USB WiFi Dongles - The Thread

[mwparrish]

For those with questions about the RALink Wireless Utility that runs on startup... yes it is necessary and yes you most likely have to toggle the radio on/off to get the connection established.

Why? I dunno.

Workaround? Automator scripts.

I created a script that captured my mouse clicks/keystrokes and added it to my login items so it runs automagically.

Essentially it makes that window the focus, clicks the right tab, toggles the radio off/on, then waits 10 secs for a connection to be established and then sends the Command+Q keystroke and closes the utility.

Life is pretty good.

The one issue I seem to have is that I can't use home sharing because Bonjour doesn't seem to work... any suggestions there?

 

[chexee]

For those with questions about the RALink Wireless Utility that runs on startup... yes it is necessary and yes you most likely have to toggle the radio on/off to get the connection established.

Why? I dunno.

Workaround? Automator scripts.

I created a script that captured my mouse clicks/keystrokes and added it to my login items so it runs automagically.

Essentially it makes that window the focus, clicks the right tab, toggles the radio off/on, then waits 10 secs for a connection to be established and then sends the Command+Q keystroke and closes the utility.

Life is pretty good.

The one issue I seem to have is that I can't use home sharing because Bonjour doesn't seem to work... any suggestions there?

Yes, you do have to run the RALink utility at least once to get a connection. I haven't had to toggle the radio on/off on my system, though. Once the connection is established, you can close the utility until you restart or log out.

With Realtek drivers, its best to leave the utility running. I just upgraded my network to Wireless N, so I bought this new adapter: http://www.monoprice.com/products/produ ... 1&format=2. My connection drops out every now and then (about once every few hours) if I don't leave the utility running, which is really annoying as I do a lot of live file editing for work and media streaming at home. I just let it run and hide it, most of the time I don't notice it and it takes up barely any memory.

I'll update the first post with this info to avoid confusion.

b) Could only get reliable connection when plugged into the Apple 27" Cinema Display USB port. When plugged into the back of the desktop, the connection would drop frequently and was not fast enough even though the signal strength was > 90%.

This probably just has to do with the signal, even though it says the strength is 90%. In most cases its best to plug a wireless dongle in an unobstructed area, the backs of computer cases usually aren't ideal. My router is actually behind my computer, so it works for me, but for most people using the front ports or using a usb extender/hub to get your dongle in a more clear area yields better speeds, signal strength, and reliability.

Also, I haven't tested it, but this lovely thing is now on sale at Newegg: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... -_-Product

Heya there,

has someone made some xp with this tiny beautiful dongle:
http://www.amazon.de/Edimax-EW-7811UN-W ... 495&sr=8-1

I would love to know if this one works ...

Thanks!

 

[wantamac]

Thank you 'mwparrish', 'chexee' and 'shaneblyth' for your responses.
I now understand that Wireless utility is needed. I accept that. However, my gripe was that it automatically started when this USB dongle is plugged in or the computer is rebooted. I was hoping that I could start this utility only when I wanted to connect via WiFi. Since I could not find a way to control this, I expressed my gripe (again very small one).

The motivation behind this is: its a desktop. I also have a wired Ethernet drop from the wall into the hackintosh. However, there are only two Ethernet ports. I have three devices. So I have to shuttle the two Ethernet cables between these three devices. So on the Hackintosh, when I did not have the Ethernet cable connected, I wanted to have WiFi connectivity and hence this USB dongle. Hence my wish to have control on when the wireless utility was launched.

Thanks again. Its no big deal to hit the 'x' to close the utility, when I don't need it.

 

[blindwarrior]

I just wanted to post about my own experience so far. I just happened to get a no-brand USB N wireless adapter from Amazon. It uses the R3070 chipset (ralink). I found that out because it said that on the driver CD and luckily on the Amazon product description. So I put the driver CD in but it didn't have 10.6 drivers. I checked out ralink's website and at first I didn't see my device listed. It was listed but as 307X. So don't let that X fool you if you got the one I got! I installed and rebooted but the Ralink Wireless Utility said No Device! or something like that. I unplugged and replugged the USB stick and that fixed that. I couldn't connect to my Airport Express for anything though. I kept trying a bunch of different profiles and trying to guess what kind of wireless security protocol to use but nothing. Then I toggled the "radio off" button the Advanced tab a few times and discovered that when the icon is green and the button says "radio off" that actually means the radio is on. A little confusing. I guess the greenness of the icon above the "radio off" text is intended to indicate you are good to go! So with that I typed in my wireless password on the default security settings it detected and bam I was connected. I could have easily searched for hours more and tried to dissect my Airport Express but luckily I got it before then. So there you have it.

