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If you want to connect your Hackintosh to the internet via WiFi, you’ll usually have to set up a separate wireless adapter (also known as a WiFi card). When choosing a WiFi adapter, your two main options are to buy either a PCI adapter or a USB adapter. The names are self-explanatory; a PCI adapter should be attached to a motherboard PCI slot, while a USB adapter should be attached to a USB port. Both mediums have their own advantages and disadvantages.\u00a0We discussed buying a PCI WiFi adapter last year<\/a>, but if that isn’t an option, read on for a list of compatible USB WiFi adapters instead.<\/div>\n
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Should I use USB?<\/strong><\/div>\n
Before I start giving recommendations, we need to address a fundamental question: should you really use a USB adapter to connect your Hackintosh to WiFi? Granted, using a USB solution has certain\u00a0advantages<\/b>:<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-0h18YC3ZiOc\/Ufr2kDntblI\/AAAAAAAAFpI\/Tf_iVB76y4o\/s1600\/pci%2Bvs%2Busb.jpg\")
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- USB adapters don’t take up an extra PCI slot.<\/b>\u00a0Most motherboards have a relatively limited number of PCI slots. You may not want to waste an extra slot on your WiFi adapter\u00a0if you plan on connecting a lot of PCI devices, such as graphics cards, sound cards, Firewire cards, RAID cards, TV tuner cards, or so on. Micro-ATX motherboards usually only come with 2-3 slots.\u00a0Mini-ITX motherboards<\/a>\u00a0are even worse; most of them\u00a0only feature a\u00a0single<\/i>\u00a0PCI slot, making a USB WiFi adapter all the more important.<\/li>\n
- USB adapters are slightly cheaper.<\/b>\u00a0Most PCI adapters cost $30-40, while USB adapters rarely cost more than $20. Sometimes, you can even find USB adapters on sale for half that price. It’s not a big price difference, but it’s still something worth considering.<\/li>\n
- A lot more USB adapters work.<\/b>\u00a0While Mac OS X only supports an extremely limited number of PCI WiFi adapters, there are literally hundreds<\/i>\u00a0of USB WiFi adapters that work with OS X to some degree or another. This means that you might not even have to buy a new adapter for your Hackintosh; if you already own a USB WiFi adapter, there’s a decent chance that it’ll work in Mac OS X.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
That being said, using a USB WiFi adapter isn’t for everybody. In many cases,\u00a0buying a PCI WiFi adapter would actually be a better choice. As we discussed in\u00a0last year’s article<\/a>, some\u00a0PCI adapters are “natively” supported in Mac OS X, meaning that they will work on your Hackintosh automatically. This is not the case for USB adapters, which always require third-party drivers. This brings its fair share of disadvantages<\/b>:<\/p>\n- \n
- You have to turn on a utility every time.<\/b>\u00a0In addition to installing drivers, in order to get WiFi working correctly with a USB adapter, you will have to turn on a third-party WiFi utility app every time you boot your Hackintosh. Although this is not very hard to do, it can get to be very annoying if you reboot your computer frequently.<\/li>\n
- You have to wait for new drivers.<\/b>\u00a0The lack of native support for USB WiFi adapters means that you can’t count on your adapter to work between different versions of Mac OS X. Instead, every time Mac OS X gets a big update (e.g. from Mountain Lion to Mavericks), you’ll have to wait for WiFi chipset manufacturers to update their drivers appropriately. For instance, the chipset manufacturer Ralink didn’t release drivers for\u00a0OS X Mountain Lion\u00a0until October 2012<\/a>, four whole months after the official July 25 release of the operating system.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\nGeneral Compatibility<\/div>\nWhether a USB WiFi adapter will be compatible with Mac OS X depends on its chipset. You can find the chipset of a USB adapter by searching Google; for example, if you want to find the chipset of the ASUS USB-N13, search “USB-N13 chipset<\/a>“. Usually, the first or second result will be a link to wikidevi.com<\/a>, which will tell you what “chip” the adapter uses.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-bmInyHm47MY\/Ufrw1iQ7S2I\/AAAAAAAAFpI\/5ivvoTSm2sE\/s1600\/Region%2Bcapture%2B2.png\")
