourceforge.net/, works well with a Lucent Silver card I picked up for $50. My built-in Airport card remains port en1 and the external card shows up as en2.

  11. A case in point by ulbador · · Score: 2, Informative

    Where I work I have my IBook and a Tibook... We have a Linksys Wap 11, hacked which is used for an occasional HP or Sony notebook with addon cards, and basically all time access for our Mac's... The signal strength between the Tibook and Ibook is more than negligible.. This is measure in Yellow Dog linux using the WaveMon program on freshmeat Generally speaking, on a scale of from the restraunt next door(a four or five on the WaveMon program on the ibook, which translates to a 0 on the Tibook> to within 2 feet of the wireless access point the difference between the ibook and the tibook is always at least 10 points, with the tibook on the low end.... If this isn't empirical evidence I don't know what is...

  12. shouldn't be a problem by elliotj · · Score: 3, Insightful

    802.11b is just giving you the ethernet. IPSec operates at a higher layer of the OSI model so you shouldn't have any problems. If you can implement it on your Mac, you'll be able to use it w/ airport.

  13. PCMCIA Wireless card drivers for Mac OS X by ajna · · Score: 2, Insightful

    ... can be found at http://homepage.mac.com/robm

    When I had a Powerbook instead of this lovely G4 tower, I ran a Cabletron wireless card with the above driver, and it worked splendidly, provided that one didn't remove the card when the computer was expecting to use it.