Wireless question

[Arkangil]

Hi all,

So I finally made the leap. Just bought my first Mac ever, a refurb unibody MBP base. I will likely upgrade the hardrive and RAM myself in the future.

As my wife wants my currently cluttered office to be clean, I will be moving my cable modem, wireless router, laser printer, and external hard drive to a closet somewhere.

My wife will still be using her PC laptop, and I will use my MBP all wirelessly.

Here is the question. Is there a good router that will allow me to connect my printer and external harddrive (Seagate freeagent 250gig.) and allow both the PC and MAC to use either? Can the hard drive accept both Mac (in the form of that wireless backup thing) and PC to access pics and such.

I guess I am just wondering how all those moving peices will fit together wirelessly. Probably should have planned this prior to the purchase, but what can ya do?!

Thanks for all your help!

 

[markojug]

I have a Lacic 500GB hard drive that works on both Mac and PC. For router, usually all of them work fine I guess.

 

[swiftaw]

I have a Lacic 500GB hard drive that works on both Mac and PC. For router, usually all of them work fine I guess.

Although he'll need/want a router that allows you to connect a USB hard drive to it.

You could get an Airport Extreme then connect an external USB hard drive to it, or you could go with a Time Capsule.

 

[Arkangil]

I've heard that the airport is a better router than the time capsule. Also, from what I read on these forums, there are better, less expensive ways to achieve a wireless router and external hard drive than time capsule.

Because I think the wireless will be going in the basement, I need a good quality one to go throughout the house.

Are there routers with more than one USB? If I get a powered USB hub, plug the printer and hard drive into that, and then the hub into the router (airport or otherwise) will that allow access to both the drive and the printer?

 

[RyanJL]

I've heard that the airport is a better router than the time capsule. Also, from what I read on these forums, there are better, less expensive ways to achieve a wireless router and external hard drive than time capsule.

Because I think the wireless will be going in the basement, I need a good quality one to go throughout the house.

Are there routers with more than one USB? If I get a powered USB hub, plug the printer and hard drive into that, and then the hub into the router (airport or otherwise) will that allow access to both the drive and the printer?

I don't know that the Airport is a better router than the Time Capsule, per se (I'm pretty sure they have the exact same bits inside, other than the obvious), but there are a few benefits to going the Airport + External drive route over Time Capsule.

Benefits:
1. Cheaper
2. Much easier to partition the drive so that, for example, you can use part of it for Time Machine backups and part of it as your iTunes library.

Drawbacks:
1. It's not all one neat, singularly contained unit.
2. Apple warranty will not cover the hard drive (this point might be moot, however, as the external you buy will assumably come with some sort of warranty).

I'm not sure how well the Airport will go from basement to the rest of the house, but if your domicile is large, you can also buy one or more Airport Express units to extend the range.

 

[Shawny D]

Congrats and I hope you enjoy your UMBP!