Only thing I am trying to figure out now is if it's possible to get the airport icon up in the menubar or not. Right now, the Ralink Wireless Utility is permanently open, which isn't the classiest thing ever.

 

[mwparrish]

UPDATED...

everything i originally typed here... wrong.

the Linksys WUSB100 v2 does work perfectly with Bonjour too. The issue I was having was resolved simply by deleting the NetworkPreferences.plist and rebooting. Yay!

 

[supaspiffy]

I bought the Belkin F7D1101 and downloaded the Ralink Wireless Utility from http://www.ralinktech.com/support.php?s=3 installing the RT2870 file. The problem is that the usb dongle never gets detected. Network Pref doesn't even create an Ethernet (2) like it's suppose to. I'm running 10.6.5

 

[mwparrish]

I bought the Belkin F7D1101 and downloaded the Ralink Wireless Utility from http://www.ralinktech.com/support.php?s=3 installing the RT2870 file. The problem is that the usb dongle never gets detected. Network Pref doesn't even create an Ethernet (2) like it's suppose to. I'm running 10.6.5

you can easily determine if the drivers support your card by going to S/L/E and tight clicking on the .kext > Show Contents > and opening "Info.plist".

From there you can scan the list of items to see if your vendor and device id is listed.

If you go to system profiler and look at USB devices you should see your device and then check it's vendor and device id there to cross-reference with Info.plist.

NOTE: system profiler shows the vendor and device ID in hex format... just open calculator and change it to the programmer mode and click on the "16" button on the top left and enter the code you see from system profiler.... then click on the "10" button to convert it to an integer. This integer should match the vendor id or device id in the Info.plist.

Hope that helps.

 

[o m r]

Thank you 'mwparrish', 'chexee' and 'shaneblyth' for your responses.
I now understand that Wireless utility is needed. I accept that. However, my gripe was that it automatically started when this USB dongle is plugged in or the computer is rebooted. I was hoping that I could start this utility only when I wanted to connect via WiFi. Since I could not find a way to control this, I expressed my gripe (again very small one).

The motivation behind this is: its a desktop. I also have a wired Ethernet drop from the wall into the hackintosh. However, there are only two Ethernet ports. I have three devices. So I have to shuttle the two Ethernet cables between these three devices. So on the Hackintosh, when I did not have the Ethernet cable connected, I wanted to have WiFi connectivity and hence this USB dongle. Hence my wish to have control on when the wireless utility was launched.

Thanks again. Its no big deal to hit the 'x' to close the utility, when I don't need it.

My dongle and ethernet seem to work fine even while both are enabled simultaneously. I chose to set the dongle as first in the service order under system preferences > network. This being the case, you could set your ethernet as first, and whenever it's disconnected, the os would go to the dongle for the connection... in theory. However, the adapter utility would be running the whole time.

Otherwise, you could keep the dongle as "disabled" in the network preferences, and simply enable it there when you can't use your ethernet. The utility would only run when you enable the adapter.

 

[o m r]

Working dongle to submit:

Zonet ZEW2546 IEEE 802.11b/g/n USB 2.0 Wireless Adapter, up to 300Mbps
http://www.zonetusa.com/products-207.aspx
I got this thing for a steal during some newegg sales. Actually bought 2 'cause they were so cheap at that time. Also works well under windows7, but I couldn't instal and use zonet's utility under win7 x64. Utility worked under winXP, but the speed was always at g limits (54mbps). There is no proprietary utility for mac, and you don't need one. Gotten approx. 130mbps under both snow leopard and win7 x64. Higher rates using WPA/2 than WEP.

I'm running 10.6.4 with the realtek RTLl8191S driver: http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?act=attach&type=post&id=73483

Although realtek supposedly offers mac drivers for this adapter on their site, I wasn't able to download it. I found the driver in this thread: http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=187506

I'll try updating to 10.6.5 and 10.6.6 and post my results.

UPDATE:
The same driver seems to work fine under 10.6.6.
However, I've only tried in safe mode so far since I haven't been able to load with my ATI 5750 gpu installed otherwise... I'm sure it's fine regardless.

 

[morganb]

Add Linksys WUSB600N to the list on the provision that you download the latest 2870 drivers from Ralink and then (probably) follow the instructions given here:

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/lofive ... 31932.html , specifically the post from hrvy indicating that you need to edit the info.plist so that idProduct = 121.

It worked for me after that although it did keep negotiating and dropping. I am on a G network and so I dropped the connection from 2.4 + 5 down to only 2.4, rebooted and bingo.

However I can not get it to negotiate at 300Mbps. Stuck at poxy 54. I fixed this by buying a Netgear N-band WAP and enabled WPA2 security. Apparently you can not get 300Mbps out of standard WPA.

Now I got 300Mbps. Am v.happy.