Best WiFi setup for Mac and PC?

[woolnet]

Hi.

Any recommendations for setting up my Mac for WiFi at home. I have a G4 which will need a card - Should I go for an airport or a cheaper Belkin or similar card?

What would be the best compatible modem/router to get. I have used a netgear in the past and that worked well?

I also have a G4 Powerbook with built-in Airport, and iPhone and a PC with a Belkin wireless card and a Lexmark wireless printer.

Thanks in advance.

 

[designgeek]

Airport cards are good, but I'm not sure about compatibility with other brands of wireless cards since I don't have a G4.

When it comes to routers I have an Airport Extreme Base Station and it works really well it does require a separate modem and that depends on your service (DSL or cable).

It doesn't look like any of your devices use 802.11n so you could find one that runs the older 802.11 g for cheap. As for brands, I'd avoid actiontech like the plague. Both of the modems/routers of theirs I've used have worked miserably for a few months and quit soon after. Lynksys is pretty good though.

 

[woolnet]

When it comes to routers I have an Airport Extreme Base Station and it works really well it does require a separate modem and that depends on your service (DSL or cable).

Cool, thanks. My G4 is in my office and the pc is in the home. My G4 Powerbook can be in either. At the moment I hardwire through a couple of Netgear plug-in boxes which are great. My office has stone walls so the signal would not carry to the house from a base station.

I'm thinking, airport card for the G4, wireless modem/router in the office and ethernet to the netgear box. In the house have a wireless router connected to the netgear box for the powerbook and pc and printer.

I just don't want to buy a load of gear and find it doesn't work. I have a 3com wireless box that likes the powerbook but not the pc with a Linksy's card and doesn't like my iPhone either....

Your thoughts...?

 

[designgeek]

It's been a while since I set up a network with two or more access points so I'm not really sure about protocols. But I believe you could get two airport express base stations (the little ones) and hardwire each of them to the modem/router, put them in two separate places, liste them as the same network and your iPhone and laptop would automatically switch between the two base stations depending on which had the strongest signal. Also the printer could be connected to one of them through the USB and used easily by all the computers on the network through Bonjour. Like I said it's been a while and I'd like to hear from some others here to see what they think. They might have a better idea.

 

[designgeek]

I've looked into this recently since I've decided to hook up my Airport Express to use airtunes. The system I think you could use is a WDS or wireless distribution system. You can use one in the room with your printer as the "main" and the one in your office as a "relay." The "main" station will broadcast a signal to your wireless devices, the built in USB can be used to control the printer, and the Ethernet can be used to connect to the modem/router. The "relay" station can be used to wirelessly connect the computers in your office and the ethernet would also connect to the modem/router.

apple has a guide: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2044?viewlocale=en_US

 

[cmuench]

With the following setup I have 1 macbook, 3 laptops, 1 network printer, 2 desktops.
I have 2 Linksys WRT54GL v1.1 flashed with DD-WRT.
not to plug my own blog but I wrote instructions on how I bridged them together.
Basically the "master" has the cable modem ethernet plugged into the WAN port.
Then my "slave" AP gets plugged into a network switch via a LAN port and shares the network out. Very cool and cheap ($120 for both) setup.

http://www.cmuench.com/2008/05/28/own-wireless-bridge/
PM me if you have any questions.

 

[chrono1081]

Please dont buy belkin routers. You will most likely be in for some headaches.

Long ago I used to work setting up networks for homes and businesses and I dreaded when people bought belkin because even if everything was set up 100% correctly, the router would fail to work. Many many many routers would fail to work.

So, you call their helpline to see if maybe there is a bug/fix they know about, Belkins first suggestion? Try another brand of router. ( ! )

I would have blown it off if it just happened once, but about 8 different times of calling and getting that same suggestion? Sad.

Who knows maybe their better now this was 3 or 4 years ago.

 

[Old Muley]

I've been happy with my Airport Extreme (the 802.11g version) and it's worked find with my G4 iMac, my old G4 desktop, my current G5 desktop and the various TiBooks, iBooks, Vaios and Dells I've brought home. For your setup I'd try and find one of the original Airport cards.