How I got my Wireless G USB Adapter working with a Mac

2007-01-01


http://img66.imageshack.us/img66/3083/wua1340mainen9.jpgI recently purchased a D-Link WUA-1340 Wireless G USB Adapter. Fresh orange-and-black design, and I was looking forward to plugging it into my iMac G4/800 to get it connected sans cords to my network. Alas, my excitement got the better of me, because upon examining the package contents and sifting through D-Link’s site — no Mac driver! I plugged the thing in and it wouldn’t light up.

Thus began a trek of arduous googling such as:

Apparently, I’d come onto a whole minefield of problems before mine. Not wanting to purchase a more expensive AirPort Extreme Card, as it were, the solution lay in chipset manufacturer Ralink’s website. After navigating my way past more broken drivers, I finally found the Ralink Macintosh drivers page!

Apparently, there are a lot of wireless devices using those Ralink chipsets.

From here, what I did — your specific details may vary:

Download the Ralink USB (RT257x/RT2671) drivers. (I was initially on a wired Ethernet connection so I could do this.)

Install them on your Mac — just as you would any standard program. 

Restart. 

Insert your Ralink-based wireless USB adapter in a free USB slot. If it has a status indicator light, it should glow like this:

Next, in your main Applications folder, look for "USBWirelessUtility". (It may open automatically after inserting your wireless USB adapter, but it didn’t for me.) Open it and look at the different tabs. Since this doesn’t use Apple’s de facto AirPort means (e.g., putting an icon in the menu bar to indicate signal strength), it’s not so intuitive. However, it is more detailed.

Go to Wireless Utility > Site Survey tab and click "CONNECT". (It’ll ask you to enter details accordingly. If you have security like WEP turned on, put that info in or you won’t be able to connect.)

Go to Apple menu > System Preferences > Network.

From the "Show" popup menu, select "Network Port Configurations".

Click "New".

Click "Port". You’ll see something like "Ethernet Adaptor (en1)".

Give it a name, and click "OK".

The port will show up in the list. (I dragged it to the top to give it the highest priority when trying to connect.)

From "Show", select that Ethernet adaptor port.

Under the "TCP/IP" tab, "Configure IPv4" should be "Using DHCP".

Click "Apply Now". Shortly, it should refresh and show you numbers for "IP Address", "Subnet Mask", and "Router". If it doesn’t update, you may need to click "Renew DHCP Lease".

After OKing that and waiting a few moments, you should see that you’re connected. If everything worked as planned, you’re now networked!

I wrote this with the intention of saving troubling for the next poor soul who finds themselves in the same situation — if that’s you and it’s keeping you from better things like spending time with your lover, I hope this helps. YAYZERAMA!!!!

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{ 236 comments… read them below or add one }

Dave Miller 2009-09-26 at 4:45 PM UTC

Thank you!

Charlotte 2009-10-02 at 7:35 PM UTC

Thank you sooo much! i tried everything and this finally worked. Appreciate the images also!!!

Demetrios 2009-10-13 at 8:04 PM UTC

Many thanks, very useful

LBURNERS 2009-10-27 at 6:09 AM UTC

The ralink site is down.

Jocelyn 2009-11-05 at 11:57 PM UTC

You can actually grab it here and there’s even a 10.5 version from Dec 08.
http://www.ralinktech.com/support.php?s=3

MT 2009-11-07 at 10:20 AM UTC

thank you so much – this post was a lifesaver!!

ryan 2009-11-09 at 12:30 PM UTC

finally i got my belkin(ralink chip) usb adapter to work, i was stuck on wireless connect utility not thinking about ethernet conn.

thanks a bunch!!

fiona 2009-11-10 at 10:36 AM UTC

Thanks so much! I thought I had thrown my money down the drain by buying the belkin dongle, but I knew there would be somebody out there who knew what to do. Thankyou!!

Al 2009-11-20 at 12:47 PM UTC

I bought a Wireless-N USB adapter from Panda Wireless on Amazon.
It comes with the installation CD which includes drivers for Mac OS X.

Thank you for showing me how to install the driver.

Dino 2009-12-02 at 3:36 PM UTC

I followed your instructions & cannot get mine to connect. I have Belkin G USB Adapter. Version 3000. It shows there is activity going on but it might once in a while Connect for a second when trying different settings. I’m using Tiger on an old iMac G3. Not sure want to put in for my ipv6 key ? I used Router, IP, etc…

Cadillac 2009-12-21 at 7:47 AM UTC

Thanks so much for this!

Dino 2009-12-21 at 7:53 AM UTC

I got it to work! Thanks! And my Version of Belkin is not even Listed as one that is compatible with the Railink Driver. Very Cool! Now my old iMac is Wireless!

Mavboy 2009-12-31 at 4:53 AM UTC

Thank you so much, you are a true Don.

I hope you get all the good karma you deserve ;-)

Alejo 2010-01-16 at 6:47 PM UTC

Thanks so much…. Thanks so much…. I was going nuts when I came across with your explanation….. Good luck to you in all your endeavors!!!

joe 2010-01-18 at 6:37 PM UTC

does this work for netgear as well?