<\/a><\/div>\nMost chipsets inside USB WiFi Adapters are manufactured by either Realtek or Ralink. Realtek has not yet released drivers for OS X Mavericks, the current newest version of Mac OS X– however, the drivers for OS X Mountain Lion may work on Mavericks anyways. Meanwhile, Ralink released Mavericks drivers in November 2013.The following modern WiFi chipsets are generally considered compatible with OS X Mountain Lion (the Ralink chipsets should also theoretically work with OS X Mavericks). These chipsets may work with older versions of Mac OS X too, depending on the drivers:<\/div>\n<\/div>\nRealtek |\u00a0Drivers<\/a>\u00a0(current as of August 1, 2013)<\/i><\/b><\/div>\n\n- \n
- RTL8188SU<\/li>\n
- RTL8188CUS<\/li>\n
- RTL8188RU<\/li>\n
- RTL8192CU<\/li>\n
- RTL8191SU<\/li>\n
- RTL8192SU<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\nRalink |\u00a0Drivers<\/a>\u00a0(current as of March 25, 2014)<\/i><\/b><\/div>\n\n
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- RT2800 series*<\/li>\n
- RT3000 series*<\/li>\n
- RT5000 series*<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n*Every model in this series should work<\/div>\n<\/div>\nAfter you’ve installed the right drivers for your adapter’s chipset, a WiFi utility app will be added to the “Applications” folder of your Hackintosh. For adapters with a Realtek chipset, it will be called “Wireless Network Utility.app”. For adapters with a Ralink chipset, it will called “WirelessUtility.app”. Every time Mac OS X starts, you will have to launch this app for WiFi to start working.<\/p>\n
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<\/a><\/div>\nGranted, Mac OS X compatibility isn’t a straight shot. Not every USB adapter with a compatible WiFi chipset is actually guaranteed to work with Mac OS X. Some adapters simply don’t work at all, for one reason or another. Other adapters work best with drivers provided by the manufacturers of the adapters themselves, rather than with the official drivers from Realtek or Ralink.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\nCompatibility List<\/div>\nThis section lists USB adapters that have been confirmed to work with Mac OS X Snow Leopard, Lion, and Mountain Lion (unless otherwise specified– some also work with Mavericks). This list is incomplete, and never will be complete; it is simply meant as a general buyer’s guide.<\/div>\n\n
- You have to wait for new drivers.<\/b>\u00a0The lack of native support for USB WiFi adapters means that you can’t count on your adapter to work between different versions of Mac OS X. Instead, every time Mac OS X gets a big update (e.g. from Mountain Lion to Mavericks), you’ll have to wait for WiFi chipset manufacturers to update their drivers appropriately. For instance, the chipset manufacturer Ralink didn’t release drivers for\u00a0OS X Mountain Lion\u00a0until October 2012<\/a>, four whole months after the official July 25 release of the operating system.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- USB adapters are slightly cheaper.<\/b>\u00a0Most PCI adapters cost $30-40, while USB adapters rarely cost more than $20. Sometimes, you can even find USB adapters on sale for half that price. It’s not a big price difference, but it’s still something worth considering.<\/li>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-LCLt6Z11YcE\/VB-kizNeFMI\/AAAAAAAAFsY\/t3VoZYUIRVM\/s1600\/RNX-N180UBE.png\")
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<\/a>The DWA-556 is a high-end wireless adapter with a stellar reputation in the Hackintoshing community for being easy to set up. It has the standard set of WiFi features, including support for 802.11n (the second fastest wireless standard, after 802.11ac) and WPA2 security. Like all of the other cards on this list, this adapter works out of the box, on Snow Leopard, Lion, Mountain Lion, and Mavericks.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-5P0zmUn-RaQ\/UHitKTwzsNI\/AAAAAAAACeA\/bS6V9KnCVHY\/s200\/ASUS+WL-138g+V2.jpg\")
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