Getting Wireless on the Road with a Macintosh

Wireless internet on the road now is possible through three communication mediums: WiFi (also known as airport), EVDO, and Bluetooth.

Internet access via built-in and addon airport cards are probably the easiest. If you don't have a built-in airport card, find out which airport cards your Mac supports first by using the Apple Spec database to identify your Mac and follow this article:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106777

Once you have configured your airport software, use the menu for airport in the upper right corner of your menubar to connect to the airport network. Some may not work right away with your favorite web browser. Firefox has been able to get in on some open networks when other browsers can't. Once in, you can then get in on the open network with any browser.

If you find your Mac is not Airport Extreme compatible, but only compatible with the original airport card, see these resources for the original airport card:

http://www.macwireless.com
http://www.macsolutions.com/
http://www.expercom.com/product_detail.html?PRODUCT_ID=305851
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Apple/M7600LLE/

A really good resource to find WiFi/Airport compatible hotspots on the road is http://www.jiwire.com/

EVDO is an increasingly popular cellphone service for wireless internet.

EVDO is avialable to Macs with both Express/34 slots (MacBook Pros) and PCMCIA slots (Powerbook G4 15", 17", and G3s):

http://www.evdoinfo.com/content/view/475/63/

For those who need multiple machines to use an EVDO connection, Kyocera has made this router:

http://www.kyocera-wireless.com/kr1-router/

Bluetooth also supports a variety of cell phones for internet access as these articles explain in the knowledgebase:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86151
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25757
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25420
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Bluetooth/1.0/en/blu23.html
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=61773
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=51776

Use my Identify your Mac page to find out if your Mac has built-in bluetooth.
If you have additions to my page, please E-mail me. Return to my Migration from Mac OS 9 to X FAQ.

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This is a more current version of the article on Apple's website:
How to get on the internet on the road?

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