>I have a fair idea of the theoretical advantages of >the Airport Extreme over the standard Airport card. >But, for everyday websurfing and typical filesharing >of 1 and 2 page documents, would there be any real >difference between the two?
Unless you have one MASSIVE connection to the internet, it will make zero difference to your web surfing or other internet use. The bottleneck will be the internet connection. Typical DSL is 1.5 Mbs down, and cable is 3-5 Mbs down. Standard Airport, or 802.11b is 11 Mbs, with an typical thruput of 6-8 Mbs, so the Airport connection will likely always be faster then your internet connection. This could fail to be true if you have more than a handful of users on the network. The more users you add, the less thruput you will see on your Airport network. If your thruput drops below your internet connection speed, then you could benefit from Airport Extreme (802.11g). Another thing that can cause lower thruput is a bad Airport connection, either interference, or too far away from the base station. However, if this is your reason for low thruput, then moving to Airport Extreme will NOT help, as 802.11g has a shorter range for its max speed then 802.11b has for its max speed (in other words, Airport or Airport Extreme, you will see the same speeds at a given distance and level of interference). For typical file sharing of small documents, the same rules apply as does for your internet connection. So you likely don't need to upgrade. The simple test to know if you would benefit from a faster connection is, how often do you find yourself waiting on the network (either waiting for a file to copy, or waiting for a document to open or save). If you aren't waiting often, then your network speed is sufficient. (of course, if you ARE waiting, you can't automatically throw faster network hardware at the problem and expect it to go away, the problem may not in fact lie with total bandwidth, but rather in how it is being utilized, or with some other device failing to keep pace with the available connection). -chris <http://www.mythtech.net> -- The iMac List is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | - Epson Stylus Color 580 Printers - new at $69 | & CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> iMac List info: <http://lowendmac.com/imac/list.shtml> --> 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/imac-list%40mail.maclaunch.com/> --------------------------------------------------------------- iPod Accessories for Less at 1-800-iPOD.COM Fast Delivery, Low Price, Good Deal www.1800ipod.com ---------------------------------------------------------------
