Why did we choose the Belkin? Because it comes with configuration software that runs natively on a Mac. Why didn’t we choose the Apple wireless router? Because it was $100 more than the Belkin. Were we concerned? Yes, nervous even. But we were able to get the Belkin up and running pretty easily.

Did we use the “check for an upgraded firmware” feature? Yes. Did it find a new firmware? No. If one goes to the Belkin website, will one see a new firmware? Yes. If one downloads it and installs it manually, will it work? Yes.

If this had been an Apple product, none of this would’ve been necessary; it would’ve happened automatically. Is that worth $100? Not today.

Edit: And then we installed the 802.11N upgrader on our MacBook. /crash everything

Apparently Apple’s N-spec does not play nicely with any non-Apple brand basestation, so our MacBook was rendered Internet-inoperative. Some research indicated that we needed to downgrade our MacBook back to G-only, so we got Pacifist, the original Mac 10.4 install disks, and put the original IO80211Family.kext package back in our system. Reboot and all fixed.

Now the 20″ iMac isn’t N-compatible (Intel Core Duo chip, not Core 2 Duo). Thus we couldn’t install the N-upgrade on that machine, thus it never had a problem. Of course our flower iMac has a PowerPC chip so it isn’t close to N-compatible.

How long has N-spec been in negotiations, a year?

Dear IEEE,

Get your sh!t together, pronto.

Love, BRK.