An alternative are Wi-Fi repeaters, which can be configured as an external wireless card that connects via the ethernet port. They don't cost a slot, don't use a driver, can support WPA3 and tend to be sold at DIY stores.
Thank you, I'll take a look today and see the compatible cards for 54Mbps driver.
@Helloworld
Thank you for your suggestion. For WiFi repeaters, is it simple as plugging a dongle into the power outlet, plug the LAN cable into the dongle and it will work or additional set up is needed, like running internet connection wizard or something else?
Thank you both again! I am planning to take my Amiga to the Boatfest and they do not have LAN access there, just WiFi. Displaying X5000 without internet would be... less desirable.
Mostly yes, little bit of setup for first use, but it's real easy. Most (all?) repeaters can be configured with a webbrowser by typing in the device's ip adress which bring up an intranet page where you can connect it to your router's wi-fi network and configure how it should operate (wi-fi hotspot/external wireless card)
After that it works automatically when you power it on again, from my experience with my 300mbps Gembird repeater which was just as good as any internal card, fast and stable.
There's also Powerline adapters which carry the ethernet signal over your home's electrical wiring and requires no setup whatsoever, they also tend to be sold in DIY stores right next to repeaters. Connect one dongle to your router and the other to your machine and you're done, must be plugged into the outlet, some have a outlet passthrough for your powerstrip. I experienced erractic performance in my home with bandwidth fluctuating between like 40 and 5 mpbs but my friend's place had a stable 70mbps so your mileage may vary.
If you're lucky and still have unused coaxial cables routed through your home then you can try Deca TV coax-ethernet adapters (No setup, 100mbps, 10$ ebay) to turn it into an ethernet network, which what I use nowadays.
Hope that helped
*edit*, just read that it's meant for boatfast, not your home.. did I just wrote all of that for nothing repeater should still work there I think, just ask for wi-fi password.
I've been using a NETGEAR WNCE2001 ethernet to wifi adapter on my Amigas for years. There is no driver or setup program required; setting are done through your browser. There is also the NETGEAR WNCE3001 which is dual band.
Amiga X1000 with 2GB memory & OS 4.1FE + Radeon HD 5450
Cool that you will be attending Boatfest! Hope you'll have a great time. Would be brilliant if you could show Boat and Aaron some AmigaOS 4 action!
I can confirm that a WiFi repeater works well. Have used such a setup for years and it is very handy when it comes to getting various computers Online without any fuzz. Right now I have a Sam hooked up to it with an Ethernet cable and it is stable and fine. My repeater is a D-Link one, but can't remember the model at the top of my head.
Regarding the wireless cards, I didn't see that explicitly say that driver works with the X5000 nor the cards I was looking at are easily available. Because I need wireless set up for just a few days, I would hate to mess up my existing working internet, which is why I decided to take the other route. Sorry @khayoz and thank you!
When I looked into the repeaters, this small dongle looked most reasonable priced and promises to deliver exactly what I need. It will arrive overnight, so tomorrow when time permits, I'll test it out and let you guys know how did it go. All information received was very valuable and helped me a lot to make my decision, thank you @Helloworld and @Xenic!
@AmigaOldSkooler -- Thank you for your confirmation and thank you for your blog, I open it every morning to read any news (if any) while sipping my coffee and getting ready for work. I think Boatfest will be fun and is a great opportunity to meet all the people that I know via chat only, talk Amiga and maybe, only maybe about other inferior systems ;) For AmigaOS 4.1 action, I just spent two days installing bunch of games (did not have a single one on my system) and hopefully I made a good selection (link to the ibb image sharing portal):
Planning to add M.A.C.E. as well, but that should be more than enough. Amigos are gaming community and games are what they care about. I don't think anyone will ask to look into the productivity tools, but then I might be proven wrong.
The dongle arrived early this morning and I've been trying to set it up without any success. I am not a networking wizard, but I thought I know my way around. First of all, the device needs to be configured through windows or mac, talk about false advertising because they claimed you just plug it and it will work. I guess it will if you use WPS, which I can't use at the event. Here is my issue and if anyone have any suggestion, please let me know.
The device needs to be configured via Ethernet properties in win:
I also tried some other approaches, but nothing worked. Any suggestions or advice is welcome and appreciated. If nothing works, I'll return this one and get something else.
Oh, one more thing, here is the set up instructions for the dongle, if needed:
I've added 192.168.1.253 and 255.255.255.0 and check mark on "Use static IP" in GIMP after I have reverted the setting to my standard configuration. I did not take a screen print during the set up so I had to improvise.
I figured it out, finally! I don't know why I tried to set up the thing via Amiga but it went all well under my Linux system. I guess I was overthinking seeing win and mac (I don't have any of those two systems) configuration in the manual and completely ignored to plug it in my main machine. It took me literally 5 mins to configure the repeater, plug it in Amiga and it works! Nothing needs to be changed on Amiga side, whatev config is working for LAN card, just replace the LAN cables and it will work.
Thank you all for suggestions, it helped me a lot!
Also thanks for visiting my blog, much appreciated! I will do an update soon (new AOS 4 monthly report).
Good selection of games too. I'm sure they will be interested in Tower 57, but also Stunt Car Racer since they did an episode on the game not long ago. They are probably not aware that we have this one on AOS 4. If I may suggest a couple more titles, I'd like to recommend Battle for Wesnoth and Giana's Return - The Great Giana Sisters remake, both very good titles. Best of luck on Boatfest and hope that everything will go well with connecting to the network there.
Thanks for suggestions, both are very good games and I added them. I might even play the Battle for Wesnoth, reminds me of Warlords, if you played it on Amiga. If you (or anyone else) have any other suggestions, please share!
Network will not be a problem now, I'll bring my laptop with me to re-set it over there! ;)