> Don't worry; my partner, Peggy, and I are currently involved in a technical
> discussion of how best to implement DSL for our desktop and laptop machines,
> with hers being Windoz and mine Mac. Anybody know of a good, working,
> <wireless> setup that allows Windoz and Macs to be on the same network
> sharing the same DSL line? Is there hardware or software that allows Windoz
> machines to share an Airport network?)
Since the Airport is just using 802.11b, you can buy that and it'll mostly
just work with any other 802.11b compliant product.
The major reason I suggest the Airport over other products is that, for most
people, it's far easier to setup using Apple's Mac-based software.
Generally speaking, all 802.11b solutions interoperate. And Apple's Airport
is just Lucent's "silver" Orinoco product...which is an 802.11b solution.
There are at least a half-dozen companies offering similar products:
<http://www.wavelan.com/products/productdetail.html?id=29>
<http://www.farallon.com/products/netline/broadband/8581_gateway.html>
<http://www.2wire.com/products/homeportal_100.asp>
<http://www.2wire.com/products/homeportal_1500.asp>
WaveLAN is part of Lucent (but is being spun off into a company called
Agere). WaveLAN is the former name of that which is now called Orinoco.
Anyway, the WaveLAN product (RG-1000 Residential Gateway) is actually the
Airport product sans Macintosh software and with different plastics. Or,
more accurately, the Airport is actually the RG-1000.
The Farallon product isn't shipping just yet. However, it does have the
advantage of having an extra LAN-side 10/100baseT connector. This really
only matters if you're going to want to have a wired networking sharing the
external network connection. However, it may end up being important to you
even if it isn't now...
I'm not sure whether or not the 2Wire wireless products are shipping.
They've essentially taken pre-existing products and dropped wireless support
into them. They have the additional feature of acting as HomePNA gateways.
HomePNA is an interesting little technology. See
<http://www.HomePNA.org>
3Com, Aironet (aka Cisco), Cabletron, Dell, IBM, Technology Works, and
others also sell similar products. Most (but NOT Aironet) are OEM'd from
Lucent or incorporate Lucent radio cards into the product. As a result,
they're quite compatible with Apple's Airport.
mikel
PS: As I work on the Orinoco products for Agere, I'm probably biased.
PPS: As Agere wrote much of the v2 specification for HomePNA, I'm probably
biased.
PPPS: Speaking for the opposition, most of Microsoft's Redmond campus has
deployed Aironet. But my understanding is that this wasn't a technical
decision, but simply the result of Aironet's having sufficiently clever
people as to provide, install, and maintain most of the infrastructure
essentially for free. And given that Whistler apparently contains built-in
drivers for Aironet's products, I'd say that it seems to have worked... ;-)
PPPPS: Anything I've said about Aironet is based solely upon rumors.
Reality may differ.
PPPPPS: Short version: Buy an Airport if you don't need to also support a
pre-existing wired network. If I needed wired networking as well, I'd wait
until February and buy the Farallon product.
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