[smelias]

Hi all,

I have a PB Ti/667 and am looking to upgrade. I have an Airport network at home with a PC and an iMac connected to it. I was considering purchasing the PB 17", but am now wondering if it would work with my current network at home, or I will also need to upgrade to Airport Extreme. If so, does anybody have any experience relating to this type of upgrade. I am most concerned about my PC, because it was a pain to config it. I am assuming that the Macs will be configured using the Airport utility.

Also, I have an Oronico antena extension attached to the wifi card in my airport (graphite) at home. Does anybody know if I will be able use this same antena on the new Airport Extreme?

Thanks for your help!

[DaedalusDX]

Originally posted by smelias:
I was considering purchasing the PB 17", but am now wondering if it would work with my current network at home, or I will also need to upgrade to Airport Extreme.

Well... the short answer is to your question is no. The new Powerbook G4 17" has 802.11g connectivity. The great part about 802.11g (Airport Extreme) is that if you have a laptop with an 802.11g card, it will work just fine with any 802.11b network... just at 11Mb/sec, so the connection won't get any faster... Its all about backward compatability with 802.11g.

So for you, you don't need to buy a new Airport Extreme base station if everything is working the way you want it now. The new Powerbook will just join the network seamlessly.

Also, I have an Oronico antena extension attached to the wifi card in my airport (graphite) at home. Does anybody know if I will be able use this same antena on the new Airport Extreme?

Its highly unlikely that you'll be able to use the same antenna with an Airport Extreme Base Station if you get it... Apple officially supports Dr. Bott Extend air antennas on the more expensive of the two AE base stations http://www.drbott.com/prod/9141-QUSO.html

But other than that, i doubt it.

Hope this has been helpful! Good luck with the 17" Powerbook.

[Mastrap]

At home I'm running an iBook, an iMac (both on airport classic) and my new PB12" on airport extreme from the same base station.

No problems at all, although the PB seems to be the fastest of the lot with excellent reception.

[TheBum]

I have a Graphite Airport Base Station I'm using with my 12" AlBook and it works just fine. In fact, I even have an Orinoco antenna connected to it.

Originally posted by smelias:
Also, I have an Oronico antena extension attached to the wifi card in my airport (graphite) at home. Does anybody know if I will be able use this same antena on the new Airport Extreme?

Not without modification. They use different connectors. I suppose it would be possible to cut off the old connector and crimp on a new one, but anytime you're dealing with high RF frequencies, it's a dicey proposition.

[rambo47]

Airport Extreme only makes sense if you have at least two computers equipped with it. Then you can transfer files between the two at 54 mbps. Other than that, it's still an 802.11b world.