Originally posted by nickdixon:
I'm moving to an area where the whole community is receiving Broadband access via a wireless connection. I'm not sure how it all works but I've been told that everyone is using a desktop aerial to pick up the wireless 802.11g connection on their PC.
I'm apparently going to be the first person to use it with a Mac, so I was wondering if I would be able to pick up the signal on an Airport Extreme base station, which would then send it to my Ibook's Airport card?
Or does it have to be an Airport Extreme card ?
Any help would be much appreciated.
Nick
It depends - there are a number of wireless broadband solutions available. One common method is a line of sight radio signal that uses custom equipment - you need to have a radio receiver from the ISP that receives the signal from the custom antenna and then outputs an ethernet signal.
Another method, and becoming more common, is to use an 802.11x strategy - you'll use standard 802.11 cards and the ISP will either give you a SSID for his network or will record the MAC of your wireless card in his wireless gateway.
So... if he's using 802.11x (a, b, g), you should be able to use your standard cards. I'm using the first technique above and another provider is coming into my area with an 802.11 solution - he's already told me I have to buy his cards. Yeah. Either he's looking for a bit more profit or he doesn't really understand the technology. Anothing failing, in my mind, is that most of these 802.11 ISPs will try and sell you service based upon each card that you have. BS. I wouldn't do it unless I could use a wireless gateway that permits me to service multiple machines on my end.
Your extreme card will work fine to receive the signal - however your airport extreme will not receive the signal and then rebroadcast it for you. You'll need a wireless gateway and then an airport on your network to do that.
:->
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