Existing users, 
 Wireless Driver - 3.3for many 802.11a/b/g cards |
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Featured Reviews
Problems with Leopard : ( - Version: 3.3, 10/27/2007 01:42AM PST
dabrandt01
Installed the new OS X 10.5 today on my PowerMac G5 and now my Driver wont work...which means no wireless!
Most Recent Replies: View All 6 Replies
- Problems with Leopard : (
No WPA for you! But lots of happy fun kernel panics. 
- Version: 3.3, 3/31/2007 02:11PM PST
mikep9
OrangeWare seems to have only done the bare minimum to get this driver to work.
It will associate/communicate with Open and WEP-protected 802.11b/g networks, but that's about it.
How much does it suck?
Let me count the ways...
1.) The control panel layout and operation is absolutely byzantine.
2.) While it teases you with WPA support, it doesn't really work. (Only later did I find the fine print on OrangeWare's web site about that.)
3.) Selecting "Power off Card" in the OS, removing the wireless card, then reinserting that or any other PC card will cause a kernel panic every time.
4.) If your wireless card has a retractable antenna, unsleeping the laptop before deploying the antenna will cause a kernel panic about 75% of the time.
5.) OrangeWare has no plans to finish implementing WPA support in their driver. Their reply also failed to address the kernel panic issues I brought to their attention.
If you need a modern wireless card for an older Mac, buy a card with a broadcom 802.11g chipset. Most of the cards listed here
http://bcm43xx.berlios.de/?go=devices
should be recognized right away by MacOS as an "AirPort Extreme" card.
It will associate/communicate with Open and WEP-protected 802.11b/g networks, but that's about it.
How much does it suck?
Let me count the ways...
1.) The control panel layout and operation is absolutely byzantine.
2.) While it teases you with WPA support, it doesn't really work. (Only later did I find the fine print on OrangeWare's web site about that.)
3.) Selecting "Power off Card" in the OS, removing the wireless card, then reinserting that or any other PC card will cause a kernel panic every time.
4.) If your wireless card has a retractable antenna, unsleeping the laptop before deploying the antenna will cause a kernel panic about 75% of the time.
5.) OrangeWare has no plans to finish implementing WPA support in their driver. Their reply also failed to address the kernel panic issues I brought to their attention.
If you need a modern wireless card for an older Mac, buy a card with a broadcom 802.11g chipset. Most of the cards listed here
http://bcm43xx.berlios.de/?go=devices
should be recognized right away by MacOS as an "AirPort Extreme" card.
No WPA for you! But lots of happy fun kernel panics. - Version: 3.3, 3/31/2007 01:36PM PST
mikep9
Too bad this driver isn't as nice as the 3com 3CRXJK10075 card I bought to go with it.
OrangeWare loses major points for doing what appears to be the bare minimum to get this driver working.
The card will associate with and talk to open or WEP-protected B/G networks, and that's about it.
Even though the positively byzantine control panel teases you with it, it WILL NOT do WPA. (Confirmed by reading the fine print on their website.)
*Powering off the card from within OS X, removing it then re-inserting it or any other card, will cause a kernel panic every time.
*If you have a card like the 3com X-Jack with a retractable antenna, unsleeping the laptop before extending the antenna will cause a kernel panic 75% of the time.
Their customer support was pretty disappointing too. I wrote them a very civil email outlining my issues with the card. They wrote back telling me that they were _never_ going to implement WPA in that driver and they didn't address the kernel panic issues at all.
Dear Orangeware: please go Chapter 7 before you can spew any more bad software into the world.
OrangeWare loses major points for doing what appears to be the bare minimum to get this driver working.
The card will associate with and talk to open or WEP-protected B/G networks, and that's about it.
Even though the positively byzantine control panel teases you with it, it WILL NOT do WPA. (Confirmed by reading the fine print on their website.)
*Powering off the card from within OS X, removing it then re-inserting it or any other card, will cause a kernel panic every time.
*If you have a card like the 3com X-Jack with a retractable antenna, unsleeping the laptop before extending the antenna will cause a kernel panic 75% of the time.
