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View Full Version : Please don't laugh but what is 'Airport' ?



timmoore46
Jun 13, 2009, 04:40 PM
I'm a hardware Engineer and realise that its a wireless comms thing.

However I'm come out of the blue and not ever used it and my immediate Mac knowledge has been gained supporting my partner's iMac.

Previous Mac experience was OS 6 !

(I have had the unfortunate experience of trying to use an Apple 3 ! And I touched an Apple 1 in its wooden case !)

Thankfully Mac arrived !

Can anyone give me a brief overview of its capabilities ?

Or should I Wiki !

:)

Tim


zedsdead
Jun 13, 2009, 04:42 PM
"Airport" is apple WiFi technologies. Apple makes several "Airport" products that are essentially internet routers.

http://www.apple.com/mac/

Scroll to the left or click on accessories to see more info.
drspa44
Jun 13, 2009, 04:45 PM
Airport was first seen in the iBook in 1999 and 802.11b was quite a new technology then so words like wifi or wireless network didn't mean much. Apple coined 'Airport' and have sort of stuck with it since then.
fireball360
Jun 13, 2009, 04:52 PM
That place you go to fly on airplanes.
eRondeau
Jun 13, 2009, 04:57 PM
It rolls off the tongue a little easier than "802.11a/b/g/n". But it's the same thing. Although Apple does some cool proprietary things with the user interface (as usual!). :apple:
timmoore46
Jun 13, 2009, 06:13 PM
It rolls off the tongue a little easier than "802.11a/b/g/n". But it's the same thing. Although Apple does some cool proprietary things with the user interface (as usual!). :apple:

What is its maximum data rate ?

and many thanks for all those most interesting replies !

:):):):):):)

Tim
rgarjr
Jun 13, 2009, 06:43 PM
That place you go to fly on airplanes.

Haha, u beat me to it. Yeh an airport is place u go to travel far distances on an airplane of course.
Nukemkb
Jun 13, 2009, 09:34 PM
Wiki is good - search is good, you'll get there fast with 'net...:p
PurrBall
Jun 13, 2009, 10:08 PM
What is its maximum data rate ?

and many thanks for all those most interesting replies !

:):):):):):)

Tim

Same transfer rates as the standards it uses. Airport is basically what Apple calls WiFi.
Tomorrow
Jun 13, 2009, 10:13 PM
Same transfer rates as the standards it uses. Airport is basically what Apple calls WiFi.

Yep - although they tend to use "Airport" as a collective catch-all for b, g, or n, even though the speeds and ranges are different. The standards are identical to the non-Apple products, and they're absolutely compatible with non-Apple products using the same technologies and protocols.
Nukemkb
Jun 13, 2009, 10:20 PM
...and couldn't be easier to use!
dXTC
Jun 13, 2009, 10:22 PM
I have had the unfortunate experience of trying to use an Apple 3 !



So have I, yet not so "unfortunate". In college, I worked at my university's museum. One of the computers in the office I used was the oft-maligned Apple III. As I had programmed the heck out of the IIe's back in high school, I kinda enjoyed the III. The old database program (PFS:FileMaker, perhaps) that was used for some of the museum's genealogy records? Not so much.
timmoore46
Jun 14, 2009, 02:46 AM
So have I, yet not so "unfortunate". In college, I worked at my university's museum. One of the computers in the office I used was the oft-maligned Apple III. As I had programmed the heck out of the IIe's back in high school, I kinda enjoyed the III. The old database program (PFS:FileMaker, perhaps) that was used for some of the museum's genealogy records? Not so much.

My experience was that the keyboard had been set to fast auto repeat. (not by me)

Leave your finger on the 'Y' key for 2 seconds and you have half a screen full of them.

I was setting some up in the OS and and it auto repeated onto 'Do you really want to delete All of this' type question and did ! Causing a lot of damage to whatever i was up to ! I was choked to say the least ! I just sat there staring at the very blank screen wondering how could an OS be so hostile !

Glad someone got the thing doing something useful ! *LOL*

Little could I know Microsoft would emerge with a series of total 'dogs' !

BSD was a very good choice for the core of OS X as its a bit more stable than Linux and its many variants. But I did like the feature of OS 6 that the entire OS was in a single folder. I had one Mac running off a Syquest when its hard disc failed, just by dragging that Ikon across to it just before the drive finally gave up !

Sorry for the OT ramble !


Tim