On Sun, Mar 28, 2010 at 6:12 PM, <[email protected]> wrote: > > An ad for Office Max today shows a D-Link Wireless-N 150 Home router for > $39.99. Would this work for her? I'll be doing the set up, so what would I > need to know? (I've only done Airports before.) >
The frank truth as I see it is that ANY router should work with a Mac. The main advantage you get with going with an Airport is that it should be "easier" to set up because Apple should have set things up that way. But a router is pretty much a router is a router. If you understand how to set up a TCP/IP network they aren't all that hard to work with. Unfortunately I can't know whether or not it would be a good match for you and your friend because I am not good at understanding what other people will not understand. There should be no problem interoperating with the Macs though. Because your friend is trying to enable older Macs which use older wireless protocols there may be speed and/or connection range concerns. Does your friend want to connect the G4 ibook using wireless? If so, what sort of distance from the Wireless Access Point (i.e. the router) would the iBook be when used? How many and what sort of obstacles (walls usually) would the single have to get through? FWIW, positioning the WAP/router as high off the floor as you can and as close to the center of the area you want to cover will usually give you the best results. Some things which may (or may not) be of interest about the D-Link DIR-601 Wireless N 150 router. 1) It is a "single stream" wireless N router. That's what the "150" in the title is (probably) about. One way to think of this is that it is a crippled version of 802.11n. It costs less because it does less and thus is cheaper to build. The theoretical (aka unattainable) max speed of a typical 802.11n connection is 300 Mbits/sec (or 37.5 MB/sec). (The best I've seen with my early 2008 white MacBook is ~50 to 70 Mbits/sec). For a single stream device you can cut that in half. The unattainable max is 150 Mbits/sec. I'd guess the most you'd actually get would be around 25 to 35 Mbits/sec. Plenty fast enough for web surfing I would expect. Just be aware that this is not a "full" 802.11n wireless you're considering getting. 2) There are two flavors of this router. The earlier version was the D-Link DIR-600 which according to D-Link's web site was End of Life on 01 Dec, 2009. The current version they are selling is the DIR-601. http://www.dlink.com/dir-600 (end of life) http://www.dlink.com/dir-601 (current) 3) The wired ethernet ports on this router do NOT support gigabit ethernet. They are 10/100 Mbit/sec only. Don't know if it will help you or not, but here's a link to an article on smallnetbuilder.com about deciding which wireless router to get. www.smallnetbuilder.com/wireless/wireless-basics/30905-how-to-buy-a-wireless-router-short-version -irrational john -- You received this message because you are a member of G-Group, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list To unsubscribe from this group, send email to g3-5-list+unsubscribegooglegroups.com or reply to this email with the words "REMOVE ME" as the subject.
