Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

GoDucks · Dec 29, 2002, 09:49 AM

Does anyone have any experience using their Powerbook with a wireless base station that isn't an Airport? I'm ordering a 1 ghz Powerbook tomorrow morning and up here in Canada, the Airport will cost me $450 CDN vs $150 CDN for other 802.11b wireless base stations. My Powerbook will have the built in Airport Card but I'm wondering if it will be difficult to get it to work with the non-Apple base station.

Any product recommentations would be appreciated. i want to connect the base station to the ethernet cable coming out of my cable modem and go from there...

all2ofme · Dec 29, 2002, 10:03 AM

There are all sorts of ways of doing it, and bar a couple of small differences (how to enter encryption keys, for example), everything works as well or better than with Apple's basestations.

I got a Netgear FM114P and a friend who has a graphite Airport is convinced that the range I get from that is much better than it is with his. Mine was about half the price of the new snow Airport.

All in all - I'm glad I bought the Netgear. It was cheaper, isn't THAT ugly, and once it's set up, there's really no difference between the two - they both swap packets happily

pete · Dec 29, 2002, 10:05 AM

I just got a netgear wireless router yesterday (the silver, oval shaped one). It was a breeze to set up and works wonderfully and seamlessly. I highly recommend it. I got it at buy.com for $79 (they were running a special) plus a $30 rebate = $49! Great bargain. I think they're now going for $100 plus rebate = $70 - still a good deal.

Good luck

GoDucks · Dec 29, 2002, 11:18 AM

Thanks for the quick responses... Is the netgear product you're referring to the Netgear MR814CN 802.11B Wireless Router? It seems to be a small, silver, rounded one according to pictures I can find online.

I assume that it has an Ethernet port to connect the cable modem?

What sort of setup was required? Did it come with OS X drivers, etc?

davidflas · Dec 29, 2002, 11:46 AM

I'm very interested in this as well, I've have my 1Ghz Pb for a few weeks now and would love to go wireless. Broadband is cool, but wireless broadband is awsome!

cambro · Dec 29, 2002, 12:42 PM

I am posting this message on a wireless connection being served by a Linksys router connected to a cable modem (don't know model number right off hand, but it has two black free antennas). It works very well. The router is upstairs, I am in the basement and I have full signal strength on my Ghz TiBook. The unit is at my uncle's house and is relatively new so I haven't mapped out reception completely but I've yet to have any dead spots in the house so the signal strength of the Linksys router seems very good.

Unfortunately I can't comment on how easy it is to configure because I didn't set it up. However, I can say all the user has to do is turn on airport to be up and running. Very nice! Good luck.

pete · Dec 29, 2002, 01:07 PM

The model I got is a MR814 dsl router. It's actually very big, although just an inch thick and can be mounted vertically too.

To answer your questions:

1. Yes, four ethernet ports in the back plus the one for the cable or dsl modem to connect to. so you can use it as a normal, wired router as well.

2. No drivers at all. It's all configured using any web browser. Simple and straight-forward.

3. The only setup I needed to do was put in my ISP username and password into the browser and everything else was automatic and seamless.

Let me know if you have any other questions. All I can say is that wireless broadband is really awsome!

azark · Dec 29, 2002, 04:26 PM

I use a U.S.Robotics 2249 (it looks very similar to the Netgear ME102). It's not a router (I already have one) just a Wireles Acces Point.

It works perfectly (Full signal everywhere in my 3 floors Appartment). Tibook saw it immediatly, security was easy to setup once I found the good IP address (to access the setup page with a browser), as the app to install it (and to know the IP...) is PC only. The IP is 10.0.1.1, not too hard to guess...

Commodus · 11:59 PM

Not only do I not connect my TiBook to an AirPort Base Station (I have a Linksys BEFW11S4 combo wired/wireless router), I don't even use an AirPort card myself.

I have a Linksys WPC11 PC Card adapter, and thanks to wirelessdriver.sourceforge.net I was able to get it recognized in OS X and to connect to that Linksys router. The signal quality is roughly the same, if not better, than what I had before with my Toshiba laptop (no mean feat, considering how some people have complained about PowerBook wireless reception in the past).

So, if you want, you can go wireless on a Mac without buying any extra Apple hardware. I know for a fact though that Apple's own card can speak to any 802.11b access point and go online, so long as A) the access point itself is setup to connect properly, and B) WEP encryption (if enabled) is 128-bit.

gdiddy · Dec 29, 2002, 05:29 PM

I have an SMC 7004VWBR. Picked it up for $50 USD from Comp-Usa after thanksgiving. Love it!

