AirPort Beats Wires
Low End Mac Reader Specials
Memory To Go Special: New 2008 iMac 2GB $42 / iMac Intel Core2 DUO & MacBook Pro 2GB $36 - 1GB $20. MacPro 8 Core Memory 4GB kit $154 / 2GB kit $94 -- Free shipping available.
Download Typestyler, still the Ultimate Styling Tool for Internet, Print and Video Graphics. Works great in Classic with a Native OS X Version on the way. Free Tryout: www.typestyler.com
LA Computer Company: Specials on AppleCare, iMac's, Apple Batteries and Apple A/C Adapters. Also Great prices on Used Apple Computers. Call 1-800-941-7654 Click Here.
Other World Computing has the Upgrades, Enhancements, and Accessories for getting the most from your Mac. Quality Products, Competitive Prices, Expert Support Staff - www.macsales.com
Mac users can finally play Party Poker for Mac. Not only that, they can also learn how to play PokerStars for Mac.
Laptop Hardware Provided by TechRestore - Overnight Mac & iPod Repairs.
Compare products like desktop computers, laptops, and LCD TVs side by side! All the information and reviews to make the best purchasing decision for a new cell phone GPS products or MP3 players. The Ciao network makes searching products easy for you.
MacPro Memory 667Mhz With Apple Spec Heat Sink 2GB $ 82 / 4GB $128 / 8GB $256 - Click to Maximize your Macs...
- 2000.11.03
When wireless networking first starting coming on the scene, I was very against it. All sorts of bizarre ways were coming out to make my PC access my network wirelessly. I remember the idea of using your power outlets as some sort of conductor to carry the signals and achieving about one megabit per second (1 Mbps).
I remember a lot of these products being marketed as "user friendly," but one look at the documentation would make my head swim. It would have been easier to show a consumer how to cut, strip, and crimp a piece of category five network cable.
That is the way I have preferred my network for a long time, even in the age of the booming wireless market. In my apartment back in New York City, I had network cable all over the place. Being that I had a studio apartment, I could get away with such things. My sofa was right next to my server farm and network hubs, so I could reach over and hook my PowerBook to my network as easily as if I were reaching for a soda on my coffee table.
I never had anyone over to my apartment, so someone tripping over network cables was not an issue. Many nights I came home and just walked over them.
Then I moved to California and into a nice spacious two bedroom apartment. I really don't need a two bedroom, but it was only $100 a month more than one bedroom. The setup was very simple. Computers and servers in the master bedroom, bed in the guest bedroom, and a twenty-foot network cable to the living room for my PowerBook.
This worked for a little while, but the network cable going to my PowerBook started to get on my nerves. Since I haven't gotten used to my new surroundings yet, I would find myself tripping over the cable every night when I came home. Fortunately, the PowerBook never fell of my couch, but it came close a few times. I also like to lean back on my couch and prop my laptop on my hips. This worked back in New York because the distance from the hub to the laptop was less than one foot. Now I have this big twenty-foot cable dangling in the air.
AirPort
I saw Steve Job's demo of AirPort and was quite impressed. Its speed of 11 megabits per second (11 Mbps) was okay with me. Although it would be really cool if it could do 100 Mbps, you can't have it all. Still, it's better than that cable dangling in the air.
Installation of the AirPort cards was easy on both my PowerBook and G4. What confused me at first was which way the card was supposed to be inserted. Apparently I got it right, but reading the manual would have been a good idea.
For software base stations, configuration is quite easy. Load the AirPort utility from the Apple menu, click "Software Base Station," and hit start. Then go over to your client, click AirPort there, and click on "Choose network" from the Airport Network section.
Security was a real big concern of mine. I didn't want this thing advertising itself to all my neighbors and have "Mac Metamorphosis: The lost files" all over the place. Needless to say Apple and Lucent did a real good job on security.
Currently I am using a very strong password, have turned on closed networks so my base station doesn't advertise itself, and am restricted access to my AirPort network by hardware address so only my AirPort cards can connect to my base station.
It is very important to set up security and use it - at least turn on the closed networks feature. Some companies I know started to give AirPort-enabled laptops to clients who come to visit their company, and didn't turn on security to make things easier. I could connect to their network from my car in the parking lot and do whatever I wanted. Turning on security is like locking your door; you might live in a safe neighborhood, but someone might just try to walk in.
Performance is very good and seems to live up to all the hype. From my friends T3 connection to my 1.5 megabit DSL connection through my base station ending at my PowerBook I was downloading 600 megabytes of data at 152k/sec. I sustained that speed throughout the entire download.
Once I had everything up and running, I started thinking about getting AirPort to work on LinuxPPC. After asking my friend Alex, a hardcore Linux guru, he helped point me in the right direction for the driver. If you would like LinuxPPC drivers head on over to Ben's Linux Page.
Should you not have an AirPort compatible computer the Lucent Wave runner will work under Apple's drivers, and drivers do also exist for Linux. I have not tried it personally, but have heard many good things about using them on Power Macintosh computers.
