Wireless Home Networking - Index of

In This Chapter
Chapter 8
Setting Up a Wireless
Mac Network
� Understanding the Apple AirPort System
� Using AirPort with OS X Macs
� Adding a non-Apple PC to your AirPort network
� Connecting to non-AirPort networks
If you’re an Apple Macintosh user and you’ve just decided to try wireless
networking, this chapter is for you. We cover installing and setting up the
AirPort Extreme card in an Apple computer as well as setting up an AirPort
Extreme base station. We focus on Mac OS X versions 10.4 (Tiger) and 10.5
(Leopard) because they are the most current versions of the Mac operating
system at the time of this writing (as we write, Leopard is brand spanking
new!), but the advice we offer in this chapter gets you up and running with
any version of OS X. Along the way, Apple has added a few new features to its
wireless networking software (such as, in OS X 10.5, the ability to rapidly see
which networks have encryption turned on), but by and large the Wi-Fi connectivity
in OS X has been the same in all versions.
Note: Apple has phased out OS 9 support for its recent computers. If you have
an older Mac that still runs only OS 9, you’re not out of luck — OS 9 PCs can
support and connect to AirPort and other Wi-Fi networks, but not all the features
we are discussing here apply.
We’re focusing on the Apple AirPort system in this chapter simply because
Apple has its own (robust and easy to use) Wi-Fi home router hardware that
is tightly integrated into the OS X system software — and many Mac users
prefer sticking with an all-Apple network. However, this doesn’t mean that
Apple computers must use AirPort routers (they can connect to any standardsbased
Wi-Fi router using the 802.11b, g, or n standard), or conversely, that
other computers and devices can’t use an AirPort system as their Wi-Fi router
(they can, again given a common Wi-Fi standard).