Best wireless card for Snow Leopard?

[OzSpeedway]

Hi all

I have just wasted my money buying two Linksys WMP54G Wireless cards after checking with insanelymacs wiki. I cannot get these cards to work at all under Snow Leopard so.....

Can anyone suggest a *known* solution for wireless cards that run under Snow Leopard 100%?

Any help appreciated, my kids machine is now held up due to the misinformation from the wiki....

Cheers
Bruce

[SomniusX]

Well my friend you didn't look carefully, sorry to tell you that, but only v1 works, and these cards are out more than 2 years now, there are only v4+ WMP54 cards that don't work.

You may try also the BCMxxx kexts but, as i did, i sold it to a friend with vista. Now i work with one asus wifi dongle and the rt61 kext..

[OzSpeedway]

Hi Bloodiator

The frame of mind I was in I admit I didn't look hard enough before purchasing, I looked again tonight and saw the V1 part. Now I suppose I will just flick them off on ebay or something for the Windoze people.

I would still like some pointers on what people here are using for PCI wireless cards though, would much prefer to install something that has more of a chance working in my machines (and is available in Australia) than guessing that it *might* work.

I am on my 3rd & 4th hackintosh and these ones need wireless to allow us to put them in the kids rooms without running wires all over the place. Plus it is time I joined the "modern world" with wireless :)

Cheers
Bruce

[SomniusX]

Ha.. modern world, yeah.. and i'm still trying to re-configure my lan network with 2 x 5 port switches.. anyways.. i'm a cables person, even if my wife screams all day about'em, she likes taking the downloads from the dld-b0x faster than wireless and then stops.

About the card, it's a thing with snow L, not all pci cards work. But there are some that work out of the box with 32 bit kernel "only" and thats the worst part, cause i too swapped my perfect 10.5.8 iAtkos + iDeneb patched system for the 64 bit snow, but now find obstacles.. anyways.. we'll just have to w8 for some pr0gram3rs to make'em! :D

[MonkeyDLuffy]

EDIT: OOPPPPPSS .. you live in Australia. Sorry. I'm not sure if you have these there.

Oh, maybe this will help: http://www.expresspcparts.com.au/Items/net-186-alt-wl-138g-v2?&caSKU=net-186-alt-wl-138g-v2&caTitle=ASUS%20WL-138g%20V2%20Wireless%20802.11g%2054M%20PCI%20adapt er%20%3DNEW%3D

or

http://www.pcdiy.com.au/index.php?cPath=208_279

Make sure it is "V2" not "V1"

Original msg:

I would suggest the Asus WL-138G V2

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833320022

This card works natively in Leopard and Snow Leopard. It uses Broadcom 4318 chipset. It is detected as Third party wireless in System profile.

However, there are known issues with this card in Snow Leopard + G31M-ES2L v1.x mobo (DSDT related). If you use a different board, I think you'll be fine - but I'm not 100% sure. However, if you'll have the problem, the fix is quite easy anyway.

With regards to the actual hardware performance, it kinda sucks. If your desktop is far from the router, you might need to buy a third party rubber duck antenna to replace it. I also noticed degraded performance in Download speeds (uploads are fine).

Example: I also have a laptop (snow leo) which is connected to the same router as my Desktop.

Speedtest.net results vary:

1)Desktop (with Asus PCi card): 9.40MBps DL / 2.01 UL - sometimes DL goes lower
Laptop (with Atheros minipci-e): 13Mbps DL / 2.00 UL

2) Downloading Itunes from Apple.com
Desktop = 700mbps/sec - actual Download speed
Laptop = 1.1mbps/sec
> This has been constant all the time
> In browsing, there are no difference at all. Both are fast, just downloading.

This is constant all through out. I tried all scenarios in Windows 7,xp/Ubuntu/Leo, Snow Leo - all results are the same. If this is a driver problem, I don't know how to fix it. I've tried downloading different kind of drivers for Windows/Mac/Linux but it doesn't fix it. So I think it is not a driver problem at all.