G.

dillerX · Dec 29, 2002, 06:14 PM

Linksys BEFW11S4

Used it for a year. No problems.

FlashGordon · Dec 29, 2002, 06:38 PM

I use a dlink and it is great, but the documentation sucks.

ngrundy · Dec 29, 2002, 08:27 PM

At home I connect via a Belkin f5d6130 access point (i have a router already)

at my friends place i connect via a dlink 1000AP (again a ap not ap/router)

and i've also used my powerbook on a friends ad-hoc network (freebsd machine at the other end)

with my belkin i had to manualy enter the wireless network name, the dlinks was found automaticly.

Eug · Dec 30, 2002, 12:45 AM

Originally posted by Commodus:
Not only do I not connect my TiBook to an AirPort Base Station (I have a Linksys BEFW11S4 combo wired/wireless router), I don't even use an AirPort card myself.

I have a Linksys WPC11 PC Card adapter, and thanks to wirelessdriver.sourceforge.net I was able to get it recognized in OS X and to connect to that Linksys router. The signal quality is roughly the same, if not better, than what I had before with my Toshiba laptop (no mean feat, considering how some people have complained about PowerBook wireless reception in the past).

So, if you want, you can go wireless on a Mac without buying any extra Apple hardware. I know for a fact though that Apple's own card can speak to any 802.11b access point and go online, so long as A) the access point itself is setup to connect properly, and B) WEP encryption (if enabled) is 128-bit.

Glad it's working for you, but I must point out that the card sticks out the side of the laptop. I found that extremely irritating when I used one in my PC laptop.

Anyways, I use the stock Airport in my TiBook with a Netgear access point connected to a Linksys router.

kobayashi · Dec 30, 2002, 01:11 AM

I ordered a Netgear wireless router via Amazon.com a few days ago for $70 after rebates. It's a good deal considering Compusa is selling them for $139 (I don't think they're offering a rebate?).

I hear the Netgear has a better range vs. Linksys...

unix2mac · Dec 30, 2002, 05:39 PM

Originally posted by Eug:
Glad it's working for you, but I must point out that the card sticks out the side of the laptop. I found that extremely irritating when I used one in my PC laptop.

Anyways, I use the stock Airport in my TiBook with a Netgear access point connected to a Linksys router.

I've had very good luck with Linksys products in the past. I currently use a Linksys WAP11 access point conntected to a Linksys BEFSR81 router and on to a Linksys BEFCMU10 cable modem.

I am awaiting arrival of my Ti Powerbook (I am a recent "convert") and will be testing both the Apple wireless card and an Orinoco wireless card (with external antenna).

Additionally, Linksys now offers an amplifier for their access points in order to increase coverage.

unix2mac

tooki · Dec 31, 2002, 07:02 AM

This topic has been discussed extensively in the Networking forum. Do a forum search there if you have more questions, because many of them have been asked and answered there. Also, check out Macintouch's Wireless reader report. It contains a huge amount of valuable information about specific wireless base stations.

tooki

GoDucks · Dec 31, 2002, 11:23 AM

Just a quick note to say Thankyou to all who helped. I purchased a Linksys wireless router for $129 Canadian vs $459 Canadian for the Airport base station. I set it up ahead of time and then this morning, when my new Powerbook arrived, it picked up the signal and is performing perfectly. The first thing I did was to install 10.2.3 wirelessly in about 10 minutes !!!

Thanks again for all your help everyone...

Chris

Pliskin · Aug 7, 2003, 10:51 PM

I'm rather hoping the wireless drivers [see above link] will work with my new Belkin card. I was kinda pissed to find 'Hey guess what, you've now got to pay $20 bucks MORE for drivers!' ah..no. I got the card over at Office Max for about 30 bucks. Not at all bad I say.

Pliskin.

rjt1000 · Aug 7, 2003, 11:15 PM

Hey gdiddy,

I installed the SMC Barricade wireless router at my mom's house, and it has the annoying problem of constantly needing to be reset. Have you had this problem?

The all wired version of the Barricade router works great at my house. But I frequently cant get a connnection on her wireless Barricade unless I press the reset button on the router (or unplug/ replug) it. A real pain.

Just wondering if anyone else has this problem...

Best wishes,

Rich (Pismo G3 500/ Airport card)

alpha rays max · Aug 7, 2003, 11:48 PM

I too have the Netgear MR814v2. It's my secondary base station as we have a snow AirPort base station downstairs; the Netgear one covers some dead spots upstairs.

It works just fine, no problems at all. And it cost me $29 after rebates at CompUSA!

Using it with the internal AirPort card btw.