Third party wireless router
I have an old Powerbook G3 and an iBook (shell) and both have Airport card installed. I got those Airport cards when I bought my old graphite Airport Base Station back in 2000. Now my ABS is dead, I'm thinking about buying a third party wireless router namely Netgear or D-link. Do they have units that compatible with my old Airport card? If so, which model should I get?
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Originally posted by sasori390
I have an old Powerbook G3 and an iBook (shell) and both have Airport card installed. I got those Airport cards when I bought my old graphite Airport Base Station back in 2000. Now my ABS is dead, I'm thinking about buying a third party wireless router namely Netgear or D-link. Do they have units that compatible with my old Airport card? If so, which model should I get?
I've got a netgear router DG834G, it's brilliant, very good signal strength, i have three floors in my house and they all get the signal; perfectly. Also got an office in the garden, blocked by a huge hedge and signal gets thorough that as well. Very easy to set-up and works well with PCs and Macs. Good security options and has four ethernet ports for printing etc.
If works sporatically in there because it was an addition to the house, and is made almost entirely of metal (aluminum).
Inside the room (10% signal), One step out the door (75% signal)
Go figure, but a great router none the less, i just wish airport cards supported the 108mbps feature that it has.
Just make sure whatever wireless router or access point you buy supports the 802.11b/g standard(s) (99% of them do).
Originally posted by PBG3
How do you go about setting something like that up? I have a new iBook with Airport Extreme built in, can I just go out an buy any Wireless Router and hook it up to my DSL modem and iMac downstairs? Any special drivers needed? There are wireless routers for about $90 CDN here, which would be much nicer than blowing $179 on an AirportExpress...any help would be appreciated.
Macs are extremely easy, you literally plug in the router and your computer will instantly find the network (click the airport button in the menu bar) Select the network you want. That's it. Once you've connected you can edit the network preferences by connecting to the routers settings (different depending on the router) My router, a netgear, is managed using an internet browser - no software needed. PCs are more tricky.
Originally posted by sasori390
If so, which model should I get?
I got a Microsoft MN700.
It is vastly better than the Belkin I bought my parents ( easier to setup, reliable ).
It was plug and play for me. Plug in my ADSL modem, connect over a cable to initiate a connection and turn on wireless, then boom, airport is working on my ibook.
The best bit, they are discontinued and on special. My local radio shack is selling them for $27. I got mine from Costco for about $35.
It does b and g wireless, so if you get a new machine in the future it will grow with you, and it has a four port ethernet hub.
But you have to really look at the expandabilties in these wireless routers. The microsoft MN700 for example, are easy for novices to set up, but lack advanced configuration options, such as wireless bridging, which is critical in my situation since one wireless router can't reach to the other side of the house.
I bought one only to discover (after a few months) that it couldn't maintain a connection to verizon dsl. Specifically, it always lost access to dns. NetGear basically said, ha ha, you're screwed. I'll never buy from NetGear again.