Alt Wireless Base Station

doctorhook · Sep 18, 2003

I bought an Airport Extreme and the only extreme is my disappointment in the range and consistency of the signal. From what I have read on various forums the Dr. Bott external antennas are not much help.
I am wondering if anybody has had a positive experience with other wireless access points,routers etc. that work well with a Mac (G4 dual)?

Thanks from doctorhook

tangerinedream · Sep 19, 2003

sad to say airport is not worth it

I had a netgear wireless router ($50) last year, and when my mother got her iMac, we got an airport extreme. There's way too much maintenance, esp for a new older user. The features are nice, usb port and antenna, but it keeps shutting down spontaneously, and needs to be checked occaisionally. By this point I know all of the admin assistant settings- With the netgear, I never even knew I could change the settings- never did anything to it. So simple, it just worked- The airport extreme is the first apple product to dissappoint, and feel like I just found out there's no santa.

Cookiebread · Sep 19, 2003

A great consumer-level access point would be the Linksys Wireless-G model. If you need more tweakability, I'd go with Buffalo Tech's AirStation G54. Both are priced aggressively.

Personally, I use a Linksys Wireless-G AP in my home, and a Buffalo AirStation G54 at my office. Both work great.

Doctor Q · Sep 19, 2003

Nice of you to bring up this topic just now. I'm planning to buy a Linksys Wireless-B router (model BEFW11S4) this weekend to use with a PowerBook, a PC, and a cable modem and I was just reading its user manual in another window on my screen. If you think my plan is wise/foolish, please give me opinions.

Cookiebread · Sep 19, 2003

The Linksys Wireless-B router is a great unit as well. Your plan sounds good. Have fun being wireless!

pepeleuepe · Sep 19, 2003

I just purchased the LinkSys Wireless-B router and it works great. Our apartment is pretty small, but it is two floors, and I've never had the signal be less than full. I literally took the router out of the box, plugged in our cable modem, ran an ethernet cord for the one wired computer and the router worked without any other hassels. The admin functions are very easy to figure out as well. I turned on MAC address filtering without even reading the manual, its extremely easy to configure and it blocks others from stealing your internet. We have two PC laptops, my old iBook, and my new MDD Power Mac connected through wireless as well as one HP Desktop wired to the router and it all works great.

Doctor Q · Sep 21, 2003

Got cable Internet access today. The Linksys Wireless-B router worked perfectly. Up and running. Download speed 3204kbps, a bit faster than dial-up yesterday!

Cookiebread · Sep 21, 2003

Good to hear! Once you get broadband, there's no going back. :-D

pianojoe · Sep 21, 2003

Originally posted by Cookiebread
Good to hear! Once you get broadband, there's no going back. :-D

Amen!

tyson12zoll · Sep 21, 2003

I hate installing non necessary 3rd party drivers/softwares on my computer. What kind of software do you need to set one of these Linksys routers up?

Being able to hardwire one of my computers would be nice too (save on airport cards). This is missing in the AP Extreme, right?

Doctor Q · Sep 21, 2003

You don't have to install any software to use the Linksys router. You have to

(1) Make the correct network settings on your computers. For Mac OS X, it's the Network preference pane. For older Mac OS versions, the TCP/IP control panel. For Windows PCs, the appropriate control panels.

(2) Make the correct settings on the router, which you make by taking to it with a web browser running on any computer to which it is connected.

You can optionally install the Linksys Logviewer software (Windows only) to let you review logs kept by the router of the URLs or IP addresses accessed as you use the router.

tyson12zoll · Sep 21, 2003

sweet. Its ugly compared to the AP Extreme, but half the price WITH a built in switch. So these are good routers? I'm in.

tyson12zoll · Sep 21, 2003

Just ordered the Linksys WRT54G. Its the one with the integrated 4 port switch. It was kinda an impulse buy, but I figure its a huge savings off the airport extreme. Half the price for the base station and no need for an airport card for my desktop that will sit right next to the router anyway. Sweet...that saves me like 200 bucks!

evil · Sep 28, 2003

on the linksys website and on other sites there is no mention of mac compatibility.

im very confused because none of the wireless stations state that they are mac compatible.

also, what is the difference between an access point and a broadband router?
im sooo confused but i dont want to pay 300 bucks CDN for wirelss. i cant afford that.

someone help please.

Doctor Q · Sep 28, 2003

Linksys routers (at least all the ones I've investigated and the one I bought) work fine with Macs. They are configured via a web browser (platform independent), and Ethernet and TCP/IP are of course platform independent. Linksys does not provide the instructions for the Mac setup (setting System Preferences) in their manuals. Luckily, there's not much to it.

evil · Sep 28, 2003

thanks for the info. i think i will be getting the linksys g router tomorrow.

how would i go about getting it set up for my powerbook g4?

this will work with my airport extreme card right?

sorry im a somewhat new switcher and im pretty damn confused.

Doctor Q · Sep 28, 2003

Yes, the wireless Linksys router works with a PowerBook + Airport Extreme.

The router talks to your ISP (the WAN, wide-area network) and to your Powerbook (the LAN, local-area network).

To get started doing the setup, you'll use a web browser to talk to the router at a fixed IP address, e.g., http://192.168.1.1, and follow the Linksys manual for the router setup. The router needs to know both the WAN setup and the LAN setup you want.

For the WAN, you need information your ISP should give you. Most likely, they'll say to use DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol), i.e., the router will be assigned its address by their server.

For the LAN, you can set up the router so that your PowerBook has either a fixed IP address or is assigned a dynamic address by the router, again using DHCP. In either case, you'll set the PowerBook to match by picking the right choice in the Network pane in System Preferences. For example, if the router is going to give you a dynamic address, you'd pick DHCP from the Configure drop-down menu.

I hope this helps. Reading this back, I'm afraid I made it sound too confusing.

evil · Sep 28, 2003

Originally posted by Doctor Q
Yes, the wireless Linksys router works with a PowerBook + Airport Extreme.

The router talks to your ISP (the WAN, wide-area network) and to your Powerbook (the LAN, local-area network).

To get started doing the setup, you'll use a web browser to talk to the router at a fixed IP address, e.g., http://192.168.1.1, and follow the Linksys manual for the router setup. The router needs to know both the WAN setup and the LAN setup you want.

For the WAN, you need information your ISP should give you. Most likely, they'll say to use DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol), i.e., the router will be assigned its address by their server.

For the LAN, you can set up the router so that your PowerBook has either a fixed IP address or is assigned a dynamic address by the router, again using DHCP. In either case, you'll set the PowerBook to match by picking the right choice in the Network pane in System Preferences. For example, if the router is going to give you a dynamic address, you'd pick DHCP from the Configure drop-down menu.

I hope this helps. Reading this back, I'm afraid I made it sound too confusing.

thank you so much for the help. yes what you wrote seems a bit confusing, but i hope i can just figure it out tomorrow.

if not i know where to go!

thanks again.

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