airport extreme noob questions

[sk3pt1c]

right, i'm thinking about changing my connection from 1Mb to 24Mb that a new company offers here in athens.
the thing is, i'd like to have an airport extreme run the show and not their router.
i'd also like to add my mybook pro hd to the airport base station so i can access it wirelessly.
now, the questions:

does airport extreme totally replace the router or does it connect to the router to enhance and better distribute the signal? i mean, i just connect airport extreme to the phone line and connect using the company's setup details and that's it? why no support for some isps and how can i find out if it supports this one?

will me plugging the hard drive into the airport mean that it can be accessible from others picking up the wireless signal? can i somehow password-lock it or something?

that's it so far, thanks

 

[itickings]

right, i'm thinking about changing my connection from 1Mb to 24Mb that a new company offers here in athens.
the thing is, i'd like to have an airport extreme run the show and not their router.
i'd also like to add my mybook pro hd to the airport base station so i can access it wirelessly.

Keep in mind that the Airport Extreme only supports USB, not Firewire. A mybook pro may be overkill.

now, the questions:

does airport extreme totally replace the router or does it connect to the router to enhance and better distribute the signal? i mean, i just connect airport extreme to the phone line and connect using the company's setup details and that's it? why no support for some isps and how can i find out if it supports this one?

The Airport Extreme is a router, but not a modem. It can't be plugged directly into the phone line, a device to convert the phone line into ethernet is required. There are far to many broadband technologies out there for the Extreme to support them all.

will me plugging the hard drive into the airport mean that it can be accessible from others picking up the wireless signal? can i somehow password-lock it or something?

Yes, it will be accessible. Yes, you can password protect the drive. You should also protect your entire wireless network with at least WPA to prevent others from accessing your network at all.

 

[sk3pt1c]

i already own the mybook, i just wanna plug it into the airport to be able to access my music (mostly) and other files wirelessly from other parts of the house.
i will probably get a 1tb mybook pro to have permanently plugged in to my powerbook via the firewire800.

so then i have my modem/router that the phone company gives me and then i plug that into the airport via an ethernet cable?

yeah, i already have WPA and MAC filtering now in my current connection.

well, since i will need to have the modem/router connected to the phone line, i set up my modem to connect to the internet and i set up the airport to just provide the connection wirelessly?
so i would need a non-wireless modem to connect and then i plug that into the airport and i set that up for wpa and mac filtering?

seems kinda overkill to me...

 

[macleod199]

well, since i will need to have the modem/router connected to the phone line, i set up my modem to connect to the internet and i set up the airport to just provide the connection wirelessly?
so i would need a non-wireless modem to connect and then i plug that into the airport and i set that up for wpa and mac filtering?

seems kinda overkill to me...

This seems to be a regional thing, where most European ISPs give out combined router/modems, whereas in North America they generally give you the modem, and you have to supply the routing equipment (they used to officially discourage it, as they wanted you to pay for multiple IP addresses). In some ways it's nice because if you change ISPs or move you don't have to completely reconfigure the 'home side' of your network, just the ISP-specific settings.

I believe the old Airport base stations had a version with a DSL modem built-in, but there's not one of the new one yet.

But yeah, the easiest way is probably to have the ISP router/modem control address assignment and whatnot, and just use the Airport for the Airdisk and wireless services. Not sure if you'd be able to turn off the DCHP assignment and such in the ISP's modem, and have it just pass through to the Airport to handle that stuff.

 

[sk3pt1c]

so there's basically no reason to actually get the airport extreme base station...
modem/routers given by internet providers here are wireless and have usb ports as well, so looks like untill they put a modem on it, no real use for an airport here
shame, i'd like to mac up my room