Taking a Wallstreet wireless: What do I need?

[Luke]

Hello everyone. I¹d like to add wireless capability to my trusty
Wallstreet and am uncertain as to what exactly is required.

My needs are quite pedestrian. I currently have a 56kbps dialup account
run under both OS 9.2.2 and Jaguar 10.2.6. I¹d like to access the
account sans wires both at home and via publicly accessible Wifi
networks.

I do know that at least a wireless PCMCIA card is required. I presume
this is the only hardware required to connect to a public accessible
Wifi network. What I find confusing are the different standards. At
OWC¹s <macsales.com> website hardware is categorized as 802.11g or
802.11b, Airport or Airport extreme, 54mbs or 11MB(b?) etc...

And if I were to access my internet account at home what components
would be required in addition - or apart - from the PCMCIA card? Does
adding wireless functionality to a Wallsteet require proprietary Apple
hardware or would cross platform (Wintel) components suffice?

I would appreciate detailed hardware - and, if required, software -
recommendations.

Thanks
Luke

[Thomas Reed]

[[ This message was both posted and mailed: see
the "To," "Cc," and "Newsgroups" headers for details. ]]

In article <110820031921348587%luca@ca.inter.net>, Luke
<luca@ca.inter.net> wrote:

> Hello everyone. I¹d like to add wireless capability to my trusty
> Wallstreet and am uncertain as to what exactly is required.

I just did this, so you can benefit from what I found! There are a
variety of cheaper PCMCIA cards out there, but I'm not sure how well
they'll perform. One popular one is made by Orinoco, and many people
apparently use it without trouble. However, I did hear from a couple
people who couldn't make an Orinoco card work in their Wallstreets, and
it was pretty much a given that you'd have to go download an
open-source driver for OS X, as the company doesn't have one.

In the end, I went with a card from Asante (FriendlyNET AL5402-XG
99-00782-01 802.11g Wireless Cardbus Adapter). It's a CardBus card,
which can go in the Wallstreet's PCMCIA card slots, and it's a little
more pricey than the other cards ($99, compared to somewhere around
$60-$70). But, the bottom line is that I stuck it in my Wallstreet and
was online in about 30 seconds. (Of course, that assumes you've
already applied the latest AirPort updates from Apple -- this card
requires one of the more recent updates, IIRC. It also assumes you've
already got a working wireless network.)

Asante is a reputable company who assured me their card would work on
my machine with no extra software needed. I chose to pay a little
extra for that assurance and ease-of-use, but you may prefer to do
differently. In the end, it's a personal choice. But I highly
recommend this card from Asante!

--
-Thomas

<http://www.bitjuggler.com/>

[Luke]

In article <1fzjpqu.1wkd6wxe287jeN%neillmassello@earthlink.ne t>, Neill
Massello <neillmassello@earthlink.net> wrote:

> Luke <luca@ca.inter.net> wrote:
>

> > Hello everyone. I'd like to add wireless capability to my trusty
> > Wallstreet and am uncertain as to what exactly is required.

<snip>

Thank you all for the replies. And apologies for the repeat posts:
(Connection problems...)

Luke