Going wireless is a great thing, and I am glad that Apple has put out such a great product. I have heard that even ZDTV was recommending that PC users purchase AirPort base stations for their wireless base stations. Now let's see Apple introduce the first 100 megabit wireless network adapters.
Links for the Day
- Mac of the Day: Centris 610, Feb. 1993 - This was the Mac we used when we started Low End Mac in 1997.
- List of the Day: 1st PowerMacs is for pre-PCI Power Macs.
Recent Content on Low End Mac
- Apple Will Not Abandon Optical Drives, the Mac Drought, Purposeful Mac Acquisition, and More, Dan Knight, Low End Mac Mailbag, 09.04. Also Mac OS X 10.5 on a G4-upgraded Blue & White G3 and problems using a flat panel display with a Quadra 700.
- Only Leopard Runs Routine Maintenance Tasks after Startup or Waking from Sleep, Charles W. Moore, Miscellaneous Ramblings, 09.04. Mac OS X 10.5 runs routine system maintenance scripts as soon as possible after starting up or waking up your Mac. Earlier versions of OS X do not do this.
- Overclocking a Mac mini Got Me Hooked on Souping Up Macs, Adam Geller, My First Mac, 09.04. Stories of hot rodding iBooks, G3 iMacs, and PCI Power Macs on the cheap.
- Tomorrow's Solid State Drives and Notebooks, Dan Knight, Mac Musings, 09.04. Flash drives are great but have some shortcomings. Some thoughts on building better SSDs and notebooks to use them.
- Best 12" PowerBook G4 Deals, Low End Mac Deals, 09.04. Used 867 MHz Combo, no APX, $490; 1 GHz, $550; SuperDrive, $625; 1.5 GHz w/o APX, $660; w/APX, $675.
- Best Mac mini Deals, Low End Mac Deals, 09.04. Used 1.25 GHz G4 SD, $549; 1.42 Combo, $409; new 1.83 Core2 Combo, $569 after rebate; 2.0 SD, $769 after rebate.
- Best 17" PowerBook G4 Deals, Low End Mac Deals, 09.04. Used 1 GHz, $779; 1.33 GHz, $799; 1.5 GHz, $859; 1.67 GHz, $910.
- 11 Mac Browsers Compared, Simon Royal, Mac Spectrum, 09.03. The latest versions of Internet Explorer, Opera, Safari, Shiira, iCab, Radon, Firefox, Netscape Navigator, SeaMonkey, Flock, and Camino tested in Leopard.
- Save Internet Radio, USB and Hard Drives, Hardware Manufacturers vs. Linux, and More, Dan Knight, Low End Mac Mailbag, 09.03. Also Mac won't book after cleaning, newer versions of OS X improve wake from sleep, downgrading to OS 8.6, unreadable pages on Low End Mac, and more.
- Another Free POP3 Provider, Recharging a Dead PRAM Battery, Current Kanga Value, and More, Charles W. Moore, Miscellaneous Ramblings, 09.03. GMX email now available in US, Panasonic UJ-841S drive won't burn discs, restoring a dead PRAM battery in a Pismo, and thoughts on Kanga value today.
- Best eMac Deals, Low End Mac Deals, 09.03. Used 700 MHz Combo, $120; 1.25 GHz SuperDrive, $150; 1.42 GHz, $349.
- Best Mac OS X 10.5 'Leopard' Deals, Low End Mac Deals, 09.03. Mac OS X 10.5, single user, $99; 5 users, $140; 10.5 Server, 10 users, $395; unlimited, $850.
- Best MacBook Air Deals, Low End Mac Deals, 09.03. Refurb 1.6 HD, $1,499; new, $1,690 after rebate; refurb 1.8, $1,699; new, $1,919 a/r; refurb 1.6 SSD, $2,099; new, $2,294 a/r; refurb 1.8, $2,299; new, $2,400 a/r.
- Psystar Strikes Back, Countersues Apple, Frank Fox, Stop the Noiz, 09.03. Psystar is trying to paint Apple as a monopoly and force it to license the Mac OS.
- Upgrade Options for 15" and 17" Aluminum PowerBooks, Charles W. Moore, 'Book Value, 09.02. Memory, hard drive, optical drive, and flash card readers for 15-inch and 17-inch aluminum G4 PowerBooks.
- More links in our archive.
About LEM | Support | Usage | Privacy | Contacts
Have a question?
Ask an expert!
Navigation
Used Mac Dealers
Apple History
Best Used Macs
Video Cards
Email Lists
InfoMac's Low
End Mac Forum
Favorite Sites
MacSurfer
MacMinute
MacInTouch
MyAppleMenu
InfoMac
Macs Only!
The Mac Observer
Accelerate Your Mac
RetroMacCast
PB Central
MacWindows
The Vintage Mac
Museum
DealMac
DealsOnTheWeb
Mac2Sell
ramseeker
Mac Driver Museum
JAG's House
System
6 Heaven
System 7 Today
the pickle's Low-End
Mac FAQ
Abandonware
Petition
Mac vs. PC Info
Affiliates
The Apple
Store
Mac
Connection
MacMall
TechRestore
MacResQ
ExperCom
Crucial
Memory
batteries.com
Advertise
