Tom and Lisa P <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > Until this time I havnt paid much attention to all the wireless > questions. Now I kind of regret that. > > Are all base stations (and not just apple ones) interchangable ? For > example, Netgear is blowing out the older base stations for $30. If I > have an appropriate wireless PCMCIA card (apple or orinoco), will they > talk to each other ? > > Other than apple or orinoco, are there any other wireless cards that > will work in a 1400 or 3400 ?
There are a few different wireless specifications- 802.11a, 802.11b, and 802.11g are the important ones. 802.11a is pretty much legacy, I think. 802.11b is the most common, supporting 11Mb. This is probably what's $30. 802.11g is the new standard- and it's pretty new, I don't know if the standard has been finalized yet- but it's 55Mb. Well, $30 is a pretty good price, and I think 11Mb is faster than cable (and indeed faster than the ethernet ports on any of my Macs), so I'd go for that one- provided it met my other needs. I'd want a NAT (network address translation) firewall if I didn't already have one, to protect the computers a bit more. I don't know about the wireless cards. One neat feature is to be able to use an external antenna- apparently you can get pretty surprising range with them. Whatever you decide, please use the security features of the station. Unless, of course, you want it to be open... -- Dana [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- PowerBooks is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Enter To Win A | -- Canon PowerShot Digital Cameras start at $299 | Free iBook! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> PowerBooks list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/powerbooks.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/powerbooks%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Mac? Free email & more at Applelinks! http://www.applelinks.com
