Are Linksys routers compatible with Macs??

[Bangpow]

Pardon my ignorance, but i don't have a wireless router at home and i've never set one up before.

My boss is gonna scoop me up one for my work since i will be using my new PB in my office to work on our website and i was looking at the Linksys WRT54g router. The problem is that when i look at the system requirements they say nothing about Mac's.


With the Airport wireless networking card, it shouldn't matter which brand of router it is, right??

Isn't the only reason they have system requirements is for people that need to used external wireless cards on their laptops??

 

[mwpeters8182]

I beleive Linksys uses a setup program to initially set up the router - which isn't for macs. We have one, but we used our PC to set up the router. After it was set up, I just used the web config through my mac whenever I wanted to change anything. I'd imagine you'd be able to config it from the web to start, but don't quote me on that.

MP

 

[FlamDrag]

I have a 6 month old 802.11g wireless router from LinkSys. While using the router with a mac is flawless, the setup utitlity requires my wife's windows machine.

I haven't explored any other admin options for the mac, but I'm sure that they exist.

[edit] The setup utility I referred to above is web-based, but I was unable to save any changes or access some options on my Mac (then v10.2). Again, things may have changed.

 

[Bangpow]

What's basically gonna happen is that we already have a regular non-wireless 4 port router and work, which two PC's are on, and i planned on just plugging the wireless router into one of the jacks on the regular one.

Now, i can probably do the setup of one of the windows PC's and then my Mac will find it??


Also, will i be able to just plug the wirless router into the regular one??

 

[kettle]

I was looking into routers and I discovered that when reading reviews every single company was getting less than satisfactory reviews for wireless technology.

I have a Linksys AG041 which is a lovely and well behaved all in one adsl router firewall gateway non wireless type thing. It has been a joy to use and set up.

I have however read terrible things about just about all wireless routers in the low end consumer market.

The main thing to watch out for are routers that require activeX and Java type stuff to administrate them. It usually means that some Microsoft sponsored company has developed a product that uses universally accessible technology and made it MS only.

 

[Bangpow]

I was looking into routers and I discovered that when reading reviews every single company was getting less than satisfactory reviews for wireless technology.

I have a Linksys AG041 which is a lovely and well behaved all in one adsl router firewall gateway non wireless type thing. It has been a joy to use and set up.

I have however read terrible things about just about all wireless routers in the low end consumer market.

The main thing to watch out for are routers that require activeX and Java type stuff to administrate them. It usually means that some Microsoft sponsored company has developed a product that uses universally accessible technology and made it MS only.

I can administrate it with a PC at work, so i'm not too worried about that. Once it's set up, i won't have to worry about it.

 

[Loge]

I have used the Linksys WRT54g router with my Powerbook (and some Linksys 802.11b model before that) with no problems. The admin facility works fine under Safari. To run the set up wizard you need Windows but I don't think its too hard to do it without. For my DHCP/cable setup it worked out of the box.

 

[Bangpow]

I have used the Linksys WRT54g router with my Powerbook (and some Linksys 802.11b model before that) with no problems. The admin facility works fine under Safari. To run the set up wizard you need Windows but I don't think its too hard to do it without. For my DHCP/cable setup it worked out of the box.

Very cool, this is what i was looking to hear.

thanks.

 

[CanadaRAM]

If any of your Mac networking is dependant upon Appletalk (as opposed to TCP/IP) networking, you should carefully investigate whether AppleTalk is supported over the wireless connection. IIRC Linksys does not support AppleTalk over wireless.

The obvious limitation is printing to older nework printers that are not TCP/IP.

If you have a purely OSX setup and no older printers, you can run TCP/IP and ignore AppleTalk and it won't be an issue.

 

[Bangpow]

Honestly, i just need to get my PB online at work to upload pictures and what not to our website. So, it's not like i'm using it for full networking capabilities.

As it stands now, i have to hang out at the front counter and update the website, which is annoying because i manage a retail DJ shop. So, every time a customer walks in i have to stop what i'm doing and look up karaoke songs for them. 😡

So, the owner is getting me a wireless router so i can do the web stuff up in my office up front, out of site from the customers that walk in the door.

We can just run a long cable throught the ceiling to the office, but the boss figured wireless would be better. That's fine by me.

 

[jeremy.king]

Despite what several have said here, you won't *need* a PC at all to set it up. All of today's linksys routers have a web based configuration interface. You will have to hook up wired first to setup wireless, since its it may be disabled by default (at least when I bought mine), but that is a one time deal. Its really easy if you RTFM.

I have no PCs in my house and manage to use my WRT54G without any problems, so go ahead and get one, you'll love it.

 

[jsw]

I too have a Linksys WRT54G, connected and set up with no Windows machines, just my Macs, and bridging with an AirPort Express. No problems, whatsoever. Even uploaded the hack to improve power usage. Again, zero problems.

 

[XIII]

Just to say, I am probably getting one of these, hard wire the old pc in, and wireless with the PB.. Do they have inbuilt modems? For broadband...

Thanks.

 

[jalagl]

I have an old linksys 802.11b, and never heard of a setup utility. I use a web-based interface to configure it.

The only PITA when connecting the Mac is that you have to enter the full 128-bit WEP key in Hex numbers, instead of using a passphrase asin windows. Other than that, everything works perfectly.

 

[andrewfee]

The disc it comes with is PC only (well, I assume it is, I've not tried it) but you can still configure it perfectly with the web interface, which is what I do.

I've also got the WRT54G, and have no trouble with Macs on it. Infact I was having trouble with a couple of PCs connecting to it (they kept dropping out) yet both Macs have connected without any trouble whatsoever. (XP is terrible for wireless networking)

 

[ellisongs]

I can administrate it with a PC at work, so i'm not too worried about that. Once it's set up, i won't have to worry about it.

There are no issues with any of the wireless routers that I've used including Linksys. You simply plug your Mac into the router and goto your browser and access it using the IP shown in the book that comes with it. All the setup stuff is done with your browser and stored within the router. A wireless mac can then find the router all by itself. Way easier than the pc's I've setup.