Sunday, November 19, 2006

802.11n on OS X? Not yet.

With dreams of streaming HD video flowing through my head, I spent a good part of the day trying to get my Macs on a draft 802.11n network.

See, I want the fastest connection possible between my laptop connected to my TV and my desktop so I can copy video back and forth. Running Ethernet cable isn't an option, and the Ethernet over power line adapters aren't fast enough. That leaves me with 802.11n.

After discovering none of the USB or PCI 802.11n adapters have OS X drivers, I thought I'd be clever and use a second router in place of the adapter:

Wireless Bridge

In theory, the router on the right would connect as a client using WDS to the router next to the TV and route traffic to the desktop computer over Gigabit Ethernet, no special drivers necessary.

Out of Netgear, Linksys, Buffalo, D-Link, and Belkin, only Buffalo's router supports WDS. To my dismay, Buffalo doesn't offer Gigabit Ethernet.

Outside of routing traffic through a Windows machine (or virtual machine) instead of the second router, I'm out of ideas. I guess I'll just have to wait a little longer.

I have to admit I'm a little surprised. Wasn't Apple an early adopter of 802.11b and g?

7 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey Dave

Buffalo routers -- in particular, the AirStation WHR-HP-G54 -- are my favorites these days. A key reason: they're one of the best platforms for running DD-WRT, a high-quality open source router firmware replacement. Perhaps there's OSX 802.11n energy bubbling along that pathway (I'm ignorant in the Mac area, having sadly kissed Macs g'bye when Steve killed the clones, it was one of those hell-no-I'm-not-getting-in-yer-trunk
moments)

-- stan

10:25 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Just in case you weren't aware...The new MacBooks/Pros (possibly iMacs) are now coming with 802.11n so they must have some drivers.

10:34 PM  
Blogger Bob said...

Anonymous, they have the hardware but, from what I've read, no drivers.

11:24 PM  
Blogger Bob said...

Stanley, I'll check out DD-WRT. Thanks for the tip!

11:26 PM  
Blogger Josh McDonald said...

Bob, macs have had 11n for ages mate, it's built in to the new ones, and you gotta pay like $2 or something stupid to get it "enabled" on the older models due to licensing. Call Apple and find out the details.

5:09 PM  
Blogger Josh McDonald said...

Dammit! Stupid bloglines.... That's not a new post at all!

5:10 PM  
Blogger Bob said...

Mr. Funk, this post is from last year. :)

5:10 PM  

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