wireless broadband

[jondaapplegeek]

ok, so I have my powerbook and love it, all thats left now is broadband and a printer. Printers I can handle, I just get totaly loat on the broadband side of it all. People explain again and again what i need, but i get so confused so was wondering if you guys could tell me what I need, and give me links to places where I can buy this stuff online (£).

I have a windows ME desktop, and a powerbook laptop. I would like to have wireless broadband to my laptop (maybe the desktop, not worryied) and be able to print to one printer from both of these machines. (wirelessly)???

So I think i need a wireless router, a wireless PCI card for the desktop and apparently you can get soemthing to plug in the back of the printer to make it connect to the wireless network. (btw: it will be a three in one printer - dont know which one yet though)


Thanks everyone.

[atomicbartbeans]

Do you have broadband service already?

First things first. :)

[jondaapplegeek]

not yet. thats why I need to know what to get. also - my desktop isn't a huge fan of usb - so thats out the question to!!!

am I right that this is what i need:

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?BEL-BUNPCI
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?BEL-F1UP00

Jon

[Franz Josef]

It's unlikely to be the cheapest solution but the easiest and best thing to do is simply to buy an Airport Extreme Base Station - http://www.apple.com/airportextreme/ . It will work with your Mac, your PC (provided it has a 802.11g or b card) and the printer. You simply plug it into your router which is plugged into your phone socket.

If you haven't bought broadband yet, that it the first step. Your broadband provider should supply the right router for use with a Mac (and not all broadband services work well with Macs) - try Orange (ex Wanadoo), Tiscali or Demon to see what they recommend.

Once you have the broadband connection and the router working (ie you know it all works), you can then use the AE Base Station.

[atomicbartbeans]

You can save money on the print server by buying an AirPort Express.

http://www.apple.com/airportexpress

For $129 (not sure of price in Britain), you'll get an excellent router and print server in one box. Best of all, it's the smallest router in existence.

For the PC, you'll need a PCI wireless card. I use this one, and it works great.

http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Merchant_Id=&Section_Id=201522&pcount=&Product_Id=136479

As far as broadband goes, what's offered in your area? Ask around and see what kinds of cable/DSL are available. :)

Edit: the router you linked to is more than you need for 2 reasons.

1. It includes an ADSL modem. The DSL company (if you get DSL) would give you a free modem. If you get cable, you'd be SOL as you wouldn't be able to use this router. Better to buy just a router, and let the internet company supply the modem.

2. It's much faster than you need. 802.11g routers (such as the ones Apple makes) are still much faster than your broadband connection will be, therefore no matter how expensive of a router you will buy, you will see no increase in speed. It's best to stick with an IEEE-recognized standard anyways.

[Jason]

ok, so I have my powerbook and love it, all thats left now is broadband and a printer. Printers I can handle, I just get totaly loat on the broadband side of it all. People explain again and again what i need, but i get so confused so was wondering if you guys could tell me what I need, and give me links to places where I can buy this stuff online (£).

I have a windows ME desktop, and a powerbook laptop. I would like to have wireless broadband to my laptop (maybe the desktop, not worryied) and be able to print to one printer from both of these machines. (wirelessly)???

So I think i need a wireless router, a wireless PCI card for the desktop and apparently you can get soemthing to plug in the back of the printer to make it connect to the wireless network. (btw: it will be a three in one printer - dont know which one yet though)


Thanks everyone.

Hi there.

I live in the next county to you (Somerset) at least while I'm home from Uni. I also have a powerbook and broadband.

I use BT Yahoo Broadband 2MB package with the X Modem CE connected to Airport Express. Works really well.

Have had no problems since setting up two months ago.


X Modem CE (http://www.adslnation.com/products/xmodem-ce.php)

[praesidi]

I'm becoming more and more of a dummy each day with regards to technology, but I recently bought an iMac and Airport Express, plugged in the broadband modem and a Canon printer to the Airport, put a wireless card in my XP based machine and it all just worked. It was very easy to set up and seems to be very secure. Plus, I just plugged in some speakers and can play iTunes through the Aiport.

[jondaapplegeek]

cool.
one other question.
If i plug a 3in1 printer/scanner/copyer to the usb port on Airport extreme, can i scan wirelessly? Im guessing yes.

[mattf]

I think you're guessing wrong. It basically acts as a print server and would have no way of "driving" the scanner. Also, as far as I know, this goes for pretty much any wireless print server available on the market.

Happy to be corrected if I'm wrong.