I have recently purchased a new imac with osx 4.9 intel processor, my son bought a brand new hb pc., and have the older imac g3 with osx 3.9. At this time I have the only connection to dsl through sympatico. To avoid running wires throughout the house, we would like to get wireless internet. Can anyone tell me all that I need to set up wireless at a good price?
I'll avoid you the frustration I went through and say it simply: Airport Extreme base station. I tried others but this one works best. Of course you'll need Airport card in the G3 and wireless network card in the HP, so if you don't have those, it'll add to the cost.
That's exactly the set-up I have now and it works flawlessly and was easy to set up
Thank you so much for your response. I will definitely get that.
My wife & I have an eMac (without wireless) on OS 10.3.9 and a new Macbook.
I recently added a D-link wireless router (less than $50) and DSL service.
The router connects to the DSL modem and an Ethernet cable to the eMac.
The Macbook came with wireless and roams the house .
The Macbook can be booted with either OS 10.4 or XP (PC OS) and connects automatically
to the DSL service with either system.
I did not have to buy any additional hardware.
It is important to run the router with password protection (I use WEP) to avoid any neighbours
or passing cars using your DSL service.
There's alos WAP and Wap2 which are supposed to be a lot more secure. Apparently WEP has been shown to be easily broken into (the pw breached) with easily obtained software.
BTW here's a link to an interesting video about wireless routers. The Apple comes out ahead.
http://video.on.nytimes.com/?fr_story=b8355b0a8fee2f54e496855847df7851ac073776
DO NOT USE WEP. It provides NO security. There are freely available tools that can crack WEP encryption in under a minute. If you live in the city, someone within range will crack your network and read your traffic.
USE WPA (WPA-PSK) for wireless networking.
As for hardware, you'll hear many different opinions. I like what I use and I'll mention it because it's unique. It's the Netgear DG384 wireless/wired router+firewall+MODEM. Nice unit, saves power, and saves money. The retail mark-up on cheap electronics is sickening.
Going wireless-only is a waste if you are paying top-cost for bandwidth and a mistake if you intend to use at least one computer for banking or other high-privacy service. A wired connection is much faster and completely secure from eavesdropping. I recommend a mix of wired and wireless connections. Position your router/firewall so you can connect at least one computer by wire easily as needed.