Help..Wireless access questions

[Sweetbike40]

I have a desktop G5, 1st generation. Verizon DSL. My girlfriend comes by with her laptop and needs to be able to access the internet on her MacBook Pro. What do i need to do? Airport Extreme? Express? And do i need a card? I asked the guy at the Apple store and he just seemed so rushed when he answered me i don't even know if he really knew what i was asking. He said the Extreme.

The access would be only for her laptop and my iPod Touch that is on it's way soon. 🙂

Thanks for any help.

 

[EricNau]

Yes, you'll need either the airport Express or Extreme.

Basically, you have two options...

If you buy the Express, you'll plug your Verizon DSL into the ethernet port of the Express. Now, in order for you to get access, you'll need an airport card for your desktop.

Or, if you buy the Extreme, you can plug the Verizon DSL into the internet port on the Extreme, and plug your desktop into one of the LAN ports on the Extreme. This way, if you don't already have an Airport card, you won't need to buy one. (Keep in mind, you can substitute a Linksys wireless router for the Extreme for a fraction of the cost. The concept will stay the same.)

 

[mkrishnan]

You certainly also have the option of pretty much any 802.11g or 802.11 draft N router from Linksys, Netgear, D-Link, etc. If this isn't super critical, get any $30 802.11g router so she can get on the net.

 

[Hmac]

Airport Extreme is a pretty nice unit (for $175), especially if you have other wired ethernet devices. Airport Express is a cool device, but it doesn't have any wired outputs AFAIK, so your G5 would have to work wirelessly. Another option that's cheaper than Airport Extreme is any of the myriad 802.11b/g wireless routers from Linksys or D-link (or others). You can find them for about 1/3 the price of an Airport Extreme.