Drew 2010-01-21 at 9:22 PM UTC

The downloads from Ralink didn’t work for me (Belkin F5D7050 v.3000) on a G4 tower running 10.4.x. Nothing but kernel panics. What did work was downloading the utility/driver from Newer Tech here:

http://www.newertech.com/downloads/maxpower_usb_n.dmg

For whatever reason, that version works perfectly. Its still the Ralink software, but it must be slightly different in some way.

chuck pederson 2010-03-03 at 7:41 PM UTC

Oh my god. Worst UI ever. Thank you so much! BTW, Leopard does things a little different, instead of clicking “Show”, click the “+” at the bottom of the list of devices to add the new device.

Lizzie 2010-03-06 at 9:37 PM UTC

thank you so much! soooo helpful!

felix 2010-03-09 at 11:53 AM UTC

thx mate

Jason 2010-03-27 at 3:34 PM UTC

thanks!

apenning 2010-04-07 at 4:46 PM UTC

U da man! Thx!!!

ben 2010-05-03 at 11:27 AM UTC

10x for sharing !!!!!!!!!!

ben 2010-05-03 at 11:29 AM UTC

10x 4 sharing !!!!!!! (writing this from the pc usb stick on my g4 mac)

simon 2010-05-10 at 3:57 AM UTC

Help! I’ve installed the ralink stuff and it keeps saying \no device!!\ even though the usb is plugged in. Aargh. This is even more annoying because I did have it working for months but had to reinstall and now it won’t work! I’m using a 12\ powerbook with OS 10.4.11, and a Getnet GN-331U USB.

Simon

K3nny 2010-06-09 at 2:31 PM UTC

Excellent although the downloads from Ralink didn’t work for me (Belkin F5D7050 v.4xxx) on a emac G4 running 10.4.x. What did work was downloading the utility/driver from Newer Tech mentioned above by Drew Excellent i was tempted to buy the airport extreme

Alex Garbai 2010-06-09 at 3:04 PM UTC

Works nicely thank you :) ( Mac Leopard)

Ann Aguirre 2010-06-13 at 8:13 PM UTC

Thank you so much! I have an old iMac blueberry that doesn’t have airport or wireless. When I moved my desk away from the ethernet plug, I was afraid I would have to run a cable across the living room, but then I dug up an old Belkin wireless USB adapter. Figured I’d do some fancy Googling and see if anyone smarter than me had gotten a non-Airport gizmo to work with an old Mac.

I did exactly as instructed in your fine guide and now the blueberry is rocking the wireless! I’m running Panther; that’s how old that machine is. But it’s just so cute…

Natalia 2010-06-18 at 5:58 PM UTC

thank you so much, this page was my first result on google for my problem, and it works great, i have a macbook 3 years old but with leopard and my airport just start failing, so i bought a wireless usb, and with your guide, it works perfectley, thank you so much..

i used the link that was posted in the comments =)

Isaac 2010-06-21 at 3:29 AM UTC

Hey mate,

i have the same problem as you, but the driver link is broken, and I went to the same site as you, and to this site, and neither of the download links work, it says link broken.

I would much appreciate it if you could email me the driver file, as I cannot seem to download it elsewhere?

Isaac

Andrew 2010-08-02 at 4:20 PM UTC

I’m on the same boat as Isaac there. Can you or someone please post or email links that are needed for the driver downloads? We’d greatly appreciate it.
Thanks,
Andrew

Cigi Ingram 2010-08-05 at 10:33 AM UTC

Thank you! This will save me sooo much time!

demetri 2010-08-17 at 5:42 AM UTC

Cool thanks this got me started.

Here is the working update for the AzureWave AW-GU210 OSX Driver which seems to be a badged Realtek RTL8187 (not to be confused with a Realtek RTL8187B)

http://www.wireless-driver.com/download/realtek/realtek-rtl8187l-wireless-usb-adapter-driver.htm

Here is where you can get the driver and utility. Just turn it on in the Realtek utility after a restart (Did not need to mess with the system pref network setting)

good luck.

Cigi Ingram 2010-08-19 at 3:15 PM UTC

I might have spoken too soon. I bought this and installed on a PC to test it and it worked fine. I followed these directions and set it up Signal but not connecting to the internet? It says that it is sending/receiving packets, 76% strength but I can’t get online. Could I have an older driver blocking it?

Jake 2010-08-21 at 4:47 PM UTC

WOW, thanks, I would have never figured that our with out you!

HJL 2010-08-24 at 9:43 AM UTC

Thank you so much. never would have worked without your help!!!

Keith 2010-08-26 at 4:11 PM UTC

THANK YOU!!! I’m using a netgear. I’m not sure if I did it right. I followed your instructions. The only thing is, in the space that says \router:\ there are no numbers of letters or whatever is suppose to go be in there. Either way I can actually use my laptop to go on the internet again without having to sit right next to the router. The funny thing is my signal thingy in the top right hand corner says i have one bar instead of 2, 3, or 4, yet the web pages are loading relatively quick. So, thanks.

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