Tuesday, September 01, 2009

The Rokland n3 is compatible with Snow Leopard

(Updated 9/28/09: The Rokland n3 works with 10.5 Leopard drivers in 10.6 Snow Leopard 32-bit, but is not recognized in 64-bit mode)

Need WiFi for Snow Leopard?

The n3 802.11n wireless long range USB WiFi adapter from Rokland works great on Apple Mac OS 10.6 (Snow Leopard).

We installed Snow Leopard onto multiple Macs to conduct our test (one system was an Intel iMac Core Duo and the other was a Macbook Pro). We used the existing 10.5 drivers that come on the CD in the n3 retail box. The installation was a breeze, and after activating the device in System Preferences > Network, we were online in moments. We were a bit nervous because we have read some rumors that some other brand 10.4/10.5 compatible WiFi equipment did not work in 10.6.

A couple of things to note- on the two machines we used, neither had the n3 installed previously. We have not yet upgraded a 10.4 or 10.5 system that already had the n3 installed to see if the device would work uninterrupted. If you already have the n3 and plan to upgrade to 10.6, just remember if the device does not work right off the bat you should be able to just run the installation software from the n3 disc again.

We want to make a special effort to mention to potential buyers that if you buy this for 10.6, for the time being you will want to run the install package for 10.5. Right now the CDs will not have any reference to 10.6 on them nor will the instructions that are on the CD. The reason is because we were not expecting Snow Leopard to be released until the end of September, which was the initial launch date. Thus we have a large inventory of units with CDs and feel it would be environmentally unfriendly to dispose them all and make new ones. So in the meantime you can safely buy the device for use with Snow Leopard, just remember to install the software for 10.5 Leopard, and also to follow the instructions for 10.5.

We will have more compatibility information regarding Snow Leopard and other WiFi devices we sell on our blog in the coming weeks.

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