But there is one catch. I bought this card in Ebay as USED. Now, I feel bad because right after I bought it, Newegg prices for this card got low, even cheaper than the Ebay used one. Talk about missing luck, lol. Since this is a used card, I got a feeling that the previous owner dumped this because of this problem. Or this could be a known issue for this card as well (read the newegg reviews). I can assure you though that it can connect to WEP, WPA, WPA2 encryption without any problems. You can even connect to Hidden Wireless networks without the problem with the Asus wifi. My laptop can't connect to hidden wireless.

If you're going to use it for basic internet, this card is perfect for you. I'm using it as a torrent downloader so this card is not enough for me and I'll be replacing it. Not for compatiblity, just because it doesn't fit my needs.

I'll be replacing it with a different approach (cheap alternative).

I'll be using a MiniPci to PCI adapter and buy a Broadcom Minipci chip.

This:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Broadcom-wireless-wifi-B-G-mini-pci-card-BCM4318_W0QQitemZ290348900277QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH _DefaultDomain_0?hash=item439a249fb5

+

http://cgi.ebay.com/WiFi-54-108b-g-Wireless-LAN-Mini-PCI-to-Adapter-9749_W0QQitemZ170315201988QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_De faultDomain_0?hash=item27a793bdc4

or

if you need low profile:

http://cgi.ebay.com/3-holes-minipci-to-pci-long-low-bracket-wifi-wireless_W0QQitemZ170385609420QQcmdZViewItemQQptZL H_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item27abc612cc

= a possibly working airport card.

Mine is still on its way because it is being shipped from China, it takes 15-20 business days. And I don't know if this combo will be 100%. I know it will, but I need to test it just to make sure.

A more expensive alternative would be the MiniPCIe to PCIe adapter. With this combo, you can use a real macbook minipcie wifi. But it is way expensive. The expensive part is the MiniPcie to PCIe adapter which costs about $40. The Airport Extreme MiniPCIe usually costs $13-15.

You could buy the one from Newegg and try it. You can just return it in 30 days if you're not satisfied (you might have to pay for shipping it back though).

Good luck!

[CyCLoBoT]

I am using ASUS WL-138G V2 and it works right OOB. Gets picked up as an Airport card.

[MonkeyDLuffy]

@CyCloBot,

Wow, good for you. Mine was only detected as Third Party Wireless.

Are you having speed issues? Darn, I think my card is screwed up. I can't max out my actual bandwidth.

I re-branded mine because it had issues with my G31M-ES2L with DSDT.

All in all, this might have been a great card if I bought it new.

[OzSpeedway]

Thanks everyone, cool info.

@MonkeyLDuffy: Brilliant info, I like the idea of using Apple stuff for compatibility reasons. I have a Netgear N wireless unit in the cupboard to try :)

@CyCloBot: I like the sound of the ASUS card for an interim fix, they are available locally for $38.00 so they aren't too expensive for a trial.

Cheers
Bruce

[MonkeyDLuffy]

Yep. I was so obsessed of keeping everything as real as possible with my previous build, lol. I remembered buying a real airport extreme (pulled from a macbook) and putting it in my friends laptop. He actually did not need it, but I convinced him. It worked perfectly and he is happier with the results. I just had a minor problem when using the XP drivers. I had to edit the .inf file for the driver to detect the device - very easy step.

Since you have a Wireless N router (or have a PCIe-x1 slot in your mobo), maybe you could look into this combo:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Apple-Airport-Extreme-Card-MA688Z-B-802-11n-N-MacBook_W0QQitemZ320385956384QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH _DefaultDomain_0?hash=item4a987dba20

+

http://www.hwtools.net/Adapter/MP2A.html

You will be using a Real Airport card and take advantage of Wireless N functionality. I really wanted to do this but it is too expensive for me. If you want to try this, make sure you can return it to them, just incase. I'm pretty sure you will find some there in Australia. Also, most of the ebay stores ship to your country.

I was told by some hackintosh gurus that this will work since it directly connects to the pci express and you don't need drivers for the adapter. Some gurus are actually using this for their desktops. Just incase it fails, you can always use the minipcie adapter for your laptop and use the minipci-e adapter for a Windows desktop machine. Just my 2 cents. :D

Cheers