Their customer support was pretty disappointing too. I wrote them a very civil email outlining my issues with the card. They wrote back telling me that they were _never_ going to implement WPA in that driver and they didn't address the kernel panic issues at all.
Dear Orangeware: please go Chapter 7 before you can spew any more bad software into the world.
Most Recent Replies: View All 1 Replies
Caution about compatibility - Version: 3.3, 11/21/2006 07:33PM PST
mwayman
Don't rely absolutely on OrangeWare's claims about compatibility. TRENDnet wrote me, concerning their **TEW-603PI** Wireless PCI Adapter, "Yes, the chipset is Atheros and the chips are AR5513 (MAC/BB) + AR2112 (RF) (x2)."
OrangeWare's response to me -- after being unable to get their driver to recognize this TRENDnet card -- was, "Looks like trednet [sic] may have updated chips on us. We do not support the 5513. I will remove from our list."
At least they're claiming that they'll try to keep their list "honest." Meanwhile, I now have (what looks like a great) wireless card I can't use.
OrangeWare's response to me -- after being unable to get their driver to recognize this TRENDnet card -- was, "Looks like trednet [sic] may have updated chips on us. We do not support the 5513. I will remove from our list."
At least they're claiming that they'll try to keep their list "honest." Meanwhile, I now have (what looks like a great) wireless card I can't use.
Works fine in 10.3.9! - Version: 3.3, 4/21/2006 06:45AM PST
HerrFunken
My partner has been nagging on at me to get wireless on this ageing Ti 500 G4 powerbook for a while now. After much desparation looking for a compatible card- I got burned on a rather over expensive Netgear WG511T cardbus device- which initially seemed to do nothing at all.However I've just downloaded Orangeware's driver and bang- it picked it up straight away :D - I reckon it's working at about 4x (or more?) faster than my trusty ethernet connection! (I can recommend this Netgear card too. They look very cheap on Ebay right now- I should have looked there first :( Although this card sticks out quite a bit from the side of my powerbook (30 mm), the signal can be picked up throughout the entire house- and out the back- hooorah!!!) Much thanks going out to Orangeware for supporting all us poor Mac users who don't have sufficient funds to buy an overpriced Airport card or a new Macintel. Just one more thing- These aforementioned words are not entirely true- I just got a bit carried away on this review because I'd finally got the card working. Originally the OWC driver didn't see the card in sys prefs/ network- but however it was picking up a strong signal from the router. So make sure that you have all your modem scripts installed in the root library. I took a lot of them out trying to get Panther to run quicker. Then I had to find a friend who hadn't upgraded to Tiger. Once they were put back in I repaired permissions (disk utility)- and now all is well :)
test before you buy - Version: 3.1, 3/27/2006 05:33PM PST
(2 of 2 users found this comment useful)
jpc
I purchased a previous version which they claimed would work with a card using the atheros chipset. It didn't. A month later, they noted the failure on their website. Phone calls and emails went unanswered.
I finally bought a card that didn't require their software. I wouldn't try to deal with them again.
Definitely try before you buy.
I finally bought a card that didn't require their software. I wouldn't try to deal with them again.
Definitely try before you buy.
PCMCIA performance - Version: 3.3, 3/27/2006 01:46PM PST
Michael_Miller_800
PCMCIA on PowerBooks performs horribly. Once your throughput breaks around 1MB/sec, your loadavg and cpu spike way up.
Does this driver prevent that from happening for situations where you're pushing out more than a meg per second?
Does this driver prevent that from happening for situations where you're pushing out more than a meg per second?
Most Recent Replies: View All 1 Replies
2007-11-14 18:44:37 -0500: Installed "iTunes" (7.5)
2007-11-14 18:49:51 -0500: Installed "Mac OS X Update (PowerPC)" (10.4.11)
2007-12-13 22:39:41 -0500: Installed "Java For Mac OS X 10.4 Release 6" (1.0)
2007-12-13 22:43:30 -0500: Installed "QuickTime" (7.3.1)
2007-12-18 10:12:36 -0500: Installed "Security Update 2007-009
Has anyone had this problem? I heard there is a problem with 10.5 Leopard