[Paul UK]

Hello,

... realistically how far can I go with home networking and a mac (in the UK), and what could you do with it eg TV, video, music, pictures ect.
What type of cabel and equipment would be needed.
sorry small question / big answers, any links would be nice.
Thanks for any input.

[AssassyN]

Wireless home networking can be an amazing thing.

First, if you have a multi-story or multi-room house in which multiple computers are in various rooms throughout your house, wireless networking can save you *tons* of work, drilling through your walls to hide messy wires, and quite possible, save you money.

If you have multiple computers in your home (don't have to all be Macs), a single AirPort Extreme Base Station (or two if you have a huge home) could provide internet and so much more to your computers without the need of wires. What would happen is that you'd station your AirPort Extreme Base Station (AEBS from now on) near your cable/DSL/ modem, or near any phone jack if you're on a 56k connection. You'd run a standard CAT5 ethernet cable from the output of your Cable/DSL modem into the WAN port of the AEBS (or a standard phone cable from your wall's phone jack to the RJ-11 jack in the AEBS), and then from there every computer in your home w/ either an AirPort, AirPort Extreme, or any other wireless networking card, could connect wirelessly to the internet, as the AEBS acts as it's own router as well.

Now, aside from the benefits of not having to run any other wires beside the one from your modem into the AEBS, you now have all your computers on their own firewalled network from within your home, wirelessly. Each computer can access the other and retrieve files from another one, get Word docs, photos, music, video files, any file from any computer can quickly and wirelessly be accessed from any other one in the home now all through your AEBS.

And say you have a few friend's come over w/ their computers and they have wireless cards...well boot them up, get 'em on the network, and suddenly you have a wireless LAN setup so you guys can blast each other out in Quake III, WarCraft III, Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix, etc., without connecting a single computer to a hub, router, etc.

Also, with multiple computers connected online, you can have one downloading video streams, while you hop on another and take care of your online banking. The list just goes on and on. Here's a link to Apple's site for the AEBS, where they show it's tech-specs., possible uses, etc. Click Here and here's they're site specifically for uses at home: Click Here

I hope this has helped out some, and if you have other Q's, feel free to post them! Good luck!

[AssassyN]

Also, as far as equipment that would be needed...aside from computers in your home:

- Wireless Cards for each computer (can be AirPort/AirPort Extreme cards, but *do not* have to be, as long as they're 802.11b or 802.11g compliant, which will be clearly marked on the box).

- An AirPort Extreme Base Station (must get the one w/ the modem if you're using a 56k dial-up connection.)

- Either a CAT5 ethernet cable or a standard phone cable to run from your Cable/DSL modem or phone jack into the AEBS.

As far I can think right now, that's actually it. No excessive wires, no need for drilling through walls, etc. Just that.

[Paul UK]

Sorry for delay, thanks AssassyN for the input & links which answered my questions.