Quest Airport and card....

[Joyce Johnston]

Hi all

I was hoping someone out there with more knowledge of the Airport and
the Airport Card could answer some questions for me.

I have an iBook 500mhz running with MacOS 9,2. I also have a Cisco DSL
modem (router) that I use to connect to the Internet. Just wondering
if I can plug that into the Airport and then take my iBook into
another room in the house and surf the Internet or read my email? Was
told by someone that the Airport needed to plugged into a computer for
it to work.

Also can I use another brand of wireless router with the Airport? Just
wondering, as they seem to run a little less money. If so which
brands/models should I look at or for that matter stay away from? I am
not looking for the cheapest item out there, but rather the best value
on the low end of the price scale.

Thanks in advance for your help and advice.
J. Johnston

[Joyce Johnston]

Hi all

I was hoping someone out there with more knowledge of the Airport and
the Airport Card could answer some questions for me.

I have an iBook 500mhz running with MacOS 9,2. I also have a Cisco DSL
modem (router) that I use to connect to the Internet. Just wondering
if I can plug that into the Airport and then take my iBook into
another room in the house and surf the Internet or read my email? Was
told by someone that the Airport needed to plugged into a computer for
it to work.

Also can I use another brand of wireless router with the Airport? Just
wondering, as they seem to run a little less money. If so which
brands/models should I look at or for that matter stay away from? I am
not looking for the cheapest item out there, but rather the best value
on the low end of the price scale.

Thanks in advance for your help and advice.
J. Johnston

[John Johnson]

In article <7ce6d695.0308161855.6cc57298@posting.google.com >,
[email]jjohn@trib.com[/email] (Joyce Johnston) wrote:

> Hi all
>
> I was hoping someone out there with more knowledge of the Airport and
> the Airport Card could answer some questions for me.
>
> I have an iBook 500mhz running with MacOS 9,2. I also have a Cisco DSL
> modem (router) that I use to connect to the Internet. Just wondering
> if I can plug that into the Airport and then take my iBook into
> another room in the house and surf the Internet or read my email? Was
> told by someone that the Airport needed to plugged into a computer for
> it to work.
>

You should be able to do this without difficulty. I'm currently
connected via SBC DSL (speedstream DSL modem) running to my AirPort BS.

> Also can I use another brand of wireless router with the Airport?

Yes but why do you want two wireless routers? There are good reasons why
you might want one but more specific information may help someone here
give a recommendation should it come to that.

later.

--
johajohn AT indianahoosiers DOT edu

Remove the non place-name reply. Indiana is a place-name.

[John Johnson]

In article <7ce6d695.0308161855.6cc57298@posting.google.com >,
[email]jjohn@trib.com[/email] (Joyce Johnston) wrote:

> Hi all
>
> I was hoping someone out there with more knowledge of the Airport and
> the Airport Card could answer some questions for me.
>
> I have an iBook 500mhz running with MacOS 9,2. I also have a Cisco DSL
> modem (router) that I use to connect to the Internet. Just wondering
> if I can plug that into the Airport and then take my iBook into
> another room in the house and surf the Internet or read my email? Was
> told by someone that the Airport needed to plugged into a computer for
> it to work.
>

You should be able to do this without difficulty. I'm currently
connected via SBC DSL (speedstream DSL modem) running to my AirPort BS.

> Also can I use another brand of wireless router with the Airport?

Yes but why do you want two wireless routers? There are good reasons why
you might want one but more specific information may help someone here
give a recommendation should it come to that.

later.

--
johajohn AT indianahoosiers DOT edu

Remove the non place-name reply. Indiana is a place-name.

[Rod Smith]

In article <7ce6d695.0308161855.6cc57298@posting.google.com >,
[email]jjohn@trib.com[/email] (Joyce Johnston) wrote:

> Hi all
>
> I was hoping someone out there with more knowledge of the Airport and
> the Airport Card could answer some questions for me.
>
> I have an iBook 500mhz running with MacOS 9,2. I also have a Cisco DSL
> modem (router) that I use to connect to the Internet. Just wondering
> if I can plug that into the Airport and then take my iBook into
> another room in the house and surf the Internet or read my email? Was
> told by someone that the Airport needed to plugged into a computer for
> it to work.
>
> Also can I use another brand of wireless router with the Airport? Just
> wondering, as they seem to run a little less money. If so which
> brands/models should I look at or for that matter stay away from? I am
> not looking for the cheapest item out there, but rather the best value
> on the low end of the price scale.
>
> Thanks in advance for your help and advice.
> J. Johnston

I am NOT an Airport expert or Guru. However:

I am running standard (not extreme) Airport with a 700MHz iBook. The
connection is from my cable modem to the Airport Base Station via Cat5
cable Then from the Airport Base Station to a LinkSys switch. Plugged
into the switch connectors is my G4 and my network printer, an HP 2200DN
Postscript printer. The iBook has an Airport card.

