[sebimeyer]

I just went through some confusion and thought i'd share some things so you guys don't have to go through the same things:
I came home with a bran new AirPort Extreme base station a few hours ago and plugged it into the cable modem, then plugged the power support on and watched it boot. It instantly showed up on my Ti when it was done booting and I could access the web as the base station had grabbed all data it needed from the cable modem. "Sweet!" I thought, "this is really easy!" Then I decided to rename the network as Apple Network 3g43h31z was not a very appealing name. I started up AirPort Admin Utility and searched for bases. Nothing. I thought a reset of the base might do it and reset it. Nothing. I unplugged the cable modem and restarted it. Nothing.
I checked the box for instructions but could not find any helpfull things. Then I put the CD in that came with it and installed the software purely on a whim. I had to restart my Ti and when it came up I could configure the base.
Apparently Apple does not include the drivers for the new Extreme base stations through software updates. So, install the software that comes on the disk and save yourself an hour of chasing down a problem.

[lkalliance]

Thanks for the tip, Sebimeyer. I read somewhere that while Airport Extreme has much larger throughput that it trades off with shorter range (50 feet instead of 150 feet). I don't remember where I read it (possibly on this board) or if the source was reliable. Do you have any insight?

[sebimeyer]

Actually this is only partially correct. According to the box and info on Apple.com the range is still the same if you use it with old b cards, such as the ones that were standard before Extreme came out. As soon as g cards, the new Extreme ones, come into play the range of the base itself dropps to 50 feet. That is probably why they included a jack to ad a stronger external antenna (there are two models though, one with and one without that jack, so make sure you get the right one)
For now that really doe snot concern me as I only have a Ti 500 that does not use the g standard. Once I upgrade to something better I will probaby get the external antenna, if the range does not cover my admittedly small condo. For now the range is excellent, even on my Ti 500.

[AVGuy]

If you have extreme and a g card and you pass 50' do you lose the signal or do both base station and card switch to 802.11b? Also, can you bridge a connection with one snow base station and one extreme or do you need two etremes? Sorry to throw those in your face... Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!! /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
-AVGuy

[MacCheetah3]

Hi

In reply to:

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If you have extreme and a g card and you pass 50' do you lose the signal or do both base station and card switch to 802.11b?

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Just guessing, but I would think it "throttles down" to a slower 802.11g speed until you get so far away that it can only go at 11Mbps or slower than it will switch to 802.11b. Again, just my guess.

In reply to:

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Also, can you bridge a connection with one snow base station and one extreme or do you need two etremes?

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I'm curious as well.
MacCheetah3
"Are you touching my leg for a reason?"

[sebimeyer]

I LOVE this new base station! I have used it pretty much every waking moment for the last day and a half and thought i'd report a bit about the performance as there have been no reviews yet:
It actually seems to give me just a tad more range than the old one, which is dearly needed as I have a Ti 500. I can now finally sit in bed and surf the web without loosing the signal all the time.
One major new feature is of course the built in print server. I was not expecting my Lexmark Z42 to work with it as it was not among the specified compatible printers that are mentioned on the apple.com specs. I tried just now and it works like a charm! This is truly apple at its best. All I had to do was plug the printer's usb cable into the base and a new tab appeared in my printer dialogue on my Ti called rendevouz printers. Once I selected that and chose my printer from the list (it was the only one in it as it is the only one on the network) it took about 5 seconds for the printer to be moved into the list. No drivers needed! Just plug it in and it works. Now I can print without wires! Truly awesome. It is a tad slower than plugging the printer straight into the Ti as the base apparently cannot store all the data at once. But hey, I take that for having a better range and printing without wires any day.

[Nobody]

I currently have 2 windows machines and one xbox connected through a linksys router to the internet. I am getting a 12" PB soon with airport extreme. I would like to utilize the print server feature of the airport. My question is if I hook my printer into the airport, will the windows machines still be able to see and use the printer? I assume the setup would be: internet into the base station and then out to the router and the windows machines. Therefore the printer would be before the linksys router in the chain. Will this work to share the printer with all the computers?

[AVGuy]

It's definitely possible with macs...I'm not sure about PC's. Just make sure only one thing is acting as a DHCP server (it usually works better to shut off the DHCP in the Airport) . Otherwise, you'll have two different networks running. That should get you well on your way to printing. If you cannot make it work, just connect the printer to one of the desktop PC's and print via samba. It's basically the same thing using the PC as a server intead of the airport. You have to have the machine turned on to print but its still wireless and you can print from any machine on the network. Hope I could help!!
-AVGuy

[Nobody]

Thanks for the reply, I won't know if it works for a couple weeks when I get the PB. The way we have it working now is the printer is on my PC but set to be a network printer so my roomate can print from his PC. I could be wrong but can't I just leave it the way it is when the mac/airport extreme arrives?

[AVGuy]

Yup, that should work fine... for more instructions on setting up a PC network printer with a mac go here. It's a MW post that very helpful...
-AVGuy

[Nobody]

Okay, I have no idea as far as your first question is concerned, but I would think that because 802.11 b and 802.11 g share the same 2.4 GHz freq., that they both share exactly the same range as well(I know for a fact that 802.11a, which uses the 5 GHz freq., does in fact have a shorter range by about 100 ft).
As far as your second question is concerned, I am pretty much positive that in order to bridge two base stations, both need to be extreme(or at least 802.11 g, as I am not sure about third party 802.11 g base stations), because the 802.11 b base station does not support this feature, and that it was only very recently introduced only in the newer extreme model.

[Nobody]

Thanks again for the help, I will get back to you when the PB arrives in a few weeks.

[icerabbit]

The only bit worrying factor (not addressed in article) is that 802.11g and thus airport extreme have not been ratified yet, which is expected midyear. The devices are built based on a drafted version. There's also a new standard 802.11i in the works for later this year to standardize & solve security issues which calls for stronger encryption. It should be backwards compatible with 24 bits ...
Let's hope that is only a matter of updating the firmware and drivers.
... I'm not buying any extra wireless equipment 'till those things are "set in airwaves".
icerabbit