[60-hz]

I am about to go out and buy an Apple Extreme Base Station for my G4 15" PowerBook 667Mhz DVI Model. I just picked up an original Airport Card not an extreme card obviously. Its all installed and i'm just about to go out and buy that AE Base Station, however just a few quick questions.

Obviously because i will be using 802.11b card i will only get a max 11Mbps, thats ok because i will mainly be using it for surfing the web and my broadband connection is only 512Kbps anyway.

Now the new AE Base Station's range is up 150 foot right, i cant remember but isn't the older Base Station's range something like 50 foot? Anyway because i will be using 802.11b and will be limited to the 11Mbps does this or will this affect the amount of coverage i will get?


I'm new to networking and stuff, can someone also explain to me what the difference between the Wan and Lan port on the AE Base Station?

Hoping for some quick replys here and peace of mind so i can run out and buy one of these baby's

[ghporter]

The maximum range of the Extreme base is about what the quoted max of the original products was. The USABLE range of the Extreme base is about what the original was, too-except that Extreme seems to be more susceptible to interference and fading than the original equipment was.

Further, if you're going to get an Extreme base, get the one with the antenna port, even if you never intend to use the modem. Then shell out for an external antenna-starting at around $100-because you'll be glad you did. Why? The "flying saucer" uses, inside it, a PCMCIA wireless card, which has a tiny little antenna. When you get the external antenna model and an external antenna, you greatly increase the efficiency of the antenna system, and thus increase both range and reliability.

My advice would be to shop around for another 802.11g access point, preferably one with a wired router built in. You'll spend a lot less money, have a range of selections (including access points with two antennas-always preferable because they always outperform single antenna models), and it'll work fine for you. What you lose is the cool Apple styling. Is that styling worth $100-$150 more?

[NYCFarmboy]

Honestly I'd get somethign other than extreme.

I purchased an Extreme base station in February..and it constantly goes dead on me.. losing signals and just dissapears.

I've upgraded everytime Apple brings along something new..including the lastest 3.0.3 or whatever it was on Wednesday..and it died again last night on me for 10 minutes.

So.. I've went and purchased a older Graphine Airport and am going to be using it instead until Apple offers a real fix.

I live in Manhattan, and maybe the interference in this apartment building with cell phones/microwave ovens is just too much for that new standard.

I've reset it to only do the lower "b" 11bps setting and still have the problems. I change the channels constantly, but nothing seems to work.

Very unhappy with extreme...I'd go with LinkSys or something else.

[blackbird_1.0]

i just ogt an ae base station, kinda having problems, u mean i should send mind back?

[cougar337]

I too have a Powerbook 667MHz with the Airport Extreme Base Station and a Airport card in my Powerbook running 802.11b 11Mbps. I do get about 150feet with my set up and it seems fairly reliable. I mainly use mine for surfing the web and also some file sharing/transfering between my Windows XP box....yes slow but it does work.

I havent really figured out the difference between the LAN/WAN port, in fact I have my PC-Mac connection in the LAN port and I put my Cable modem in the WAN port and it works flawlessly.

Here's a tidbit. I found somewhere that you can achive 54Mbps even with our old 667Mhz by purchasing a 3rd party PCMCIA card and not using the Airport card. I may try it myself and see if it's true..

Linky---> 54Mbps goodness

Tell me what you think!

[ghporter]

Originally posted by cougar337:
I havent really figured out the difference between the LAN/WAN port, in fact I have my PC-Mac connection in the LAN port and I put my Cable modem in the WAN port and it works flawlessly.

That's exactly the way it's supposed to be. LAN means "Local Area Network," while WAN means "Wide Area Network."

Here's a tidbit. I found somewhere that you can achive 54Mbps even with our old 667Mhz by purchasing a 3rd party PCMCIA card and not using the Airport card. I may try it myself and see if it's true..

That should work, but only if the 3rd party card has a Mac driver. Be careful and do the research before you buy, because some vendors are kind of wierd about taking back products that work exactly the way they should, just not the way you wanted.