Old Airport & iMac... what are my options?
Okay, I've run into an interesting situation. Here it is.
I've moved into my girlfriends apartment (bottom floor of a two story house).
Upstairs the landlord who has DSL and a Netgear wireless router (802.11b) that they share with my girlfriend. My girlfriend connects to it with her Dell laptop with 802.11b PC card.
I have an Apple iMac (of the LCD screen generation) that is 2 years old. It has a slot for an older Airport card. I never bought one because I had it hardwired at my old place. Anyways, as you know Apple has now discontinued the older Airport. eBay has some but they are selling for $110+. So, this really isn't that attractive of an option, even though it is the easiest solution.
My Question.... What should I do?
I figure my options on connecting my iMac to the network are as follows:
A. Used Airport card for $110+ off eBay. Easy setup, pain to buy though. Expensive for what you get.
B. Apple Airport Express for $129. Probably easy setup, expensive, more features (I could use it for other things), bridges so it would extend our wireless network (better reception on the lower level). Would this even work? And I plug an ethernet cable from my iMac into the Airport Express and have it bridge to a D-Link wireless router?
C. Linksys WAP11 for $50. More difficult setup, cheaper, bridges so it would extend our wireless network (better reception on the lower level).
D. USB Wireless for ~$40. Probably easier to setup, cheaper, less throughput & latency issues.
What do you think? What is the best way to go? Do I have any other options?
I've moved into my girlfriends apartment (bottom floor of a two story house).
Upstairs the landlord who has DSL and a Netgear wireless router (802.11b) that they share with my girlfriend. My girlfriend connects to it with her Dell laptop with 802.11b PC card.
I have an Apple iMac (of the LCD screen generation) that is 2 years old. It has a slot for an older Airport card. I never bought one because I had it hardwired at my old place. Anyways, as you know Apple has now discontinued the older Airport. eBay has some but they are selling for $110+. So, this really isn't that attractive of an option, even though it is the easiest solution.
My Question.... What should I do?
I figure my options on connecting my iMac to the network are as follows:
A. Used Airport card for $110+ off eBay. Easy setup, pain to buy though. Expensive for what you get.
B. Apple Airport Express for $129. Probably easy setup, expensive, more features (I could use it for other things), bridges so it would extend our wireless network (better reception on the lower level). Would this even work? And I plug an ethernet cable from my iMac into the Airport Express and have it bridge to a D-Link wireless router?
C. Linksys WAP11 for $50. More difficult setup, cheaper, bridges so it would extend our wireless network (better reception on the lower level).
D. USB Wireless for ~$40. Probably easier to setup, cheaper, less throughput & latency issues.
What do you think? What is the best way to go? Do I have any other options?
Comments
I would personally go for options A, B and C in that order. A is guaranteed to work, B and C may or may not be able to bridge to the upstairs router. Is it possible to run CAT-5 upstairs at all?