[macintologist]

I have an iMac FP and a 12" powerbook with AE card. The iMac is connected wired to the internet with a long ethernet cable. Because of limitations of my ISP, an airport base station won't work. So instead I've chosen to buy an airport card for the iMac and have it create its own network and use internet sharing in Panther to that I can server airport to my Powerbook.

I'm wondering how powerful that signal will be. Is it as powerful as 100 feet like how Apple advertises the base station? Does anyone have any experience with direct computer->computer airport connections?

[John Strung]

Originally posted by macintologist:
Because of limitations of my ISP, an airport base station won't work.

What limitations are you talking about? Have they given you a USB modem?

[macintologist]

Originally posted by John Strung:
What limitations are you talking about? Have they given you a USB modem?

No, its an ethernet modem.

The main limitation is its use of web proxies. If you download from an HTTP server, it is fast, like 68k/sec which is the max dl speed. If you download in a non-HTTP way like AIM filesharing, KDX, or BitTorrent, it doesn't go through the proxy and is really really slow.. like 1k/sec. Somehow, my ISP allocates a large percentage of the bandwidth to HTTP proxies, and leaves the rest for the other internet services. Since thats what most people do (Kazaa, etc) it is dog slow. Don't ask..it's socialism gov-controlled telecommunication at its best. <http://www.cytanet.com.cy>

The second limitation is that somehow Cytanet knows the different between a computer and a router. When I plug in my Linksys router, it doesnt get any IP from the DCHP server and just sits there like a paperweight. (When I move back to the states I will use it.) When I plug in a computer, I get an IP just fine. (BTW, the IP that I officially get from the ISP that you see in the network pref-pane is 10.110.*.*, which is a local IP address. Weird huh?)

So an airport base station wouldn't work. What I wanna do is use the internet connection that my iMac gets (because its an actual computer) and have it create an airport network, and have my Powerbook connect to that with its built-in airport extreme card.

My question is: how far does the signal extend from a computer-created airport network? Will it go about 10 meters (30ft) direct through one or two walls?

[aaanorton]

You'll definitely get better reception from a wireless router. Further, there's no difference in how a router serves the internet vs. how a computer shares it. You should try the router approach again. Try this: UNPLUG the power from the modem and leave it off for a minute. Then plug it back in. Now try connecting your router.
If this doesn't work, it's probably a MAC address thing. ISPs can limit connectivity based on MAC addresses, so that only a certain machine or range of them are usable. Most (if not all) current routers out there offer MAC address cloning. This means that your ISP will see it as having a MAC address as you specify. So just make it match the MAC address of your ethernet card in your Mac.