Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

melismak · 09:11 AM

Hello...I'm not sure how to ask this question, but we have comcast high-speed digital cable, and previously, I had an ethernet cable hooking a pc desktop up to the web. I just got a new mac and airplane, and the wifi works great but I'm having to use that sole ethernet jack for the airplane hookup. Do they make soemthing that will create two ethernet jacks so I can have the desktop able to connect to the internet, while my wifi still works?

Thanks in advance and I hope this post makes sense.

Editing bc I just realized I typed Airplane and not AIRPORT EXPRESS, which is what I have. I was up too late playing eith my new toy last night.

hookem2oo7 · Oct 30, 2006, 10:05 AM

what you need is a wireless router. Apple's airport base station will have the port for you to plug in your cable modem and ports to connect your desktop through an ethernet connection, and allow you to use them simultaneously.

Maybe some others will have better input as I have no experience with apple's wireless products (aside from the built in cards in my 'books). Another possible solution may be to buy a wireless adapter for your PC.

melismak · Oct 30, 2006, 10:50 AM

OK, yes, I thought it might be a wireless router that I needed. I am also going to have the same trouble with getting it to print wirelessly--not enought jacks.

Off to Best Buy. Thanks!

macintologist · Oct 30, 2006, 11:15 AM

Buy this Amazon.com: Apple AirPort Extreme Base Station - Wireless access point - EN, Fast EN, 802.11b, 802.11g: Electronics

ghporter · Oct 30, 2006, 05:52 PM

Thanks for editing your post to clarify what you were talking about-I was thinking you were talking about the new feature a VERY FEW airlines offer for WiFi inflight. I'll change the title of the thread to clarify.

I'm a little fuzzy on what exactly you "just got." A Mac, obviously, but did you get "a Mac with an AirPort card" or "a Mac and an AirPort Base Station"? If you just got the Mac laptop, you can buy any WiFi-certified wireless router and it will work fine; AirPort is simply Apple's brand name for their wireless networking equipment. Some wireless routers even offer parallel and/or USB print servers-and in general, they're significantly less in price than AirPort products.

Also, do you already have a printer? Is it a "parallel" printer (with the relatively large, rectangular connector) or USB, or both? It makes a difference because for some reason most USB printers are a rather large pain in the rear to get to work over a network, while parallel printers appear to be just fine in that area.

melismak · Oct 30, 2006, 06:49 PM

ghporter, thank you for your helpful reply. I bought a macbook and also purchased Airport express. I bought a usb wifi thing for my desktop so now both computers are connected to the internet via wifi.

I actually have two computers--one is a laserjet hp that is parallel port (can I hook that up to airport?? I'd like to) and the other is an hp 3-in-one printer/copier/scanner. I successfully hooked that one up today and printed remotely.

So, do you think I'd be able to set up the parallel port laser printer to airport? If so, how?

Thanks in advance!

parasky · Nov 2, 2006, 04:23 PM

I actually have the same question, sort of. I just got a Macbook pro and I have a PC desktop at home using a cable modem. What I'd like to do is set up a network where the Macbook has a wireless connection and my PC keeps the cable modem connection using a wire. So do I only need to get a wireless router?

Thanks.

hookem2oo7 · Nov 2, 2006, 04:32 PM

yes

ghporter · Nov 2, 2006, 05:37 PM

To print through the laser (if it only has a parallel port) you'll have to connect it to either a computer that also has a parallel port, or to a network printserver (there are wired and wireless types available). In your case, you can connect the laser to your PC (since PCs almost always come with parallel ports) and share it through Windows.