AirPort Question

[Nawlins]

Are Airports only compatible with Macs, or can PC's work with them as well? I'm thinking about creating a wireless network at my house in a few months, and I'm not sure if I should get an Airport or a different brand that I know will work with my family's Compaq (silly Windows users).

Alex

[iJon]

yes you can use them on both. apple uses the wireless standard, its all good.

iJon

[mactastic]

Airport Extreme works with 802.11 b/g specs. As long as they're not on the "a" spec, you'll be fine. Although I doubt you could print through the AE USB port with the PCs.

[rainman::|:|]

are you talking a mac and a PC, or are you talking PC to PC? You can certainly connect to a base station or a Mac with airport from your 802.11b equipped PC... but you cannot use an Airport card in the gateway. Nor would you want to, you have much cheaper alternatives. You could even use the base station with a setup of only PCs, as long as they have 802.11b cards installed... or you could leave out a base station entirely and use one computer as a software base for sharing your internet connection. so many possibilities :)

pnw

[Nawlins]

Details:

We have a Windows desktop, my mom has a Windows notebook, and I have a 12" PB (the "old" version). We have Comcast cable internet, and I want to use our broadband connection to create a network between the 3 computers, so at minimum, the 2 notebooks can access the internet wirelessly. Printing isn't a huge issue.

[MacBoyX]

I'd recommend not getting an AirPort Base Station then. Get a Linksys or something like it. WHY? PRICE..

AirPort Base Station - with ONE EXTERNAL ETHERNET PORT...249 USD

Linksys 4 Port Hub/WAP - 4 external ethernet ports...79 USD for an 802.11b router, 129 for an 802.11 g.

You probably dont need 802.11g (AirPort Extreme) but if you want it it's still 129 off.

Hook up the Windows desktop to the router. Put a Wireless Linksys card in for your mom (60 bucks or so) and get an AirPort for your PB 12 (99 bucks) and u're all set.

MacBoyX

[Nawlins]

Originally posted by MacBoyX
Hook up the Windows desktop to the router. Put a Wireless Linksys card in for your mom (60 bucks or so) and get an AirPort for your PB 12 (99 bucks) and u're all set.

MacBoyX

Do you mean AirPort card for my PB or AirPort? It doesn't make sense to buy 2 routers (the AirPort and the Linksys), so I'm assuming you're talking about an AirPort card.

Alex

[MacBoyX]

Originally posted by Nawlins
Do you mean AirPort card for my PB or AirPort? It doesn't make sense to buy 2 routers (the AirPort and the Linksys), so I'm assuming you're talking about an AirPort card.

Alex


Yes AirPort Card.

Let me know how you make out!

Macboyx

[Lyle]

Originally posted by MacBoyX
I'd recommend not getting an AirPort Base Station then. Get a Linksys or something like it. WHY? PRICE..Just to second what MacBoyX said, for the situation you're describing a wireless router from LinkSys or NetGear (or perhaps some other vendor) is definitely a more economical choice. I recently picked up a NetGear wireless (802.11b) router at CompUSA for $39.00 after a combination of rebates. Even at its regular list price ($79 or so) it's still a much better deal than an Apple AirPort base station.

[patrick0brien]

-Nawlins

The key reason why I bought an Apple AEBS over D-Link or LinkSys is that the admin utility resides on the client machine, and not in the firmware of the device itself.

Call it a little paranoia from being a member of the WiFi meetup and knowing the little things moochers can do. By not having the admin utility on the device itself greatly increases the security.

[nptski]

I have an AEBS and found it to be great with my 12" which I gave to my daughter (12"PB) for graduation (good excuse to get the next gen. PB). I was living at Macrumors untill I finally gave in and got a IBM Thinkpad Centrino with Windoze XPPro. I live in a mostly windoze world and it was wearing me out with workarounds, etc., but I digress.

I have had some issues with my AEBS and it seems to be related to the lastest firmware 5.1.1 and I'm not the only one. Go to the site below and you can probably "get there frome here", but not without some effort. Some slid through "like grease through a pig", others wanted to make frisbees out of their AEBS. I finally got it to connect and it still makes no sense how it happened. My guess is there will be an update from the usually silent Apple on these matters until it just appears on SW Update.

http://discussions.info.apple.com/WebX?13@148.2Z1taAmrfu5.2@.3bbe0955

Good luck and hang in, eventually it will work...somehow...maybe it was the bag of chicken bones I was rattling over the AEBS.