Airport Express for DS worth it?

john.outwaterjohn.outwater
Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
Currently I have my iMac G5 in my room, and my grandfather has a Windows 98 machine in his. We are using a wired router and all is fine.



However I am going to purchase a Nintendo DS and wish to play online with it. This requires either a wireless router or the Nintendo USB Online adaptor. Unfortunately the USB adaptor requires Windows XP.



So I have decided to buy some sort of wireless adaptor/router. I am asking for your opinions as to whether I would be better off buying a new router or would the Express be a good deal. Price wise is the Express good for what it offers? I was planning on keeping the two computers wired and just using the wireless for the DS. However is the Express just as fast as my wired connection? The idea of bringing the Express with me is quite appealing though would I just be better off with a cheaper router?



I know you can't offer definate answers seeing as how some of the issues are matter of preference, but what would you recommend?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 6
    chuckerchucker Posts: 5,089member
    The AirPort Express is far too overpriced if you don't want to use its audio streaming. If you like its small size, there's an alternative from Linksys that you can currently get for about $75. If all you need is a station, no matter the size, you should be able to easily find something for $30-50.



    If the DS supports Ad-hoc networking, you won't need any of that.
  • Reply 2 of 6
    john.outwaterjohn.outwater Posts: 116member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Chucker

    The AirPort Express is far too overpriced if you don't want to use its audio streaming. If you like its small size, there's an alternative from Linksys that you can currently get for about $75. If all you need is a station, no matter the size, you should be able to easily find something for $30-50.



    If the DS supports Ad-hoc networking, you won't need any of that.



    Well if the regular stations can be around $30-$50 I think I may just pass on the small size. I didn't know they could be so cheap.



    Also are these SpeedBoosters and such worth it, they seem gimicky.
  • Reply 3 of 6
    chuckerchucker Posts: 5,089member
    I really doubt your DS is gonna use much of the bandwidth anyway, especially if this is mainly for Internet connections, rather than Intranet (local) transfers.
  • Reply 4 of 6
    natecnatec Posts: 19member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by john.outwater

    Well if the regular stations can be around $30-$50 I think I may just pass on the small size. I didn't know they could be so cheap.



    Also are these SpeedBoosters and such worth it, they seem gimicky.



    I'm not sure how the SpeedBooster tech works, but i think you may have to have matching hardware and possibly software to make it work (i.e. wireless PC cards with speed booster) so it might not be worth it. Last weekend I bought a linksys wrt54g version 6.0 from bestbuy for $49. The web-based configuration worked fine in Safari, as did setting up a WPA Personal encrypted connection (i didn't try WPA2). It has options galore for those that need it to do DMZ or port-forwarding for servers, and it can make configuration changes without rebooting the whole router it seems, unlike the old Airport Graphite it is replacing.
  • Reply 5 of 6
    placeboplacebo Posts: 5,767member
    Christ, don't buy an Airport Express for such a low-bandwidth, narrow-use application.
  • Reply 6 of 6
    john.outwaterjohn.outwater Posts: 116member
    Ok, thanks for allowing me to dodge that bullet. I'm prorably going to get a cheap linksys wireless router, or wait a month and a half for when I get FIOS and they give me a free wireless router. Odds are I will wait.
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