Mac Daniel's Advice

WiFi Adapters for Desktop Macs Running Mac OS 9

- 2009.03.10

Popularity: LEMLEMLEMLEM

Older Macs may not have a slot for Apple's AirPort Card, and even if yours does, you may want higher throughput than 802.11b WiFi offers - 802.11g will give you nearly five times the bandwidth. Also, these WiFi adapters may well cost less than an AirPort Card, which tends to sell in the US$50-100 range nowadays.

This page covers USB, ethernet, PCI, and other WiFi hardware that is compatible with the Classic Mac OS. A few of these devices are compatible with Mac OS 8.6; all of them are reported to work with Mac OS 9, and most also have drivers available for some versions of Mac OS X.

PCMCIA/PC Card WiFi adapters compatible with Mac notebooks are covered in WiFi PC Cards for PowerBooks Running Mac OS 9.

This information is adapted from Mac OS Wireless Adapter Compatibility List by permission of the author, who gives a "nod to the linux-wlan.org Adapter List for doing the heavy lifting."

Vendor Type Product ID Interface Chipset OS Support Driver(s) Comments

A
Ambicom 802.11b WL1100BCF Comp. Flash Prism2/2.5/3 9, 10.2-10.4 IOxperts
Ambicom 802.11b WL1100CCF Comp. Flash Prism2/2.5/3 9, 10.2-10.4 IOxperts
Asante 802.11b AL2001 USB Amtel 9, 10.2-10.4 Belkin Belkin drv With Asante VID

B
Belkin 802.11b F5D6050 USB Amtel 9, 10.2-10.4 Belkin
Buffalo 802.11b WLICFS11G Comp. Flash Prism2/2.5/3 9, 10.2-10.4 IOxperts
Buffalo 802.11b WLIPCML11G USB (?) Orinoco 9, 10.2-10.4 Ioxperts (10.2 and up), Macsense

C
Cisco 802.11b AIRPCI340 PCI Aironet (?) 8.6-up Cisco

D
D-link 802.11b/g DWL-G810 Ethernet 9, 10.2-10.4 N/A

E

F
Farallon (see Proxim)

L
Linksys 802.11b WET11 Ethernet Prism2/2.5/3 Any N/A

M
Macsense 802.11b WUA-400 USB Prism2/2.5/3 9-up Macsense
Macsense 802.11b WUA-700 USB Prism2/2.5/3 9-up Macsense
MacWireless 802.11g ? Ethernet ? Any None
Melco (see Buffalo)

N
Netgear 802.11b MA101 USB Amtel 9, 10.2-10.4 Belkin Belkin drv. w/Netgear VID
Netgear 802.11g WGE111 Ethernet 9, 10.2-10.4 N/A

P
Proxim 802.11b PN474(Skyline USB) USB Amtel 9 Proxim Belkin OS X drivers?

Z
Z-Com 802.11b XI300 PCMCIA Prism2/2.5/3 9, 10.2-10.4 IOxperts, Macsense
Zyxel 802.11g G-405 Ethernet Unknown 9, 10.2-10.4 None

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