Going Wireless, need advice please

I have a MacBookPro on the way and 2 Dell desktops. I need to set up a wireless network that also allows for wireless printing (preferably for 2 printers). What do i need to get. Are the Apple Airport products worth the extra money they cost? If so why? What do they do that a $50 Linksys wireless router does not?

Thanks in advance.

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Just my nickels worth.
Happy Snappin'!



Ron
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http://www.pbase.com/recalcitrantron
FCAS Member No. 68
pbase supporter
D Seventy

Don't know if I can help. Our rectory which is some 300 feet across the parking lot has to get hooked up with our parish school. I used to 2100AP Dlink access points. This has worked fine. At first I though I was going to have an external antenna but line of site was fine. I have the AP on the 2nd floor of the Rectory on a book shelf next to a window. The other AP is on the first floor of the school in our computer lab( by a window). I did have to set up 128bit security as the neighbor hood has wireless nearby.

The Dlink was setup on a windows OS browser in the rectory and the a MacOS browser in the school. We have a mixed network of computers but the ones that need to share files can. Better than sneaker net. So I can say Dlink will work through the browser on the mac. The router in the school is a Linksys and that can be worked through the Mac Browser. So you could set up an AP that has a printer port and give that printer a static IP address and that way the printer can be on all the time and not hooked to a computer. I never did get an Air Port Base station so I cannot tell you if that would have been easier. I am pleased with the Dlink AP2100.

Ciao,
Lou Cioccio

Don't know much about wireless. But did here a podcast say that if your not using 802.11

and need the number N to have any real speed. Any letter lower would be a waste of time. JonL

Jon L said:

Don't know much about wireless. But did here a podcast say that if
your not using 802.11
and need the number N to have any real speed. Any letter lower
would be a waste of time. JonL

Click to expand...

Very few devices meet the unratified 'N' specification yet - rumours are that the latest C2D Macbook Pros have an 'N' card, but at the moment we have to settle for G, which, despite, JonL's opinion, is very useful.

Sharing two printers will probably mean you'll need two devices unless you can printer share from one of the desktops. I don't know the best way to configure the network with non Apple gear, but and Airport Extreme (for sharing one printer and any wired ethernet desktops) and an Airport Express (for the other printer and music) makes a good system. The airport gear is PC compatible, but make sure your printers are PC and Mac compatible, too.

--
Life is not meant to be taken seriously.

MacPhotographer said:

MacPhotographer wrote:
Sharing two printers will probably mean you'll need two devices
unless you can printer share from one of the desktops. I don't know
the best way to configure the network with non Apple gear, but and
Airport Extreme (for sharing one printer and any wired ethernet
desktops) and an Airport Express (for the other printer and music)
makes a good system. The airport gear is PC compatible, but make
sure your printers are PC and Mac compatible, too.

Click to expand...

Thanks Jon. So if I put an Extreme upstairs with my LaserJet Printer I can hard wire via ethernet to one of my Dell boxes, USP connect to my printer and then add an Express downstairs to plug into my downstairs Dell and downstairs printer and that should work?

--
Just my nickels worth.
Happy Snappin'!



Ron
----------------------------------------------------
http://www.pbase.com/recalcitrantron
FCAS Member No. 68
pbase supporter
D Seventy

RecalcitrantRon said:

I have a MacBookPro on the way and 2 Dell desktops. I need to set
up a wireless network that also allows for wireless printing
(preferably for 2 printers).

Click to expand...

I have MBP and Dell and Sony desktops and are connected vis wireless network. There are different ways to configure the printers.

What do i need to get. Are the Apple

RecalcitrantRon said:

Airport products worth the extra money they cost? If so why? What
do they do that a $50 Linksys wireless router does not?

Click to expand...

No. Not needed. If you are getting C2D MBP, it has draft-N card and Airport Express is G router so you will not be able to take advantage of faster speed, if you choose to get draft-N router. In either case, draft-N card will work in mixed environment and operate at whatever router speed will support (A/B/G/d-N).

One way is to configure the printer by having the printer connected via USB on PC; thereby, using the PC as the print server. The drawback is you can only print if the desktop PC is turned on.

Another is to get a wireless printer connection. Need to buy additional hw to attach to your printer. Most routers can assign local IP address so you will need to setup your MBP to print to IP address.

If you decide to buy Linksys, then buy all Linksys stuff (I know it is supposed to work with any wi-fi as long as it is the standard, but I've found that it is much easier if they are made by the same company and preconfigured to talk to each other - others will tell you this is a myth and bs, maybe so but I'm not IT geek)

I am running Belkin pre-N wireless router (because non-optimal peformance spec for Belkin was much more superior than any other) and am using my Dell desktop as a print server. I connect from my MBP using SMB protocol for file transfers, and printer is setup via print utility. XP needs to have the printer shared and must be attached with user ID with password.

Cheers

performed quite well.

However, be warned that if you need to extend the range of your network then Linksys and DLink products will not work as network extenders for an Airport Extreme base station. I tried it for 2 days, made several calls to DLink tech support (and Linksys) and was finally told "You can't do that."

Similarly, if you have a DLink or Linksys base station, an Airport Express box cannot be used to extend your network. That is the verbal gospel straight from a resident of an Apple Genius Bar (I hate that phrase....).

But I now have the Extreme base station and an Airport Express unit and they work flawlessly together.

Bob Peters

Ron -

If you decide to go with the Airport Extreme, you might want to take a look at iFelix's compatibility page.

http://www.ifelix.co.uk/tech/1013.html

Patrick
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