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Use a Belkin wireless dongle with OS X
Authored by: Synchro on Sep 02, '05 08:21:59AM

I've been using a D-Link DWL-122 (802.11b) with an iMac DV SE. As far as I'm aware it's the only wireless USB dongle that officially works on OS X. Having said the, the drivers are very buggy, and D-Link have a long history of not giving a stuff on this subject. I've been looking into various options so I though I'd get one of these Belkin dongles and give this driver a shot. The software is certainly better than D-Link's, and it gets much better reception - I'm getting 65% at 54Mbits where I was lucky to get 50% with the D-Link.

Another big bonus - it supports WPA-PSK and it works!

I didn't have trouble with the IPv6 and burst mode (which was turned off by default anyway) issues mentioned, but I left them off. The software is a bit confusing as it always forgets the PSK or WEP key when you open the prefs, but it seems it does actually remember it.
Overall, performance is a bit odd - it seems to have really bad latency - nothing will happen for 10 sec, then suddenly everything comes through at once. Actual transfer rate seems high enough, but the latency spoils it. Seems to vary though - I just tried logging in via file sharing and it connected instantly, transferred 5Mb in a few sec, then just stopped - now I've got a 'server disconnected' error. I guess you might call this a mixed review...
Oh yes, and when changing adaptor, don't forget to update your router's MAC address permission table...



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