Mac Forum / General / Networking / October 2005

Crossing my fingers here, but I've used an Airport for almost 3 years now
trouble free and just for that I can't see why I'd consider anything else.  
But as usual, ymmv...

If you do some searching you can find a 3rd party 802.11g WiFi
base station for $10 to $20 <http://dealmac.com>.  At that price
you could pick on up and if you don't like it, you will not have
invested much.

Price aside, I own the original Graphite Airport Base station
(decommissioned), an Airport Extreme Base station, and an Airport
Express base station.  I have also own a D-Link Cable/DSL router
(friend of mine is currently using it) and an SMC Barricade WiFi
Cable/DSL router (lightening got it).

The Advantage of the Apple base stations is integration with your
Mac.  If there is any status change on the base station, your Mac
will be alerted with a scroll message in the menu bar.  This was
very useful to me when I was using dial-up service via my Graphite
Airport base station.  Now that I have DSL and it is always on,
this has not been as much of an issue.

The USB printer port on the current Airport base station can be
useful assuming you have a printer that is supported, or you are
willing to do some configuration work with "GIMP Print".  I use an
HP LaserJet 1300 Postscript printer on my Airport Extreme base
station.

But you can get printer ports on some 3rd party WiFi base
stations.  This also may require some setup work on your part and
"GIMP Print".

And if you are using a laptop, then have a network attached
printer is a great plus.

NOTE:  You can buy ethernet enabled printers that do not need a
special base station, so there are other options for having
printers.

Now about 3rd party 802.11g WiFi Cable/DSL router.  You configure
them via a browser.  Generally speaking most 3rd party 802.11g
WiFi Cable/DSL routers will work.  In some minor cases there have
been issues with specific versions of firmware on these routers.  
Some Google searching might help with any problems you might
encounter.

Many people have been very happy with 3rd party 802.11g WiFi
Cable/DSL routers.

I would suggest using WPA security/encryption as the standards for
password encoding is consistent on all platforms.  The older WEP
allowed different encoding between Apple and Microsoft, so you had
to resort to using HEX key when using mixed environments.  Also
WPA is much more secure than WEP.

The only other thing you might have to configure is the login to
your ISP via PPPoE, and that is easy enough to do.

The ISP login and security setup are generally the most you will
have to worry about. In rare situations you may have a need to
forward a port from the router to one of your systems, but that is
rare, and not all that difficult to do.

And of course you can always ask questions in here, and I'm sure
someone will have the version of base station you buy and give you
advice.

So I would suggest seeing if you can pick up an inexpensive 3rd
party Cable/DSL router and then if you do not like it, you will
not have invested much, and you will also know for sure why you
are spending the extra money for an Airport base station.

                                       Bob Harris

I use a Netgear g that was $0 with all rebates. Got iMac OS X, PowerBook OS
X, WinXP laptop, and Win2K laptop all just fine.

With the usual troubles people report now and then aside, most are the
same performance-wise, given the same price group. I used a snow
Airport for years until I couldn't configure it anymore. Kept coming
back with an error. I had purchased an extended warranty through
CompUSA based on the fact that they told me that if it failed within
that time period, they would exchange it for the same model, or
whatever new one replaced it. They tried to pawn off a refurb same
model on me that would have been shipped from another store. I didn't
accept it, and took the money for in-store credit instead. I ended up
replacing it with a Motorola Surfboard wireless cable modem. I can't
notice any difference between the two when it comes to performance or
range. I've still got my wireless, and I replaced my stock cable modem,
all in one package.

The main difference that I see is that the Airport is configurable
through the system preferences instead of through a web page built into
the Surfboard.

Have fun, and good luck!

I used an Airport Extreme Base Station at home, using the modem in it
with my dial up connection.  When DSL became available it seemed easier
to replace the AEBS with an all in one solution rather than even add a
DSL modem to it.

I used a Netgear DG834G.  This gives you the ADSL modem (you would need
a different model if you have cable rather than DSL), router and
firewall, four ethernet ports on a switching hub for hardwiring
equipment with Ethernet cables, plus the 802.11b/g wireless connection.  
Works with several Mac models (including my neighbour who shares my
connection), plus a couple of Dell laptops.

Configure is via a web connection (I did that with Ethernet cable
initially) using Safari.  Setup took about 60 seconds and was trouble
free.  I'm using WPA for security, and the only thing that has given
trouble is Ubuntu Linux (it has WEP but not WPA - probably won't be long
before it co-operates also).  The Netgear was a lot easier to setup than
the Airport was (although I guess not many used the Airport base station
for dial up).  The Netgear went out of action once (in about 10 months).  
I just powered it down and up again, and all was well.  The only thing I
do a little different is I run all my gear from UPS (lots of very short
power outages here).  It is possible things would be more vulnerable to
problems without a UPS.

I suspect most similar all in one DSL modem router wireless boxes would
work pretty well.  Prices are so good in the USA that you are not
risking much.  Good luck.

The Extreme Base Station has some features lacking in most other
consumer wireless routers: SNMP management, RADIUS and 802.1x support, a
built-in USB print server, and (depending on model) a PPP client/server
modem or power over Ethernet. It also supports WPA and WPA2 clients
simultaneously and can do WDS (with other AirPort base stations) while
using WPA. Many of these are fairly esoteric or "enterprise" features.
On the other hand, Apple's base stations don't provide as much control
over DHCP and routing functions as the other brands but do have a more
consumer-friendly setup process.

If the features above are Greek to you, or you just don't need them,
save some money and go with a non-Apple product.

On 15/10/2005, Timothy Miller wrote in message
<435169A6.6040402@nospam.com>:

How do you get the Internet to your home ?  Broadband ?  If so, then
instead of two boxes (ADSL and wireless) you can combine the two
functions in box, losing lots of wires and half the flashy lights.

I have an Alcatel Speedtouch 570 which was trivial to set up.  I'm
not wedded to Alcatel and competitors make similar products which may
be just as good.

Simon.