13.01.2013 Views

Wireless Home Networking - Index of

Wireless Home Networking - Index of

Wireless Home Networking - Index of

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.

� A travel router: A cool new category <strong>of</strong> APs are those designed for use<br />

on the road — travel routers that you can pack up and plug into any<br />

broadband access (like that available in most hotels) and provide<br />

yourself with an instant Wi-Fi hot spot. The small size <strong>of</strong> the AirPort<br />

Express lets you stick it in your laptop bag and bring it wherever you<br />

go. Pat wrote this chapter in a hotel room in Vegas using his AirPort<br />

Express — a pretty sad commentary on his after-hours life these days!<br />

� A WDS repeater: The Apple AirPort system supports the WDS (wireless<br />

distribution system) standard, which allows you to extend your network<br />

throughout even a huge house by having your wireless signals hop from<br />

AP to AP until they reach your distant clients.<br />

� A USB print server: You can plug a USB printer into the AirPort Express<br />

and get printer access from the entire network.<br />

� An AirTunes player: Perhaps our favorite feature <strong>of</strong> the AirPort Express<br />

is its support for AirTunes. AirTunes is the Apple s<strong>of</strong>tware system that<br />

lets you listen to the music in your iTunes collection (and from your<br />

iPod) throughout your entire network. The AirPort Express has analog<br />

and digital audio connectors that you plug into a stereo or home theater.<br />

Although Apple’s fancy AppleTV is an even better way <strong>of</strong> doing this, it<br />

costs four times as much as the AirPort Express, so if your focus is on<br />

music more than TV, you might consider choosing the AirPort Express.<br />

Like the AirPort Extreme base station, the AirPort Express uses the 802.11g<br />

standard and can work with any type <strong>of</strong> Wi-Fi certified 802.11g or 802.11b client.<br />

We haven’t heard anything about this from Apple, but we certainly expect that<br />

Apple will come out with an 802.11n version <strong>of</strong> the AirPort Express in the notso-distant<br />

future. If you are setting up a new network and don’t need a router<br />

to fill the roles that the AirPort Express fills right away, you might want to<br />

hold <strong>of</strong>f on the purchase <strong>of</strong> the device for a while.<br />

Using AirPort with OS X Macs<br />

Apple makes it exceptionally easy to configure an AirPort Extreme base station<br />

or an AirPort Express. All Mac OS X computers that are capable <strong>of</strong> working<br />

with an AirPort system have two bits <strong>of</strong> s<strong>of</strong>tware installed in the Utilities<br />

folder (found in your Applications folder):<br />

� AirPort Setup Assistant<br />

� AirPort Admin Utility<br />

Chapter 8: Setting Up a <strong>Wireless</strong> Mac Network<br />

149

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!