When the G4 is 'up' (running) I can share files. But the Airport Base
Station keeps constantly connected to the net (it has no pwr switch),
which I can access from the iBook whether or not the G4 is running. If
the printer is 'on' I can use it from the iBook regardless of the state
of the G4. It took me about ten minutes to 'read the manual' and get it
running.

My Airport Base Stn DOES NOT need to be plugged into a computer to work.

I have now told you "all I know' about Airport. Mine works easily and
well.

Good luck.

--
Rod Smith
Florida Panhandle

[Rod Smith]

In article <7ce6d695.0308161855.6cc57298@posting.google.com >,
[email]jjohn@trib.com[/email] (Joyce Johnston) wrote:

> Hi all
>
> I was hoping someone out there with more knowledge of the Airport and
> the Airport Card could answer some questions for me.
>
> I have an iBook 500mhz running with MacOS 9,2. I also have a Cisco DSL
> modem (router) that I use to connect to the Internet. Just wondering
> if I can plug that into the Airport and then take my iBook into
> another room in the house and surf the Internet or read my email? Was
> told by someone that the Airport needed to plugged into a computer for
> it to work.
>
> Also can I use another brand of wireless router with the Airport? Just
> wondering, as they seem to run a little less money. If so which
> brands/models should I look at or for that matter stay away from? I am
> not looking for the cheapest item out there, but rather the best value
> on the low end of the price scale.
>
> Thanks in advance for your help and advice.
> J. Johnston

I am NOT an Airport expert or Guru. However:

I am running standard (not extreme) Airport with a 700MHz iBook. The
connection is from my cable modem to the Airport Base Station via Cat5
cable Then from the Airport Base Station to a LinkSys switch. Plugged
into the switch connectors is my G4 and my network printer, an HP 2200DN
Postscript printer. The iBook has an Airport card.

When the G4 is 'up' (running) I can share files. But the Airport Base
Station keeps constantly connected to the net (it has no pwr switch),
which I can access from the iBook whether or not the G4 is running. If
the printer is 'on' I can use it from the iBook regardless of the state
of the G4. It took me about ten minutes to 'read the manual' and get it
running.

My Airport Base Stn DOES NOT need to be plugged into a computer to work.

I have now told you "all I know' about Airport. Mine works easily and
well.

Good luck.

--
Rod Smith
Florida Panhandle

[Bob Harris]

In article <7ce6d695.0308161855.6cc57298@posting.google.com >,
[email]jjohn@trib.com[/email] (Joyce Johnston) wrote:

> Hi all
>
> I was hoping someone out there with more knowledge of the Airport and
> the Airport Card could answer some questions for me.
>
> I have an iBook 500mhz running with MacOS 9,2. I also have a Cisco DSL
> modem (router) that I use to connect to the Internet. Just wondering
> if I can plug that into the Airport and then take my iBook into
> another room in the house and surf the Internet or read my email? Was
> told by someone that the Airport needed to plugged into a computer for
> it to work.

I have Verizon DSL. The DSL modem is plugged into a D-Link Cable/DSL
Router, that interaces to Verizon using PPPoE protocol for
authentication. Attached to the D-Link is my original Airport Base
Station (graphite).

My wife and I roam all over the house with our laptops.

I could have connected my original Airport base station to the DSL
Modem, however, it only has a single eithernet port and I wanted to have
an isolated home ethernet network. The Snow Airport base station and
the Extreme Airport base station both have 2 ethernet ports so that you
can have one connected to the DSL modem and the other connected to your
home network with the Airport base station acting as both a router and a
NAT server to isolate your home network from the DSL and so that you can
share the single IP address provided by your DSL provider.

> Also can I use another brand of wireless router with the Airport? Just
> wondering, as they seem to run a little less money. If so which
> brands/models should I look at or for that matter stay away from? I am
> not looking for the cheapest item out there, but rather the best value
> on the low end of the price scale.

Yes you can use another 802.11 base station (aka WiFi). Since you have
a 500MHz iBook, I'm guessing you have the 802.11b style Airport card
(what I have). The Airport Extreme is officially called 802.11g.
Currently Apple does not make an Airport Extreme card for the iBooks, so
you can get a 3rd party 802.11b router which will be less expensive.

But before I go on, I will say that the Apple Airport base stations are
a lot easier to setup than most 3rd party 802.11b WiFi access points.

You should be able to use just about anyone's 802.11b DSL/Cable modem
router to both connect to your DSL modem and provide NAT services and
routing to multiple Macs (or other systems) in your home.

Things to keep in mind.

You will have to configure the 3rd party device using a web browser. If
you set up WEP (Web Equivalent Protection), and you should, you need to
enter the password in hexidecimal on the 802.11b server and enter the
same hex password on your Mac preceeded by a dollar sign. This is
because most 3rd party 802.11b servers use the Microsoft password
encoding and not Apple's. The hexidecimal values is the result of the
encoding and can be used by any system, which is why you need to start
with hex and stay with hex.

