OK - I've been doing my own research into wireless connectivity... When we last left this discussion, one of the main problems w/ the apple airport was that it couldn't see another airport.

What about this product?

From what I can see, it's just an ethernet <--> wireless adapter, and it seems that if you had an accesspoint (i.e. the apple airport) in the house, and this product in the car, it'd work.

I've seen this product for a few bucks less then the airport.. Actually, I've seen it as low as $230 or so without the serial port (they apparantly make two versions, one w/ a serial port, one without..)

You wouldn't even need the airport unless you had other wireless devices.. Technically, it's just take this product in the car, and a PCI/ISA adapter in the computer.. In my case though, I'd want the airport because I also have a laptop, and it would be nice to roam with it...

Am I missing something here?
-mark


...proud to have owned one of the first Mark I units

It looks like that price dosen't include the necessary $150-$200 PCMCIA card for the bridge. Seems to be a bit expensive.

It looks like that price dosen't include the necessary $150-$200 PCMCIA card for the bridge. Seems to be a bit expensive

...and now we're into the AirEZY price range.

Jambo
Something like #14000 (give or take a few)

Am I missing something here?

Yes. You need the PCMCIA card as well.

This was one of the alternatives I was looking at before I plumped for the AirPort and WaveLan cards.

In retrospect, I shouldn't have wasted my money on the AirPort - what a crock of (hell, I'll put the '[censored]' in here myself).

The range is abysmal.

You can only configure all options with a Mac.

I've had other major grief which a firmware reload didn't solve (after borrowing a friend's Mac), but, surprisingly, me kicking the crap out of it when I got really really annoyed actually fixed it.

Ah well, it was an interesting experiment, but I think I'll be buying a WavePoint bridge. Anybody want to buy an AirPort with Swiss cables?

Nick.

--
#8724

...I wish I had read your posts earlier.. I actually purchased a 3com airconnect PC card (only $126 after a 30$ off coupon at buy.com) and an apple airport yesterday, with plans on buying an additional PCI card (I can't find one at a reasnable price, even though I was looking at them when I was reseraching.. Anyone?) and the ethernet bridge after receiving the empeg.. I'll let you know if I have better luck w/ the Airport...

-mark

...proud to have owned one of the first Mark I units

Here's a different question I had though - can a pc card device see a pci device without the use of an access point?
-mark

...proud to have owned one of the first Mark I units

I've had no problems with my Airport. I bought it, hooked it into the LAN, and played with the options I could with the configurator (http://www.karlnet.com/download/index.html), then hooked my 3Com Airconnect card into my laptop. I actually had the problems with the 3Com Airconnect card, because under 2000 it conflicted with the 3Com MiniPCI modem in my laptop. (Problem is fixed now, and 3Com knows the problem thanks to me).

I have never really tested the range of mine, but I have not had a problem anywhere inside or outside my house. I've also used it at a few LAN parties, and just hooked it up and played.

I do hate the fact that all options can't be configured without a Mac, but the price between it and all the other access points when I looked convinced me it was worth it. (Plus the 14 day return policy was handy to have). The nearest priced one at the time was $800, and definitly not worth it for me.

If other solutions are cheeper now, it would be worth it for PC software to configure them.

Depends on the drivers. 3Com's won't talk to each other, they only talk to AP's. Unfortunatly, most companies don't release info if they will, so it's something you just have to try with the different cards out there.

I've also used it at a few LAN parties, and just hooked it up and played.

I'm sorry, but I just have to ask ;-)

I've also used it at a few LAN parties, and just hooked it up and played.
I'm sorry, but I just have to ask ;-)

Ask what? What a LAN party is? Come on, you've played Doom or Quake on a local area network with your friends, right? If not, what are you waiting for? It's the most fun you can have with your clothes on.

Click here for the quintessential description of a LAN party.

___________
Tony Fabris

Er yeah, now I know what you're talking about. I've always just called it 'shooting my mates over few beers'.
I guess that shows a complete lack of creativity ;-)

It's the most fun you can have with your clothes on.

You mean you leave your clothes on when you play DOOM? I would never..... uhhh, never mind.

tanstaafl.

"There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch"

(I can't find one at a reasnable price, even though I was looking at them when I was reseraching.. Anyone?)

There are eight ebay auctions going on right now with Apple Airport stuff... current bid prices mostly around $75. Would that help?

tanstaafl.

"There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch"

That link pulled right up for me, they may have been down when you tried. I haven't tried disabling the DHCP server on it yet, as it may be one of the few options you can't without using a mac. If your using ICS though, set the computer with the wireless card to an IP of 192.168.0.(2-254) and the gateway to 192.168.0.1. That will still allow you to get on to the internet via ICS.

Yes, but if you pull open the airport dock, you can extract a totally standard 11mb lucent card, which works fine in windows/linux on a PC. Find if you can get a dock cheap enough...

