>I know we've talked quite a lot on this list about various wireless >cards but not as much about the wireless routers.
[snip] >Which of these are good choices for us Mac users? > >I've got a PowerBook 3400 that I want to go wireless with in the >near future. Should I buy a card now and a router later or do I need >to make sure the two are compatible? I apologize for the length of this post. Tom, Essentially, all 802.11b Wi-Fi certified equipment is supposed to be cross-compatible. That is a requirement of the certification process. (Note that 11g has not been standardized yet, so no manufacturer is certified - different brands may not work together or with 11b clients). An AirPort card will work with a Linksys base station, a linksys card with a D-Link base station, etc. I'd stay away from 11g equipment until they start getting certified. 11a stuff is good too (faster, at least, than 11b), but there's a smaller installed base of 11a equipment. Prices are likely to be higher, and you are less likely to find an 11a access point while roaming. As for 11b kit: I personally use a Linksys 4 port hub/cable/DSL router/wireless AP. It works fine for my uses, but it's probably not the best one out there. All the linksys stuff is web-browser configurable, so they work well with almost any operating system (you don't need special software to configure the base station, just a browser). Linksys stuff does not pass AppleTalk packets between wireless clients or wireless and wired clients, if that's important to you. It does pass AppleTalk packets between all wired LAN clients. Also, the wireless access points seem to "crash" from time to time... If you leave them plugged in for weeks at a time, sometimes they will stop routing wireless traffic. I don't know why this is, but unplugging the AP and then plugging it back in clears the problem right up without erasing any settings. The web-config is pretty easy to handle. The first thing you will want to do is change the default SSID, channel, and admin password. WEP is not compatible with AirPort, so you'll have to generate the WEP hex keys and enter them manually instead of using a passphrase as in AirPort. Also, the MAC address filtering is pretty poor - basically it only allows you to specify that a wireless client with a given MAC address cannot access the WAN. Other than that, though, it's pretty good quality and relatively inexpensive. The Linksys WAP11 has some interesting features - it is only a wireless access point (no wired LAN connections, just 1 LAN uplink), but it can be configured as a "bridge" to another wireless network. So if your neighbor has a network, you can set up your WAP11 to be a client on his network and give your house a wired LAN through the single 10bT port. Conversely, if you already have a wired LAN, you can use the AP to allow wireless clients to connect. Because all the linksys stuff has external antennas already, you can unscrew them and attach a different antenna for extended range. Certainly AirPort is excellent, and given the top notch quality of the AirPort software and config tools, I would recommend the AirPort Base Station (any generation, except the Extreme version - you'll need a "g" card to use that to it's fullest). If you can find one for cheap, pick it up. Early models tended to overheat, though, so watch out for that. The ABS can be modified to accept an antenna (either an Orinoco Range Extender antenna or a homebrew solution), but it requires some case mods. The Orinoco stuff, if you can find it, is good too. The RG1000 is essentially the same thing as the first generation AirPort base station in a different shell. You can even use the AirPort software to configure it. The Orinoco hardware does pass AppleTalk packets. It has all the same features as the original ABS but at a lower price. Other Orinoco base stations have different features (like instead of a modem, one has a 10bT uplink, another has a 10bT uplink and 10bT downlink, etc) All the Orinoco equipment accept external antennas for extended range. "Low end" models (like the RG1000) cannot do 128/104 bit WEP. But if you are really concerned about strong encryption, you wouldn't be going wireless anyway, eh? ;-) I don't know much about D-Link, Proxim (NOT ORINOCO or WAVELAN brand stuff!!), Farallon, Avaya, Cisco, or the other manufacturers out there, except that I'm not impressed by the quality of the D-Link equipment or it's design (that's what you get for bottom dollar, I guess). I've heard (and this would be in keeping with their precedent) that Cisco AiroNet stuff, if you can afford it, is excellent. You might want to check out the Melbourne Wireless, Newbury OpenNet, or other community wireless network sites out there - they generally have lots of good information about base stations, clients, and other goodies. In fact, I believe there is even a member of the Melbourne Wireless group on this list, though I cannot recall the name at the moment... Peace, Drew -- Author of ClassicStumbler email: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> web: <http://homepage.mac.com/alk/> Want to know if your neighbor has Wi-Fi? Find out with ClassicStumbler! <http://homepage.mac.com/alk/classicstumbler/> -- PowerBooks is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... 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