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    Question about "Airport" router

    Discussion in 'Networking and Wireless' started by dmcdonald87, Nov 11, 2008.

  1. dmcdonald87

    dmcdonald87 Notebook Enthusiast

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    Ok heres the deal I have a pc and my wife has a mac. Is there a such thing as a neutral router that we both can connect to? Or is it simply a router is a router and all should work?
     
    dmcdonald87, Nov 11, 2008
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  2. Evaders99

    Evaders99 Notebook Consultant

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    I don't see why a PC or Mac should make a difference as long as you had a compatible wireless card.
     
    Evaders99, Nov 11, 2008
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  3. gerryf19

    gerryf19 I am the walrus

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    A router is a router is a router as long as you avoid proprietary schemes--some brands have "features" like SuperG or Speedboost or....whatver.

    You want standard, plain vanilla 802.11x.

    Ideally, you are better off if noth PC and Mac use the same standard and the router can work in a single 802.11x mode (a,b,g or n) rather than in mixed mode.

    9 times out of 10 both machines work just fine, but in the past month I have run into two situations where a 802.11b PC and 802.11g and a router in mixed mode cause the MAC to have connection difficulties.

    Could be that the routers were just bad--I don't know, but replacing the routers fixed both probems (and they continued to be run in mixed mode)
     
    gerryf19, Nov 11, 2008
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  4. aspicer

    aspicer Newbie

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    Apple Airport (I've done airport extremes on yachts) comes with a configuration software both for Mac and for Windows. I've used the Windows one. Windows laptops work fine with it.

    Assuming, like others have said, that you are using the same kind of WiFi as the access point can do. Airport Extremes have both 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz WiFi including N in 5Ghz and compatable with other 802.11a/b/g/n clients.

    Shouldn't matter - Windows, Mac OS/X, Linux, as long as they can do WiFi that your AP does and have a standard DHCP and TCP/IP layers. Which all of those do.
     
    aspicer, Nov 12, 2008
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  5. blue68f100

    blue68f100 Notebook Virtuoso

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    Any router will work. The Airport extreme is the highest rated on Smallnetbuilder.com router table. So you can go wrong there. I set one up at my brothers, worked great even the USB ports to share a printer worked flawlessly. You must use the Airport Utility to configure the router, all other routers allow you to address them directly, apple does not. But the Airport utility is supplied for MAc and PC so no problems there.
     
    blue68f100, Nov 12, 2008
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