Wireless routers compatible with Airport

[David A. Schwartz]

David Crump  <davecrump at mac.com> wrote:

> I am wondering where I can find out what wireless routers are 
> compatible with airport.  I have an iBook with an AirPort card, and 
> have been waiting until I can afford the AirPort Base Station.  
> However, I keep seeing 802.11b certified wireless routers from 
> companies like D-Link and Belkin advertised for very reasonable 
> prices.  Can any of these be used with my iBook? (I realize that if 
> they are 802.11b, they should work, but I have no PC or desktop mac to 
> configure them with.  Only my iBook.)
> Am I stuck with shelling out the ridiculous price they are charging 
> for an Airport Base station? Even used ones on Ebay are still double 
> the going price for a PC wireless router.  I can understand paying a 
> premium if the Apple solution is easier to use, but not three times 
> the cost.
> Thanks for your help.
>
> Dave.


Most routers will work with Airport cards and Macs, even if they don't 
come right out and say so. As noted elsewhere, what will vary is the 
quality of technical support that you can expect should you need it. I 
just added a D-Link DI-514 wireless router to my network and it's 
working fine with my ibook. I had some difficulty at first and tried to 
get tech support on the phone. I wasn't able to get through, but hey, 
it was December 25th after all. Later on, after combing their online 
technical support, I was able to solve the problem myself. (I was 
incorrectly entering my username information for my ISP.)
You will need to know some account information from your DSL or cable 
provider, and you should be comfortable with going into System 
Preferences and making changes to your Network settings. If this 
describes you or someone who can help you then I would definitely 
recommend picking up a non-Apple router. Get your ibook and router 
configured with the hardwire connection first, and then Airport should 
fall into place.
One thing that you should do as soon as you are up and running on 
Airport is to change the administration password on your router. Mine 
came from the factory configured so that I didn't need to enter a 
password to make changes to the router. If you don't enter a password 
of your own, an unscrupulous person within range could make changes to 
your router settings.

David Schwartz