[hamsher]

Im quite confused as to what I need. Here is the scenario. I have an Mk1 iMac G5 which to my knowledge has no wireless capabilities and a new iBook G4 with wireless as standard. Currently my iMac has an ethernet broadband connection which I would like to share with my iBook and also be able connect the two machines wirlessly and maybe share my usb printer. Now what hardware to I need to achive this? Airport Express, Airport Extreme or intall an airport card to my iMac if possible?

[ghporter]

If you want it all wireless, the first thing you need to do is figure out whether or not that iMac accepts ANY AirPort card. I would be surprised if any G5 didn't at least take an original AirPort card. Look here for help in figuring out what your computer is capable of. In short, if you have a flat panel iMac from August 2004 or later, you at least CAN have AirPort...

And don't worry about the difference between Original AirPort and AirPort Express; they're interoperable or more specifically, any router/base station you get will work with both.

Now, you want to be able to print wirelessly, so there's something else to think about-your printer. Unless you want to keep one computer on (not asleep) all the time, or have to turn on computer #1 so computer #2 can print, you need a network device that handles network printing for you. Both AirPort Extreme Base Stations and the AirPort Express can handle those printserver tasks for you. But there's another way

You do not need to buy Apple products to network your Macs. Apple is exceptionally good at complying with standards, so any WiFi compliant network equipment will work. And non-Apple equipment tends to be less expensive, too. Further, if you buy a third party wireless router, you're probably going to get four wired ports, which means you won't have to open the case on your iMac to add an AirPort card-a definite plus.

Do a search for "wireless router" and "usb print server" and you'll see a bunch of relatively inexpensive products to choose from. I think your best (and least expensive) choice is to buy one of these to build your network around and don't even worry about wireless for the iMac.

Does that help?

[hamsher]

Yes thank you for the help. But with your reply I have many more grey areas. But im going up to the Apple store soon so I can have a chat with someone there also. I think the first thing im going to do is fit my iMac with an airport extreme card and have a play.

[ghporter]

Cool. Make sure you specify not only what computers you have, but what kind of printer as well-some printers don't play well on networks, and others need special attention to get properly configured. The Apple Store folks should be able to help you out.

(I also failed to notice that you're in the UK, which can change things like availability of wired and wireless routers (and prices too!), so you're probably going to get noticably better advice from a person who's there than from this Yank!)

[KaiserChief]

I recently made the same set-up with an imac G5 and an ibook that I wanted to share a network connection. I bought the Airport Extreme from ebay because the distance to share was greater than 50 ft. Only after that did I realize that to stream itunes to my home stereo I also needed an Airport express so I bought that from a member here (Thanks Chunglee!) and after some initial frustration, I have the whole set up working nicely. Two ibooks (one for each of the kids) and the imac can all access each other's files and programs, share a printer and I can play the itunes on the stereo.

If you only have a short distance I woudl go with just the AP Express and not spend on the Extreme base station. It's plug and play for the most part - really easy to configure and have working in no time.

Brad

[hamsher]

Right I have both my iBook and iMac AP cards intalled but am having no luck with creating a network. It goes smoothly until I try to connect one of the machines to the others network and I just get a message there was an error conecting to this network? Is there something I have missed? How can I diagnose my AP cards? How do you guys connect up without a base station?

[KaiserChief]

Originally Posted by hamsher

Right I have both my iBook and iMac AP cards intalled but am having no luck with creating a network. It goes smoothly until I try to connect one of the machines to the others network and I just get a message there was an error conecting to this network? Is there something I have missed? How can I diagnose my AP cards? How do you guys connect up without a base station?

I bought the base station because the way I interpreted the guidance was that if the connection distance was to be greater than 50 ft and I still wanted to achieve the 11 Mbs transfer rate on the network that I need the Extreme to do the job. Under 50 ft and the Express plug would be able to handle it.

I assume you've run the AP set up utility? Create the network on the imac and then from the ibook you should be able to click on the airport icon in the menu bar and select "choose network." There is a diagnostic in the AP set up utility that might help as well.

Brad

[hamsher]

FFS I give up!

Anyways thanks Brad I just cant even get them to make a computer to computer connection and have run all Airport Setup/Help/Utilities I could find. I was thinking I know my iBooks APX card is fine as I have found networks whilst out and about but is there a utility that I could run on my iBook that that can test the iMacs card?

*goes to buy an Express Plug*