[jroblin]

i recently bought a macbook (though i have not yet received it )
and was wondering what the best option was for making my laptop internet friendly


background:
i have a wired cable modem for my desk top, as well as a wired router which i use to play ps3 online with

i'm leaving my house in september tho and moving into residence at a university

what's a cheap way to be able to go online? simply just use a wireless router?

would a wireless router work for most university campuses or would i have to use wired internet ?

i just dont want to buy a router now, and then have to buy a new one in a couple months

[turtle777]

If your university provides internet access via wired ethernet, you will be able to use any wireless router with that.

HOWEVER, it *is* possible that the university only provides WLAN in the first place. Then your router would be useless.

I'd wait until you know for sure what access the university provides.

-t

[jroblin]

i was looking at the

Air port extreme card on the Apple website

[IMG] [/IMG]

is that all that i would need to go online wirelessly at my house?

[turtle777]

Let me clarify: your MB already has an Airport Extreme card built in, you don't need an extra card.

What you STILL need is a so called access point, a wireless router (like the Airport Extreme Base Station), which connects to your internet, and then transmits it to your MB. The cheapest Apple solution is the Airport Express. But most 3rd party wireless routers will work, too.

-t

[jroblin]

do you recommend buying a wireless router one through apple?

or a different company

[turtle777]

To be honest, I had a lot of different wireless routers.
I had the very first Apple Airport (grey). It worked great. Everything else after that (3rd party stuff) sucked.

If I buy one more, it's probably gonna be an Apple one.

One of my biggest complaints with all wireless routers I had was that they needed power cycling every couple of weeks. It drove me nuts. My Airport (grey) never had these issues.

-t

[jroblin]

do you know the model number of the best/ a fast airport extreme base station?

im looking at them on ebay and there's a bunch of different models

[jmiddel]

I use a Linksys wireless router, it is far cheaper than the Airport, and I power cycle it on average every 3-4 months. This is not necessarily the router's fault, sometimes the ISP screw things up and needs to be reconnected to.

[peeb]

Wait till you get to uni - they will likely provide a wired or wireless connection at your residence. Don't buy anything till you know what they provide.

[Simon]

Power cycling? What's that?

I have an AirPort Extreme Base Station and two AP Express stations. I never power cycle them. They never "hang" so I don't reset them. They just work. Like they should.

That said, I agree with peeb. You should know what your new environment offers in terms of networking before you go out an buy something.

[forumhound]

here is another plug for Airport Express's: they are great. I have had one since they were first introduced and its still working today. I can't say that of any of the pile of Dlinks and Netgears i have in the spare parts drawer...
FH