Comcast and AirPort...
Did I hear correctly that Comcast (cable and cable Internet provider) somehow doesn't play nice with AirPort and multiple access?
First, let me make sure I have things straight: in theory, if you have an AirPort Base Station and a house of, say, 4 Macs (equipped with AirPort cards, of course), you'd run your cable into the AirPort Base Station and then those four Macs can get on the Internet? Am I right, wrong, missing something, romanticizing/simplifying it, etc.?
In my case: a G4 iMac and a soon-to-be PowerBook. What, EXACTLY, do I need to get both of them online? The Base Station? Anything else? A router? If so, why?
I'm missing something here, in all the haze...
BTW, I don't necessarily want to spend $79 to put an AirPort card into a stationary Mac like the iMac when I could just hook an Ethernet cable to it.
In short: I want BOTH Macs online, the PowerBook wireless (of course), the iMac doesn't have to be.
What do I need, what do I hook to what, etc.
[Mods, if this belongs in Genius Bar, do the honors...]
P.S. - Someone still tell me what they know about Comcast and AirPort...I thought I read somewhere that Comcast somehow disables or doesn't work and all multiple AirPort connections?
I don't know...help.
First, let me make sure I have things straight: in theory, if you have an AirPort Base Station and a house of, say, 4 Macs (equipped with AirPort cards, of course), you'd run your cable into the AirPort Base Station and then those four Macs can get on the Internet? Am I right, wrong, missing something, romanticizing/simplifying it, etc.?
In my case: a G4 iMac and a soon-to-be PowerBook. What, EXACTLY, do I need to get both of them online? The Base Station? Anything else? A router? If so, why?
I'm missing something here, in all the haze...
BTW, I don't necessarily want to spend $79 to put an AirPort card into a stationary Mac like the iMac when I could just hook an Ethernet cable to it.
In short: I want BOTH Macs online, the PowerBook wireless (of course), the iMac doesn't have to be.
What do I need, what do I hook to what, etc.
[Mods, if this belongs in Genius Bar, do the honors...]
P.S. - Someone still tell me what they know about Comcast and AirPort...I thought I read somewhere that Comcast somehow disables or doesn't work and all multiple AirPort connections?
I don't know...help.
Comments
All you need are two airport cards. One for the powerbook one for the iMac. Why for the iMac, you ask? To have a software ABS, of course. It'll save you a couple hundred bucks, as long as you don't mind leaving the iMac on all the time. Plus, you get a real wireless network to play with. Networked iTunes, printer, and with Panther other USB stuff like scanners and cameras.
If you don't want to go the software route, you can get a 802.11b or g compliant access point. Linksys, D-Link, etc make them, in addition to Apple's ABS. They should all work fine. You hook the iMac up via an ethernet cable to the access point (which is a router) and wirelessly surf with the powerbook.
In all, all you need are either 2 airport cards or one airport card and an access point. That's it. Isn't airport easy?
Almost seems too easy. Sure there isn't a catch?
Originally posted by pscates
Thanks. I was hoping it was something like that. I'd read other threads in the past and people talking about "you need a router and...". I always thought the base station (whatever brand) WAS a "router" and supported/allowed multiple, shared connections.
Almost seems too easy. Sure there isn't a catch?
Believe it or not, no.
The cable modem attaches to the.... wireless router.
The wireless router attaches to the... [better sing fast now] whichever-computers-are within-easy-ethernet-cable-distance.
Erm, and plug airport cards into the laptops and any dekstops that it isn't convenient to string a ethernet cable to from the router. Apple's Base Station is the coolest wireless router out there, but you can pick up a perfectly functional D-Link wireless router (I have two DI-614+'s myself) for around 100 bucks. The 614+ has four LAN sockets for wired networking. If you have a large home, D-Link also sells a wireless repeater (DWL-800AP+) which, well, acts as a repeater to increase the range of your wireless network.
As of my last service call, BTW, Comcast explicitly allowed in-home networking and wireless LANs for their cable modem customers. Even if they didn't, as long as you're only using one IP address (for the router) there's little they could or would want to do about it.
Originally posted by Eugene
Down here, my AirPort basestations have had a slight bit of trouble with Comcast, namely the basestations don't wait long enough to fetch an IP via DHCP so they think there is none. In reality, the Comcast DHCP service is just very slow in issuing IPs. It takes a lot of tries to get the first IP, but once it leases one, it's fine...
Hmm. Last fall my iBook suddenly stopped working with my Comcast/ATTBI cable modem. It was right around the time of the switch-over. The iBook just wouldn't fetch an IP. I wonder if was having the same issue as your ABS. After a couple of months, it suddenly worked fine again - but I started using a router anyway.
I have not noticed any difference in service since the switch from ATTBI to Comcast. My only gripe so far is that Comcast raised the price of service $10 in our area for those who do not also have cable TV service. It went from $42.95 to $52.95 for me. I think that may make DSL cheaper.