DavidCar said:
To Brap:
FWIW, I was a tourist at Canterbury once. I didn't expect to get computer answers there though.
Oh, England's just full of smart people. You get them in the oddest places
😉
My next concern is how to also hook up my old computer. Buy a router with "stateful packet inspection" whatever that is. It seems to be the buzzword on the better routers. I could put that between the internet and the Airport Express, then go to the other computer from the router, and hope the other computer can reach the print server on the Airport Express, and that the iBook can reach the other computer through Airport Express and the router. Maybe if I read the Airport documentation I've already downloaded I would know the answer by now.
Ok. I'm going to break this down, because there are a few important points that you've got confused.
Stateful packet inspection: The easiest explanation is 'a type of firewall'. Also known (or used to be known) as a dynamic packet filter. It's better than a 'static' firewall because rather than only checking where packets are coming from and going to (information that's contained in the packet header) it can analyse the packet and tell - for example - what application it came from. If you don't know what it is, chances are that you'd never use that feature anyway. If you're at home and not running a server or only running an email/web server, then I wouldn't really bother with it. Save your cash and buy Little Snitch instead.
Router: In your case, this guy sits between your network and the internet. From the internet, your network will look like a single computer with a single IP address, because all the packets are coming through your router (you might have 1 or 100 machines on the network, it makes no difference). A router can act as a type of firewall by blocking incoming connections from reaching your network. The one thing the router will not do is let your computers see each other - to do this you'll need another bit of kit called a switch or a hub.
in a typical situation, you plug all your computers into the switch (you can get wireless switches to 'plug' wireless laptops in too). You plug the router into the switch as well. Then you plug the modem into the router. The router will have a LAN and a WAN port. Your switch goes into the LAN (local area network) and the modem goes into the WAN (wide area network).
Your airport express is a special case - it can act as a router and a switch...but it can only be a switch for Airport (wireless) computers. If you get another computer, or your friends bring theirs over, you won't be able to plug them all into a switch and then plug the airport express into that....doesn't work (because the APE doesn't have a LAN port). You can do this with the Airport Extreme basestation however, 'cause it's got a LAN and WAN port.
So sorry for the long reply....but here's the upshot - you can plug your modem directly into the APE, and all your computers will be able to use the internet, see each other, and use the APE print server as long as they ALL have wireless network cards.
You don't need another router or firewall, as the APE will do these jobs pretty well. Get Little Snitch on your machines if want good control of connections going OUT from your network.
I was going to do almost exactly the same thing you're considering, however I decided to get the iMac network port fixed (ended up being on Applecare anyway - YAY!). The problems with the other options were that the USB network adaptors aren't very reliable on the Mac (this may have changed since), and having one "b" connection on the wireless "g" network will drop the whole thing down to the slower speed.
I'd breakout the soldering iron if I were you
🙂
Good luck!
