[DigitalEl]

I finally took the plunge for high-speed (cable) Internet a month or so ago. Where has this been all my life!? Anyway, with a rev. A lamp iMac and a rev. A, AirPort Extreme card-equipped 12" PowerBook, I thought it'd be great to share the connection. Still, I balked at shelling out for an AirPort Base Station and shelved the idea.

Two weeks ago, my wife & I got two cell phones and killed our home phone line. Like the genius I am, [/sarcasm] I forgot about my poor old TiVo sitting in the great room. With no phone, how would it communicate? Ahh! Justification for the home network.

I picked up a Linksys wireless router and access point and plugged it all in. Configuration was a breeze and an hour later, I'm not only sharing my high-speed connection between the two Macs (one wirelessly), but wowing my non-techie family by showing baby pictures on the HDTV, with the computers nowhere in sight, via TiVo Home Media. Sweet.

I love how it all just works. I don't know a "subnet mask" from a "WEP key," but it still works. For security purposes -- and just because I want to know -- I have a lot of reading and learning to do, but it's great to be able to just get started with no hassle.

Just thought I'd share.

[Krusty]

Originally posted by DigitalEl:

Just thought I'd share.

Hey, congrats DigitalEl !! I'm glad to see that you went with the hardware router solution and that it is working fine. Not sure what is in the water lately, but doesn't it seem like a ton of people are setting up their first home network in the last week or so ??

Don't worry so much about the "subnet mask" stuff .. but you probably will want to learn about WEP keys and put at least a mild form of encryption on the wireless transmissions to and from the powerbook (at least if you live in a place where any neighbors have the possibility of catching your wireless signal).

I love high speed. Makes using the internet a lot more like using the rest of your computer.