[KP*]

I would like to set up a small network between my desktop Mac (a dual 1.25 1st generation MDD) and my PC laptop (Dell Inspiron 5000e -- about 3 years old), and also with the Wi-Fi card of my Sony Clie (it's Sony's proprietary card). I mostly want to share my broadband cable connection, but it would be great to also get my Canon i850 printer shared with the laptop as well. I would want the desktop to have a wired connection to the router, and the laptop and Clie would be wireless.

I was thinking of Airport Extreme, though I know I wouldn't be able to take advantage of the higher speeds with the Clie (and the laptop, too?). Someday I'm going to replace the laptop with a Powerbook, so I'm trying to think ahead.

My main concern is whether my non-Apple components (especially my older laptop) will be able to take advantage of most of the features that Airport offers, or will I actually get more compatibility out of a third-party router?

Thanks for taking the time to read this. I much appreciate any suggestions.

[ghporter]

In order for ANY device connected to ANY 802.11g access point (including the AirPort Extreme base station), ALL devices connected to the access point MUST be running 802.11g. In other words, as soon as you connect with anything that can't go that fast, YOUR WHOLE WIRELESS NETWORK SHIFTS TO MAX 11Mbps.

So, yes, your non-Apple stuff can connect, and depending on what you have the printer connected to you should be able to easily share it.

What features are you interested in your non-Apple devices taking advantage of, other than sharing the Internet connection and printing?

[KP*]

Originally posted by GHPorter:
In order for ANY device connected to ANY 802.11g access point (including the AirPort Extreme base station), ALL devices connected to the access point MUST be running 802.11g. In other words, as soon as you connect with anything that can't go that fast, YOUR WHOLE WIRELESS NETWORK SHIFTS TO MAX 11Mbps.

So, yes, your non-Apple stuff can connect, and depending on what you have the printer connected to you should be able to easily share it.

What features are you interested in your non-Apple devices taking advantage of, other than sharing the Internet connection and printing?

Thanks for your help. Yeah, I understand that my network will be slower until all my devices catch up to it in speed (I'm hoping in a year or two everything will be available in 802.11g and by then the laptop will be a Powerbook). I would also like to hotsync my Clie (which I think will be no problem), and I'm interested in the Airport with the modem for dialing in to access my home computer from the road (the Mac is probably the only computer that I would need to access the files from).

My main concern is what kind of wireless card I should get for my laptop. Would this Linksys card be fully compatible? http://linksys.com/Products/product....6&prid=507
What features, if any, will I not be able to take advantage of because it's not an all-Mac network?
Thanks again for your advice.

[aaanorton]

Originally posted by KP*:
...and I'm interested in the Airport with the modem for dialing in to access my home computer from the road (the Mac is probably the only computer that I would need to access the files from).

You'll probably need to set up port forwarding for this, so that all incoming calls go to the Mac. This will also mean that you'll need to manually assign an IP to the Mac, so that it doesn't keep changing.