Put 54G Wireless in a G3 or G4 Power Mac 2/17/2005 by Keith Benicek, Editor

Do You Crave 54G Wireless in your old Power Mac? Apple abandoned you, but we'll show you the way to fast Wi-Fi !

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Put 54G Wireless in a G3 or G4 Power Mac
2/17/2005 by Keith Benicek, Editor

Interestingly, the Belkin web site lists the older version 2 (with two LEDs) of the F5D7000 again for $58.95, but states that they are temporarily out stock. Here’s the exact quote: “Due to the overwhelming popularity of this product, we are temporarily out of stock. Please check back soon.”

There are also lots of these Belkin PCI cards still out in the retail channel, as we found listings online even for the first ones issued . Just remember that the online retailer may be showing an older picture supplied to them years ago from Belkin and it may not represent what they’re selling now. Belkin never marked these units with rev or version numbers, so it is hit ‘n miss.

We also tested Belkin’s latest PCI and USB 802.11g solutions. The F5D7001 PCI card uses a Broadcom chipset, but not one that is compatible with Airport 3.1 or above. The Belkin F5D7050 USB 802.11g Adapter is also not compatible with Macintosh, it may not even contain a Broadcom chipset to be even close. However both new Belkin 802.11g products work fantastic in any PC running Windows 2000 and XP. Tx rates and Signal Strengths were excellent

The last possible choice for a card, though it won’t be as cheap as the previous two companies, is another private labeled version of the same Broadcom chipped PCI card from Taiwan sold by Buffalo. Buffalo has been a long time supporter of Broadcom’s Wi-Fi chipsets and they still offer both this “standard 54G” and the newer high speed Broadcom chipset “125Mbps Equivalent” hardware which is NOT Mac compatible.

Click on most images to enlarge

The WLI2-PCI-G54 is a current card and should be found in any computer store carrying Buffalo products. We were not able to test the WLI2-PCI-G54 in time for this article, but it appears to be the same as the AirLink+ and early Belkin 802.11g PCI card. We’ll try to get one to test and will then amend this article. If you buy one, get it somewhere that you can return it, and please let us know how it worked.

UPDATE! (3-29-05, 7-26-05)
Reader Andrew Lee wrote us to report about his "field test" - "I was able to purchase and try a Buffalo WLI2-PCI-G54 wireless PCI adapter in my G4 PowerMac and it worked with the AirPort
software without a hitch." Thanks Andrew!