New to mac, really impressed but having network issues

[iamfriendly]

Hello! I managed to get 10.5.6 up and running and after a couple of different installs I have the correct graphics drivers running now - i.e. I'm not stuck in 1024x768 any more!

 

The next step for me is to try and get Wireless working (or LAN if necessary, but wireless is preferred).

 

I am an absolute novice wrt macs, so I have no idea how to install new 'drivers' -- I think I'm right in saying they are kext in OS X? On top of that I have no idea where they are on the iPC DVD.

 

My laptop is an Acer Aspire 8920 and it has an Intel Core 2 duo T9500 2.6GHz proc. I know it has an Intel Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN, but I don't know which motherboard it has.

 

If someone could point me in the direction of how to find different kext files and how to go about installing them (on a machine without any internet conneciton) I would be massively greatful. If I get things working to a decent level, I'll hapilly start a thread with my setup so that other Aspire 8920 owners can know what to do!

 

Thank you for any help!

[srs5694]

IIRC, my Toshiba laptop uses the same Wi-Fi chipset. There's a project underway to develop drivers, but that project is very preliminary. My understanding is that at best you'll get something with a klunky user interface and no support for encryption, so I wouldn't recommend using it on a home or business network, which should use WPA2 encryption. At worst you'll get something totally non-functional. Matters may improve in the future, but I've been tracking this project for about a year, and progress to date has been slow.

 

An alternative is to add a USB Wi-Fi "stick." I use a TrendNet TEW-424UB, for which drivers are available from Realtek. (One caveat: This assumes that the device you get uses the same Realtek chipset as mine. Manufacturers sometimes change chipsets without warning or changes to the model name/number.) I just checked the file I downloaded, and it's a .zip file with a Mac OS .mpkg, which normally means you double-click the .mpkg to enter a standard install utility. I don't recall if I ran into any problems when I installed, which probably means that I didn't -- or at least, nothing huge. This RealTek driver makes the Wi-Fi device look like an Ethernet device to MacOS, and it adds its own GUI tool to enter Wi-Fi-specific information. It's pretty straightforward, but it's different from Apple's own Wi-Fi tools, so if you follow some generic documentation from a Web page or book, it might not be completely accurate if you use this driver.

 

There are other USB Wi-Fi devices that work well with OS X, but I don't have a list offhand.

[iamfriendly]

IIRC, my Toshiba laptop uses the same Wi-Fi chipset. There's a project underway to develop drivers, but that project is very preliminary. My understanding is that at best you'll get something with a klunky user interface and no support for encryption, so I wouldn't recommend using it on a home or business network, which should use WPA2 encryption. At worst you'll get something totally non-functional. Matters may improve in the future, but I've been tracking this project for about a year, and progress to date has been slow.

 

An alternative is to add a USB Wi-Fi "stick." I use a TrendNet TEW-424UB, for which drivers are available from Realtek. (One caveat: This assumes that the device you get uses the same Realtek chipset as mine. Manufacturers sometimes change chipsets without warning or changes to the model name/number.) I just checked the file I downloaded, and it's a .zip file with a Mac OS .mpkg, which normally means you double-click the .mpkg to enter a standard install utility. I don't recall if I ran into any problems when I installed, which probably means that I didn't -- or at least, nothing huge. This RealTek driver makes the Wi-Fi device look like an Ethernet device to MacOS, and it adds its own GUI tool to enter Wi-Fi-specific information. It's pretty straightforward, but it's different from Apple's own Wi-Fi tools, so if you follow some generic documentation from a Web page or book, it might not be completely accurate if you use this driver.

 

There are other USB Wi-Fi devices that work well with OS X, but I don't have a list offhand.

 

Rod, that's all great information, thank you so much! I'd come to the conclusion that it was a fruitless exercise after reading several different forum posts. I've tried it with a random USB stick that I had, but it jst plain refused to reognise it. I might take a punt and grab one of the ones you listed, worst case scenario is that I have a backup wifi dongle for when I break my other one

 

I actually had a play around and did a few more installs, and one of them (I honestly can't tell you which kexts I installed with it, I've done so many), during the install process recognised that I had ethernet and asked me how I connected to the internet. It also asked me to take a picture with the webcam (which worked). However, on that install, the k/b and trackpad didn't work. However, when I come to try to use it, as you would expect, the ethernet didn't work.

 

So I reinstalled with slightly different settings and the k/b and trackpad work, but not the ethernet/web cam! Veeeery frustrating

 

Anyway, would love to knowif any one else has had any success with the Aspire 8920. Thanks again Rod!