Hugo

No, those are antenna-less (and from what I've heard, not standard PCMCIA) versions. Same chips, different wrapper :(

Hugo

welp, I received the apple airport yesterday, and the 3com card today. The 3com card is going in an IBM thinkpad 240 notebook. In anticipation, I had downloaded the latest drivers (windows 2000 drivers) from 3com's web page, and also the software package from karlnet that Drakino had pointed out.

I had problems right off the batt, because the 3com didn't know what net it needed to belong to. The airport's manual is skimpy at best, and constantly refers to help balloons in the mac software. (first problem... I don't have a mac!)

I finally searched the newsgroups and figured out that the net name is supposed to be:
AirPort Network ###### (where the #'s are the last 6 digits of the network number on the bottom of the airport..) so in my case,
AirPort Network 231c46

(in case you're curious, the default that the 3com wanted to use, and which, of course, didn't work, was simply "101".)


It took me a pretty good while to configure this thing. I had to have it see my windows 2000 desktop, as it is the dhcp server/internet connection sharing machine. The software from http://www.karlnet.com/download/index.html helped to see some of the options on the airport, but it took me just that much longer to figure out the changes weren't instantaneous - you had to actually "save config" to the adapter before it took them...

Even after configuring the airport to grab a number from ethernet/dhcp, I had problems with it.. It refused to grab a new number, and insisted that it was a number it wasn't. no problem - went back in the software and forced a number on it (192.168.0.200) - this number is within my private IP. I also set the subnet mask as 255.255.255.0, and the router as 192.168.0.1 (w2000 box's ip)

Next came the notebook. DHCP didn't work on the notebook, so after banging my head against the wall a few times I finally forced an IP on the notebook (192.168.0.201) , and told it to use subnet 255.255.255.0, and gateway 192.168.0.1. Everything seemed to work at this point.

So, while looking at the link status, I pulled the plug and picked it up - oops.. there goes my connection! At this point, the ping session I had in the background started failing, despite the card still being in the "excellent" range w/ the airport. Took me forever to figure out what it was: apparantly, there's an option which lets the card perform differently when it the laptop is plugged into the wall, and when it's on battery power. This simply didn't work! unfortunately, it took me 2-3 tries (and 1-2 hours) to figure this out. Disabling this feature and restarting made everything work peachy dandy:)

Setup aside, I was pretty impressed with the apple airport. the range on this thing is actually alot better then what I expected. I was able to go throughout the house, and even in the back porch without any problems. My house is fairly large, and easily 200-250 feet from one end to another - the airport actually managed to perform above it's 150feet limit spec.

I'm going to try to hook up the empeg onto a lucent ethernet <-> wireless convertor next. I'll let you know how this goes as soon as I receive the new empeg, and when/if I find a decent deal on the wireless ethernet convertor:)
-mark

...proud to have owned one of the first Mark I units

Oops, forgot to post details of my problems with the 3Com drivers as well. Make sure the power settings are set all the way up all the time. I found that one out the hard way as well.

I use the configurator program to change my network name on the Airport before hooking up the PCMCIA card.

Make sure to request the encryption driver CD off the 3Com web site. It includes new drivers, new firmware, and support for encryption. The airport encryption key needs to be converted to hex with a 0x added in front of it to then put into the 3Com encryption driver settings for encryption to work.

...My house is fairly large, and easily 200-250 feet from one end to another...

Are you serious? That isn't large -- that's gigantic. Assuming a rectangular shape with a 2:1 aspect ratio and your dimension of 250 feet being the long dimension, that's almost an acre and a half space if there are two levels. (62,500 square feet.)

Bill Gates, eat your heart out!

tanstaafl.

"There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch"

Yes, Doug, but what would that be in furlongs?

___________
Tony Fabris

As soon as your report on the Lucent ethernet <-> wireless is in, I'm ordering mine. Your info about the airport will save us all loads of time figuring out how to get it up an running.

I am so stoked about using wireless to load up my empeg, And those photos of the new face plate have got me worked up to a frenzy. Will they EVER start shipping???

Steve

Obviously, it's 0.1434802 square furlongs, give or take a few square whatevers.

Sheesh, Tony -- do I have to do ALL your math for you?

I bet you didn't know that one square furlong is exactly 10 acres, did you?

tanstaafl.

"There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch"

Maybe it is a 250 feet by 10 feet house.

;)

Calvin

hmm.. so maybe I'm not such a good judge of distance. I'll have to break out a tape-measure and see exactly how long my house is:)
-mark

...proud to have owned one of the first Mark I units

Apple are running a survey on how people are using their Airport base stations, and what they'd like in future versions - get in there and let them know what you're working on and how to make an Airport work better with an empeg :-)

(list 6284, S/N 00299, 4 gig blue)

Done - thanks for the link:)
-mark

...proud to have owned one of the first Mark I units