On 10/08/04 13:38, "Greg Gilmore" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>> . . . why not considering AirPort Express? At $149, it >> seems like a good value when compare to a full base station, unless you need >> the router functionality that a full base station offers. > > Thanks for the reply, Laurent. I'll have a maximum of 5 Macs on my LAN. Will > Express suffice? I can get a refurb base station (I think it's a graphite) > from MacResQ for $77. (For $180, they'll sell me the base station and a card > for my daughter's iBook, also refurb.) > >>> What about an 802.11g PCMCIA card for the TiBook? Possible? > >> Possible, but you would certainly need an OS X driver to drive the card and >> I don't know if anybody has written one already. > > I've heard that the original airport card didn't work very well. Should I > consider something else for the TiBook? If you want to network 5 Macs, you will need somekind of router. You could probably buy a cheap D-Link router/switch but the added cost to the price of the AirPort Express will be close to an AirPort Extreme station. However, I would stay away from the Graphite base station. I had to replace 2 because of their infamous weak capacitors that tend to burn out after a little while. I replaced the 2nd one for a Snow base station and didn't have any other problem. Plus, with the Graphite that has only a LAN port, you would not be able to plug in a cable or DSL modem, while the Snow base station has both a LAN port for your network and a WAN port for your cable/DSL modem. If your 5 Macs are all AirPort, then just a Snow AirPort base station would be fine. However, if you have more than one Mac that uses Ethernet wire, then you will need to get a hub to make the physical connections to your Macs and the base station. Methinks that if what you get for $180 is merely a refurbished graphite AirPort base station and a refurbished regular AirPort card, then it's a little expensive. I'm pretty sure you could do better on eBay finding a used Snow AirPort base station and a regular AirPort card. As for your TiBook, if you willing to accept a card that sticks out of your TiBook, then somebody just mentioned a 802.11g card that apparently works out of the box without any driver under OS X. Personally, I wouldn't do it. I used to have a Wallstreet with a Lucent Wavelan wireless card and I would almost always bump the card into something. YMMV, of course... -Laurent. -- ======================================================================== Laurent Daudelin Developer, Multifamily, ESO, Fannie Mae mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Washington, DC, USA ************************ Usual disclaimers apply *********************** -- G-Books is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | -- Check our web site for refurbished PowerBooks | & CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> G-Books list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-books.html> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/g-books%40mail.maclaunch.com/> --------------------------------------------------------------- >The Think Different Store http://www.ThinkDifferentStore.com ---------------------------------------------------------------