You should also set up the 802.11b server to restrict connections to
systems with the xx.xx.xx.xx.xx.xx ethernet MAC addresses that you
enter. Between restricting access to registered MAC addresses and WEB
your network should be moderately secure.

And if you want you can have multiple 802.11b base stations to give you
broader coverage around your house, you can use a D-Link repeater or if
you can run ethernet cable to another part of the house, then you set up
the 2nd access point using the identical configuration as the first
(same WEB password and same list of restricted MAC address, plus include
the MAC addresses of the other access point (both its ethernet MAC
address and its 802.11b MAC address)), but put the 2nd access point on a
different channel. Then you should be able to roam around and when the
signal is too weak for the first access point, the iBook should switch
to the 2nd access point.

But only do this if you are having coverage problems and then I
recommend the D-Link repeater as it will be easier to get setup and you
don't need to run cables.

Bob Harris

[Bob Harris]

In article <7ce6d695.0308161855.6cc57298@posting.google.com >,
[email]jjohn@trib.com[/email] (Joyce Johnston) wrote:

> Hi all
>
> I was hoping someone out there with more knowledge of the Airport and
> the Airport Card could answer some questions for me.
>
> I have an iBook 500mhz running with MacOS 9,2. I also have a Cisco DSL
> modem (router) that I use to connect to the Internet. Just wondering
> if I can plug that into the Airport and then take my iBook into
> another room in the house and surf the Internet or read my email? Was
> told by someone that the Airport needed to plugged into a computer for
> it to work.

I have Verizon DSL. The DSL modem is plugged into a D-Link Cable/DSL
Router, that interaces to Verizon using PPPoE protocol for
authentication. Attached to the D-Link is my original Airport Base
Station (graphite).

My wife and I roam all over the house with our laptops.

I could have connected my original Airport base station to the DSL
Modem, however, it only has a single eithernet port and I wanted to have
an isolated home ethernet network. The Snow Airport base station and
the Extreme Airport base station both have 2 ethernet ports so that you
can have one connected to the DSL modem and the other connected to your
home network with the Airport base station acting as both a router and a
NAT server to isolate your home network from the DSL and so that you can
share the single IP address provided by your DSL provider.

> Also can I use another brand of wireless router with the Airport? Just
> wondering, as they seem to run a little less money. If so which
> brands/models should I look at or for that matter stay away from? I am
> not looking for the cheapest item out there, but rather the best value
> on the low end of the price scale.

Yes you can use another 802.11 base station (aka WiFi). Since you have
a 500MHz iBook, I'm guessing you have the 802.11b style Airport card
(what I have). The Airport Extreme is officially called 802.11g.
Currently Apple does not make an Airport Extreme card for the iBooks, so
you can get a 3rd party 802.11b router which will be less expensive.

But before I go on, I will say that the Apple Airport base stations are
a lot easier to setup than most 3rd party 802.11b WiFi access points.

You should be able to use just about anyone's 802.11b DSL/Cable modem
router to both connect to your DSL modem and provide NAT services and
routing to multiple Macs (or other systems) in your home.

Things to keep in mind.

You will have to configure the 3rd party device using a web browser. If
you set up WEP (Web Equivalent Protection), and you should, you need to
enter the password in hexidecimal on the 802.11b server and enter the
same hex password on your Mac preceeded by a dollar sign. This is
because most 3rd party 802.11b servers use the Microsoft password
encoding and not Apple's. The hexidecimal values is the result of the
encoding and can be used by any system, which is why you need to start
with hex and stay with hex.

You should also set up the 802.11b server to restrict connections to
systems with the xx.xx.xx.xx.xx.xx ethernet MAC addresses that you
enter. Between restricting access to registered MAC addresses and WEB
your network should be moderately secure.

And if you want you can have multiple 802.11b base stations to give you
broader coverage around your house, you can use a D-Link repeater or if
you can run ethernet cable to another part of the house, then you set up
the 2nd access point using the identical configuration as the first
(same WEB password and same list of restricted MAC address, plus include
the MAC addresses of the other access point (both its ethernet MAC
address and its 802.11b MAC address)), but put the 2nd access point on a
different channel. Then you should be able to roam around and when the
signal is too weak for the first access point, the iBook should switch
to the 2nd access point.

But only do this if you are having coverage problems and then I
recommend the D-Link repeater as it will be easier to get setup and you
don't need to run cables.

Bob Harris

[Joyce Johnston]

> Yes but why do you want two wireless routers? There are good reasons why you might want one but more specific information may help someone here give a recommendation should it come to that.later.

I guess I should have said Airport Card.

J. Johnston

[Joyce Johnston]

> Yes but why do you want two wireless routers? There are good reasons why you might want one but more specific information may help someone here give a recommendation should it come to that.later.

I guess I should have said Airport Card.

J. Johnston