[P1] old/new Airport

[e.mkeene]

> I have the old graphite airport bought almost two years ago.  One my
> TiBook, I have the original card, but I would assume on the iBook I'm
> currently using, bought mid-Dec. '02. I might have the newer one.  I'm
> totally confused at this point.  Can I use any other form of Airport
> software on it that will work with both systems?

Pat, the ibook will never be able to use the airport extreme card, only 
the original card that is currently selling for $79. Your particulat 
TiBook also requires the original airport card. When it comes to the 
base station you have more flexibility. The Graphite that you have now, 
will give minimal encryption, and the shortest distance, apx 150 feet 
if no metal gets in the way. Your TiBook will have a shorter range than 
the ibook regardless of which base station is used.

If you want to add better encryption and a bit more of a hardware 
firewall, you could upgrade to the Snow base station. If you have a 
network capable printer and want it to be networked so each computer 
can access and print directly from each computer, you could get the 
airport extreme base station with the optional antenna and modem. This 
way, you could access the net by cable, dial up if the cable goes down, 
share the printer, and add more range to the tibook.

The reason you can use any of the base stations but not any of the 
cards is one of age. The hardware in the ibook and tibook is limited to 
the original cards, pin outs, number of pins, etc. The newer base 
stations are backward compatible. So they are like a 6th grade teacher 
who would be competent to teach first grade but the first graders could 
not work at 6th grade level just because they have a sixth grade 
teacher. The newer base stations simply dial down to the slower speed 
capacity of the older cards.
Hope that helps to clear things up for you.