[Mallrat]

my friend has an ibook 600 with an airport card installed and wanted to buy an apple base station.

But from reading on here, I guess he can have cheaper options.

What would you recommend as the cheapest way to surf the net wireless?

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Myself I have an ibook 500. I want to buy an airport card and get a base station.

But as I said, it seems there are other base station options.

- Do you still need an airport card if you aren't going with the apple base station? In other words, does the airport card work with non-apple base stations?

- I like that the airport is inside the computer, but I'm sure an aiport card (80) and base station (200) are more expensive than other options. What is the cheapest way for me to get going and surfing wirelessly.

I did want to be apple to hook up my lexmark E320 for wireless printing and I know the apple base station can do it.

Can the other options offer me that option?

Thank you for your time and for reading my long post.

[TMLai]

In theory, ibook with an airport card would be able to connect to any wi-fi access point. But with most wireless rounter. You are required to run a pc only setup software to get it start.

I have 3 Airport Extreme Basestations installed in my home (All concere construction) and they work very reliably (after the 5.1.2 firmware update). But only Airport card can connect to the network now. None of my non apple hardware can connect to the network!

Printer sharing work OK. But do check apple web site for a list of all the supported printers.

[aaanorton]

Originally posted by TMLai:
In theory, ibook with an airport card would be able to connect to any wi-fi access point. But with most wireless rounter. You are required to run a pc only setup software to get it start.

Name one. This is nonsense. I don't know of a single available, consumer wireless router that needs a PC to config. While there may be some that do, the VAST majority use a web interface, allowing you yo use any browser to set it up. This is generally very simple, arguably as easy or easier than Apple's dedicated packages.

But only Airport card can connect to the network now. None of my non apple hardware can connect to the network!

Then you're doing something wrong. Do a search on this forum. I think I remember a recent thread that resolved this.

Mallrat,
I like the Netgear MR814. You can get one for 30 bucks. You'll still need Airport cards in your iBooks, but you could get all this stuff for less than the cost of one AEBS.
Printing wirelessly is a little tricky. What kind of printer do you have? Sometimes you can get a wired/less print server to work. Or look for a wireless router that has a built in parallel print server, if your printer has a parallel port.

[ghporter]

TMLai, you're about a year and a half behind the technological power curve. The non-Apple vendors got smart and went to browser-based configurations just about across the board. Right now, the only platform specific setup I know of is Apple's, and they also offer a Windows version of AirPort software, just to be fair.

Mallrat, if the box says "802.11b" and/or "802.11g" and/or "WiFi" then it will work with an AirPort equipped computer. The trouble you have with setting that up will be almost entirely involving WEP encryption keys-nothing that's too hard to accomplish, you just have to know a few bits of information before you start. Let us know when you buy whatever you decide on, and you'll find all the help you'll need right here.