We start with a bit of a walk through recent history.
Once upon a time, I discovered with a very simple edit to a particular file that I could get Apple's AirPort Extreme driver to talk to a Linksys card. That made me happy. Then Apple released 10.2.4. They added code to that driver to check to make sure that someone didn't do exactly what I had done. That made me angry. I was quickly able to workaround Apple's treachery, and I was happy again, but not quite as happy as before. Because Apple had demonstrated that they were hostile to the idea that we should be able to use their driver with someone else's hardware. Apple wants to force you to buy a new computer to use their driver. That makes me angry. So now I am dedicating myself to doing everything I can to keep them from getting away with trying to keep you from using your mac the way you want, even if it's not with their hardware.
So what can you expect here? I intend to gradually migrate all of the content available at my OS X hints page over to this new site over the coming days (weeks?). First, I plan on cleaning up all of the data I have about The Infamous AirPort Extreme Hack and making a nice, easy to read category out of it all. Stay tuned.
Nick,
You have performed a real service to the Mac community with your driver hack. We are up and running with our WPC54g with excellent reception at considerable distance.
I, too, am angry with Apple for their strategy to push proprietary cards that only fit into the new laptops and force the entire legacy community to use 802.11b with Extreme base stations. I am equally chagrined at their decision to force anyone who wants an antenna to buy an internal modem with their base station. They also forced the community to buy Dr. Bott's antennae with a proprietary (non-Broadcom NC) connector in the base station.
So much for loyalty to the legacy community. Anyone remember Wang?
Posted by: Leigh Standish at February 25, 2003 07:02 AMAt the risk of speaking blasphemy, I have to say that this is one thing Microsoft got right with XP - the OS has an open framework for 802.11[abg] drivers so that everyone has a common mechanism for WEP, network association, creating IBSS, the whole ball of wax.
3rd party 802.11 interfaces are in a position not unlike the situation in Windows 2000 and previous -- they must provide their own infrastructure for wireless setup, which also means that everyone does it a different way.
If I plug a 3rd party 802.11 card into a mac that comes with its own driver, is it so wrong for me to expect Internet Connect to treat it the same way Apple treats their AirPort modules?
I wouldn't even mind if Apple shut out 3rd party vendors but sold their own branded CardBus and PCI cards for legacy systems. At least then nobody would be shut out (iMac, eMac and iBooks would be, but only because they have no avenues for expansion like CardBus or PCI).
The only silver lining in the cloud is that the new AirPort Extreme slot is PCI, so it *should* be the last such slot. Apple should be able to make future wireless networking options fit in it.... if they want.....
nsayer, I've read your site with interest... I can't get my new Imac with airport extreme to see my d-link wireless router. But it can see my Win XP PC when i make an Ad-hoc network. I degraded my d-link to 11 mbps (pbcc off) but still no joy.
Do you know of any Apple trickery thats trying to force me into buying an Airport X base station just to make it work?!
Any leads would be much appreciated.
Posted by: Rupert Willard at April 20, 2003 10:11 AMyou can take apart the extreme base station w/out modem and still use og antenna connector on extreme card inside:)
have fun
Posted by: derrick at April 27, 2003 10:48 AMLooking for help from real Hackers, I am trying to use a D-link dwl-520 802,11b pci adapter in my Blue and White tower (G4 upgraded) runnig Jag (10.2.5) any hints as were to look?
Posted by: MadMacs at May 5, 2003 09:11 AMYour are not the only one.
Posted by: zip codes at September 6, 2003 12:59 AMLooking for a D-Link DWL520 driver?
Visit: http://www.orangeware.com/endusers/wirelessformac.html
Looking for help from real Hackers, I am trying to use a D-link dwl-520 802,11b pci adapter in my Blue and White tower (G4 upgraded) runnig Jag (10.2.5) any hints as were to look?
>>
Just a suggestion, If your comfortable with the various Unicies why not use Ubuntu or similar Linux distro on dual boot with an extra partition readable by OS X.
Posted by: justin at April 18, 2005 09:33 AMI actually use FreeBSD on x86 hardware as a server. In fact, it's the server serving this very website.
For me, OS X is all the Unix I need on my desktop. I haven't even found the need to install fink. The only time I run X on my mac is when I need to run perforce at work from home.
Servers, though, are another matter. Even if I could get a free mac to be a server and a free license for OS X server, I'm not sure I'd make that switch. I'm very comfortable with *nix administration, so I don't need the GUI support that Apple offers for a server. And since it doesn't need to run a GUI, the memory and CPU requirements are dramatically lower, meaning I can use much cheaper hardware (or use it for much longer). Lastly, there's the FreeBSD ports system, which makes more than 12,000 pieces of software available, usually with 'make install'.
Posted by: Nick Sayer at April 18, 2005 10:08 AMhas anyone had luck getting the dwl-520 to work on a G4 with OS X?
Posted by: scot at December 15, 2005 02:51 PMIs there any way that i can get my D-Link DWL-G650 card to work with my Powerbook(less than a year old) and the DI-624 base station? The card works for Windows, obviously, but since i have this card and my mac i might as well try to work it out. When plugged in, the card has power.
Posted by: pete at April 3, 2006 03:24 PM