How to Configure a USB Wireless Adaptor for Mac?

I just bought a USB Wireless Adapter for my Mac (running OS X Version 10.5.8) and I installed it. A message popped up after installation that I needed to restart my computer and then "Go to Network in System Preferences and select the correct adapter from the Configure List and and configure it". I went to Network and I can't seem to find the "Configure List". What am I supposed do?

G'day and welcome to the forums.

Go to System Preferences > Network and when the pane opens, click the little '+' button at the foot of the connection types, ETHERNET, AIRPORT ETC., and see if it appears. Got to say never had much success connection via an adapter as drivers seem to be the big problem.

Same Here

I bought a usb internet adaptor for my PowerMac G5 that's running 10.5.8. The airport card is not working so i bought this. It's Mac compatible and i installed the driver for it. I rebooted and then it says to enable it. I can't enable it in Network Preferences.

Alas with G5's yet to get one of the darned things to work. Usually the problem is lack of drivers. Whilst boxes often say 'Mac Compatible', getting them to work is a different story.

What exactly is happening when you try to enable it? Are you getting ant error messages?

On other thing to check. I ran two similar devices on my Mac Pro. Both devices had a piece of third party software included. If I remember correctly one of them had to ben enabled using that software rather than the Network preferences in OS X.

I got this one from OWC when they couldn't match the airport card and it works great on my older G4 PPC running 10.5.6 NewerTech MXP3802NU2C MAXPower 802.11n/g/b... in stock at OWC

I think this is the same adapter I had running on my Mac Pro. I never used it on earlier gear OWC's product page it should work with Power PC (G5 and earlier) computers and OS X 10.5.x. My memory is a bit fuzzy but I think I had a set of drivers and a configuration utility with it, If I remember correctly you entered the network configuration information in one pane of the utility (3rd?).

If the utility was not open it wasn't recognized by OS X. Once I got things set up I added it to my login items so it would always launch. I do remember having to set the network type to infrastructure. I tried several times to use peer to peer for a project and that dod not work.

If you can't get this going perhaps I can dig mine up and test the configuration.

I never had a problem when I was running 10.3.9 but after upgrading I tested several that would not connect. Ordered a airport card from OWC and it wouldn't fit but after a couple of phone calls (great customer service) they swapped it out for the usb adapter mentioned above which I never had to use the cd that came with it. I've since found the right airport card so no longer use it but did just now plug it in and it connected fine. Cannot say enough about the help from the people at OWC to take the time and research the solution.

That's great to hear. There is a driver now that covers through 10.8 now. I couldn't find one for 10.7 but that was some time ago.

The folks at OWC are top notch. I've rarely had to call customer service/tech support because the info on their site is pretty thorough. When I have had questions their info has been spot on and reps are pleasant.

I was sold years ago when they helped me find the right processor upgrade for my B&W G3 tower. At that time my only complaint was shipping seemed to take longer than it should have. I've ordered from them several times recently and shipping is as fast as anyone else.

Thinking back to G5 days, Realtek drivers were available only to Tiger Mac OS X.4. Could not get to work with Leopard, or in a Mac Pro with Snow Leopard or Lion. All worked well with appropriate Airport and/or Bluetooth card, and in the case of a Dual Core G5, with a combo card.

I used that Newer Tech device or a very similar one with my Mac Pro under SL but I think the driver was from Newer Tech. I only started looking at Realtek drivers in hopes of finding one that worked with Lion.

The site I linked to is much improved over when I was searching for Lion driers. I think it's even a different company handling things now.