AirPort compatible WiFi solution for PC?

[phatgroovn]

No.

If this is a desktop, the best performance and price solution would be to get a switch and use your Airport hub to bridge the wired and wireless network. This way transfer among desktop machines would not be limited to 11 mb.

However if you are going wireless route (whether its desktop OR laptop PC) anything that is 802.11 Wi-Fi compatible will jump right on Airport. I'd recommend Netgear products all around, they are built like tanks, never break, and have wonderful dual platform support.

[SMH]

Thanks! I'll check them out.

[SMH]

I looked at Netgear's products, and they look good for 11Mb/s 802.11b connections to AirPort. Yet I'm wondering if there's a way to network my PCs at 22mb/s 802.11a, while they talk back to my Airport Base Station on 11Mb/s 802.11b links, i.e Dualband.

I'm also getting an HP OfficeJet D145xi Multifunction USB printer that I want all my computers to share (Mac/PC). What would the best setup be? I appreciate your comments and suggestions.

[phatgroovn]

Originally posted by SMH
I looked at Netgear's products, and they look good for 11Mb/s 802.11b connections to AirPort. Yet I'm wondering if there's a way to network my PCs at 22mb/s 802.11a, while they talk back to my Airport Base Station on 11Mb/s 802.11b links, i.e Dualband.

I'm also getting an HP OfficeJet D145xi Multifunction USB printer that I want all my computers to share (Mac/PC). What would the best setup be? I appreciate your comments and suggestions.

No. 802.11a and 802.11b are incompatible. The best you could do is have a separate 802.11a access point and bridge the two wireless networks with a switch. 802.11G is the next gen wi-fi at 54 Mb and is 802.11b back compatible.

On the USB printer sharing, at a decent computer show you can find devices that switch USB devices among machines. Hit a Micro Center if one is local or search online. Belkin might make one.

[SMH]

Originally posted by phatgroovn
No. 802.11a and 802.11b are incompatible. The best you could do is have a separate 802.11a access point and bridge the two wireless networks with a switch. 802.11G is the next gen wi-fi at 54 Mb and is 802.11b back compatible.

On the USB printer sharing, at a decent computer show you can find devices that switch USB devices among machines. Hit a Micro Center if one is local or search online. Belkin might make one.

First of all many thanks for you ongoing help. So how far is 802.11G?

I remember something about sharing a PC's printer across a network back in my NT training days. Can I do that with Win2k or XP Pro and give my Mac access too? What about HP's JetDirect wireless print server?

[Sieb]

No. 802.11a and 802.11b are incompatible. The best you could do is have a separate 802.11a access point and bridge the two wireless networks with a switch. 802.11G is the next gen wi-fi at 54 Mb and is 802.11b back compatible.

Not the case anymore, Linksys has a dual band wireless router. Dont know how good it is, I have little experience with wireless since we have yet to get the go to wire (wirelessly) our office building (which I would be doing, oy), but linksys has been good for us so far.

Linksys (http://linksys.com/splash/wap51ab_splash.asp)

[SMH]

So what's it like to live in a place called Normal? :D Thanks for answering my thread. Sadly I've already purchased a couple of 802.11b PCI cards. I decided to do so and wait for the faster 802.11G solutions before I upgrade.

I'm still hoping someone would help me link the HP D145xi to my computers. Either by hooking it over USB to a G4 Mac that becomes a print server for the other PCs, or the opposite.

Once again thanks for your help.

[phatgroovn]

I'm not sure on the print sharing thing, can't be versed in every piece of hardware! But, i tried doing it cross platform a while back and it never worked, but keep in mind that this was before XP and OS X, which are both more friendly to cross platform networks, so it may work.

If you are using a printer or printserver that jacks directly into ethernet, it'll work no problem though, because you do not have to go through the windows machine to get to the printer.

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