Mac Toters Push Wireless Bounds http://www.wired.com/news/mac/0,2125,55742,00.html
By Paul Boutin Apple's Titanium PowerBook is one step short of being the ultimate war-driving machine. Despite its higher price, its owners and reviewers agree the TiBook's wireless range falls short of many other notebooks. For the Wi-Fi hackers of Silicon Valley's Bay Area Wireless Users Group (BAWUG), though, the PowerBook isn't a problem -- it's a project. Using a mix of open-source software and cards sold for PCs, BAWUG TiBook owners claim to get "three to four times the range" of the notebook's built-in AirPort card, according to BAWUG member Cliff Skolnick. Stuffing an 802.11b card into the TiBook's PCMCIA socket might seem obvious, but "most people haven't tried it," Skolnick said. If they did, they'd find that neither Apple's OS X operating system nor most Wi-Fi cards come with the necessary drivers to make them work together. Manooch Khajeh, owner of the MacWireless online store, said he launched the site in July because Wi-Fi gear makers were too focused on the larger Windows PC market. Khajeh previously supplied Wi-Fi technology for Farallon's Skyline products, one of the first mass-market brands. "Farallon got bought by a PC company," said Khajeh. "They were ignoring the Mac market, so we decided to come out with our own product." But even MacWireless doesn't offer software drivers for Mac OS X yet. No problem: Open sourcers have built a free one. The WirelessDriver project, led by Vancouver-based IT consultant Rob McKeever, maintains a free download that lets Mac owners use any of a long list of aftermarket cards. "Aside from Apple, Lucent and a couple other big vendors, everybody's using the Intersil Prism chip set," McKeever said. By porting an open-source Prism driver from Berkeley Unix to OS X, McKeever was able to get Prism cards working on the Mac. For BAWUG members, though, not just any Prism card will do. The ad hoc hacker's guild sought the most bang for its buck. The winner: Senao's EnGenius Long Range Wireless LAN PC Card. The EnGenius pumps out 200 milliwatts of radio signal, compared with the 30- to 100-milliwatt range of most 802.11b cards, and similarly boosts reception for incoming network packets. Yet it can be found for under $90, compared with up to twice that for better-known brands. EnGenius cards are currently only available in the United States through small dealers like San Francisco's Surf and Sip wireless ISP, or Austin-based e-tailer NetGate. Apple hasn't complained about the aftermarket add-ons. "We only provide formal support for Apple's 802.11b solutions," spokesperson Nathalie Welch said. "But Mac OS X provides an open platform for third-party driver development." Tests on one TiBook showed the EnGenius card both extended its range and reduced network dropouts at a number of coffee shops from San Francisco to Pacifica, California. For extremists, one model of the card comes without a built-in radio antenna, instead offering jacks for hookup to external hardware. "I do carry an external antenna around with me," Skolnick said. "Two, actually." -- NYCwireless - http://www.nycwireless.net/ Un/Subscribe: http://lists.nycwireless.net/mailman/listinfo/nycwireless/ Archives: http://lists.nycwireless.net/pipermail/nycwireless/
