[X Newbies] Airport Extreme

[Vincent Cayenne]

At 4:28a -0500 2003.02.20, TheMacintoshLady wrote:
>What's with Airport Extreme? Is it any good and how can I use it with OS
>9 machines? Does ANY Airport work with OS 9?

Some answers are here 
<http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/wireless/2003/01/23/80211g.html>.

Short form:

Airport Extreme aka 802.11g is good.

It is not a firm specification but a draft that the industry expects 
to be ratified soon.

Any changes from currently sold equipment to comply with the final 
specification are **expected** to only require firmware updates.

802.11g equipment other than the cards for the proprietary Airport 
Extreme mini-PCI slot doesn't have to be bought from Apple.

802.11g supports the older 802.11b aka WiFi aka Airport.

802.11g is theoretically capable of 54 Mbps but 802.11b of _only_ 11 Mbps.

802.11b equipment's presence can reduce the speeds of 802.11g 
equipment but _not_ necessarily down to 802.11b speed.

802.11b equipment other than the cards for the proprietary Airport 
slot doesn't have to be bought from Apple.

Third-party 802.11b cards for OS X will probably need either the open 
source WirelessDriver from SourceForge or IOXperts $20 driver. Some 
manufacturers (MacSense, etc.) supply drivers and connectivity 
software for their equipment.

Combination 802.11a/b/g equipment began to appear this week. 802.11a 
is a 'nuther story...


My experience with this:

I have 802.11b capability at home provided by an SMC Barricade 
7004AWBR multifunction network device - switch, print server, 
broadband router, DHCP Server, NAT, Wireless Access Point (WAP). 
Probably cost me about $100, cheaper now.

I always have the facility to add 802.11b capability to any wired 
network with DHCP and an open network port - I carry a palm-sized 
D-Link DWL-1000AP WAP with me everywhere.

I installed two Linksys 802.11g multi-function devices two weeks ago 
( a week after their availability) along with deployment of 20 of the 
802.11g cards. All went well. Some options had to be set to enable 
802.11b functionality. Range is excellent for both g and b thus far. 
The drivers or any method of using these cards in a Mac laptop wasn't 
grokked until last week so I haven't tried them in either of my 
Lombards yet. one colleague's NetGear 802.11b card also worked 
flawlessly. linksys 802.11b cards that we had on hand also worked.

My range from a Lucent Orinoco 802.11b card for any of the networks 
above seems to be substantial. At home the WAP is in the front annex. 
Four rooms away, in the master bedroom, I have a strong signal. 
Anywhere downstairs, I have a fair-to-strong signal. I can go down 
the driveway, to the curb and sit in a car parked in front of the 
home and still get a weak-to-fair signal.

At one client, a manufacturing facility spanning four buildings with 
a factory machining and metallurgy operation in the middle, I can 
plug in the D-Link and get signal up- and downstairs throughout any 
two adjacent buildings, I do not successfully get coverage across the 
machining shop floor.

At another location, I tap into the (freely offered) access of a 
computer store four storefronts away.

Sometime, during my train ride, as we enter one station in 
particular, I get signal from what i presume to be some residential 
WAP from someone's home across the car park.

Results for this type of equipment vary. One would be well advised to 
research and experiment before committing to any specific solution.
-- 
'tis as said. [Reality is defined by being described]