Airport Instead Of A Standard Wireless Router? For Mac

[MisterMan]

Hi I am reposting here because I think there are a lot of people with a lot of good info but that might not read the mac forum. HOpe this is ok but want to sort this out soon and certainly a dedicated Apple forum/site would not understand what we have here.

So..

HI. I am getting my first internet line ever. Been in Thailand for a decade and only had CDMA and left home before ADSL!

I have a mac book and I am getting 3bb. Questions:

1. INstead of a wireless router should i get the airport?

2. Can my roomate use it on a pc if it is a newer PC?

3. If he uses it can he then access my harddrive?

4. If not can I still give him access to my printer?

What is the advantage of the Extreme Airport? Dont think I need it for the 2 of us.

Thanks!

[siamect]

1. INstead of a wireless router should i get the airport?

2. Can my roomate use it on a pc if it is a newer PC?

3. If he uses it can he then access my harddrive?

4. If not can I still give him access to my printer?

1 yes if you like the color...but sorry I think you need a modem too....

2 yes

3 yes if you share it with him

4 yes, I think Airport has a print server built in. Otherwise yo just share the printer with him

Edited December 5, 2010 by siamect

[lovinglife]

1. INstead of a wireless router should i get the airport?

2. Can my roomate use it on a pc if it is a newer PC?

3. If he uses it can he then access my harddrive?

4. If not can I still give him access to my printer?

1 yes if you like the color...but sorry I think you need a modem too....

2 yes

3 yes if you share it with him

4 yes, I think Airport has a print server built in. Otherwise yo just share the printer with him

1) I would recommend it. Airport is a wireless router, albeit a 5 star deluxe model, great product with better range and extra security compared to standard routers.

2) Any PC will be able to connect.

3) Yes if you allow it.

4) Access to printer is simple.

If you are well off then get the Time Capsule, fabulous bit of kit.

[urandom]

1) I would recommend it. Airport is a wireless router, albeit a 5 star deluxe model, great product with better range and extra security compared to standard routers.

i've just checked apple's website [ http://www.apple.com/airportexpress/features/security.html ], under security, they mention WPA/WPA2 encryption and a firewall... hmmm... where's the extra security? also, "better range" needs numbers backup otherwise it means nothing.

@MisterMan: if you dont need wireless-n then you can get some linksys WRT54GL for THB1,750 and stick tomato firmware inside [ http://www.polarcloud.com/tomato ] (or some of its mods, see after), you'll get really great features and a super stable router. you can even install a wide range of software on it... if you need a gigabyte router with wireless-n than i just bought an Asus RT-N16 for THB3K+ and flashed it with latest tomatousb [ http://tomatousb.org/ ] and it works great so far.

[gkinbkk]

I use an airport extreme as my main router and have an airport express upstairs as both a range extender and plugged into my WDTV.

I have many devices connected to this network both PC and Mac, as well as ipads, ipods, PS3 and the previously mentioned WDTV live. For this it works really well (but not necessarily better than a Linksys or other brand device)

I would disagree on the 'better range' comment.....actually the crappy True NLink modem router has a better range than either of the Apple devices in my experience.

The only real advantage that I can see is that, given the majority or machines in our house are Apple, it fits in to the environment easily......plug and play, virtually nothing to be done configuration wise.......

[MisterMan]

1) I would recommend it. Airport is a wireless router, albeit a 5 star deluxe model, great product with better range and extra security compared to standard routers.

i've just checked apple's website [ http://www.apple.com/airportexpress/features/security.html ], under security, they mention WPA/WPA2 encryption and a firewall... hmmm... where's the extra security? also, "better range" needs numbers backup otherwise it means nothing.

@MisterMan: if you dont need wireless-n then you can get some linksys WRT54GL for THB1,750 and stick tomato firmware inside [ http://www.polarcloud.com/tomato ] (or some of its mods, see after), you'll get really great features and a super stable router. you can even install a wide range of software on it... if you need a gigabyte router with wireless-n than i just bought an Asus RT-N16 for THB3K+ and flashed it with latest tomatousb [ http://tomatousb.org/ ] and it works great so far.

Didnt know a router could have softeware on it to do what?

What is N vs no N?

[urandom]

1) I would recommend it. Airport is a wireless router, albeit a 5 star deluxe model, great product with better range and extra security compared to standard routers.

i've just checked apple's website [ http://www.apple.com...s/security.html ], under security, they mention WPA/WPA2 encryption and a firewall... hmmm... where's the extra security? also, "better range" needs numbers backup otherwise it means nothing.

@MisterMan: if you dont need wireless-n then you can get some linksys WRT54GL for THB1,750 and stick tomato firmware inside [ http://www.polarcloud.com/tomato ] (or some of its mods, see after), you'll get really great features and a super stable router. you can even install a wide range of software on it... if you need a gigabyte router with wireless-n than i just bought an Asus RT-N16 for THB3K+ and flashed it with latest tomatousb [ http://tomatousb.org/ ] and it works great so far.

Didnt know a router could have softeware on it to do what?

If you're talking about the firmware, then think of it like the operating system of your router.

if you're talking about the extra software you can install with dd-wrt or tomato for example, then there is almost no limit. in fact, you router is a sort of mini computer, it has a cpu, some ram, it can run virtually any application that its hardware can handle. for example, you can stick a usb drive in your router and run a bittorrent client on it so you can download stuff without any computer powered on. routers can run proxies, web servers, ssh servers. you can even run vlc to stream some movies, endless possibilities. all this directly from the router.

What is N vs no N?

in short: you can get different speeds depending on your network being a, b, g or n. n is the latest and fastest. beware, your client (most likely your laptop) will need a wireless-n chipset.

in depth: http://en.wikipedia....wiki/Wireless_N

/edit: forgot b

Edited December 7, 2010 by urandom