2011-01-23, 13:05
I went around a couple of the local IT shops and noted down model numbers for the adapters available, and then did some Googling to find out the chipsets used so I could have a look for OSX and Linux drivers. Realtek chipsets seem to be widely used (the list of USB vendor names and usb device codes in the OSX driver runs to 3-4 on-screen pages and it's probably only half of them) and Realtek allow you to download original drivers from their website, including source for the Linux driver which is always a good sign. It's worth noting that Sitecom themselves don't provide an OSX 10.4.x Intel or Linux driver for this card (and the W352), they only provide the 10.5+ Mac and WinXP/Vista/7 drivers, which is common among smaller manufacturers. Having done a fair bit of Google trawling it looks like Railink chipset WLAN products are have a similar approach to the Realtek ones; the drivers create an Ethernet-like NIC in the OS and use their own wireless configuration utility to set-up the card, and Railink post OSX, Linux and Wintel drivers to their website that you can use, so I would expect the same process I used to be possible with their kit as well.
Do your homework on what's available, and check out the store's returns policy
Do your homework on what's available, and check out the store's returns policy