recommend me a wireless router for macs

john eden

john eden

male pale and stale
Any tips?

Currently using a netgear wired router for two Macs in the same room.

I am being confined to a cupboard at the other end of the flat, so we need a wireless thingy, but it's all voodoo to me.

This looks nice and shiny:


But will it be a case of magic beans for my hard earned cattle?
 
nomos

nomos

Administrator
i've done alright with an apple airport extreme for about 5 years. the one that looks like a ufo. it seems to works best sitting high up on a bookcase. doesn't like too many walls in the way or portable phones on the same channel. wireless is pure voodoo though and i suspect it kills me a little every day having all of this 'content' passing through my body. in 20 years they'll find bits of jpg and mp3 festering in our livers.
 
nomos

nomos

Administrator
that could be tricky. one approach might be to place it high up (mounted on the wall even) between your two work spaces. and get one that's reputed to have a pretty robust signal.

i think you might be able to have more than one router though, to extend the range of the network. pretty sure that was the idea behind this http://www.apple.com/airportexpress/
 
john eden

john eden

male pale and stale
nomos said:
that could be tricky. one approach might be to place it high up (mounted on the wall even) between your two work spaces. and get one that's reputed to have a pretty robust signal.

i think you might be able to have more than one router though, to extend the range of the network. pretty sure that was the idea behind this http://www.apple.com/airportexpress/
Click to expand...

I'll try a bit of research elsewhere and possibly subject myself to asking a man in a shop who will patronise me.

At least we're all on one floor, anyway...

Thanks Nomos!
 
john eden

john eden

male pale and stale
Well that was actually a piece of piss.

I am posting this from my new cupboard, via apple airport extreme and my old modem/router. Wicked. I think the new one is more powerful than the UFO one, so walls seem to be less of an issue?

Anyway, big ups.
 
john eden

john eden

male pale and stale
Help!

Fuckery a gwan in me cupboard!!! :mad:

I'm having to type this on the better half's laptop.

My Mac will no longer connect with me Airport - it said "IP address xxxxxx is already in use"

The only thing which has changed in recent weeks is getting a couple of Iphones which also connect to the Airport via wifi.

Any ideas from you young and thrusting tech-literate people? It looks like there's an option to reset the whole thing but I really don't want to do that...

Pain in the arse as I'm working from home this morning.
 
M

mistersloane

heavy heavy monster sound
My wireless thing freaks out if a strange computer comes anywhere near it, I just re-enter my password again and then it works again, doesn't make any sense but it seems to work.
 
N

Numbers

Well-known member
john eden said:
yeah I'm just going to have a fiddle with it all this afternoon I guess... thanks!
Click to expand...

Wifi is voodoo, but your problem is actually quite easy to solve. Just get every device a static ip. Go to Sys pref > network > Airport > Advanced > TCP/IP > Configure IPv4 manually > 192.168.x.x where x stands for a cipher within the range of your network, usually something like 192.168.1.3, add 255.255.0.0. for subnet mask and 192.168.1.1 for router) and you're done. If you do this on all your computers, the problem should be solved.

Other possibility could be just to restart your computer, usually that will assign a new ip adress that isn't yet in use by another device.
 
nomos

nomos

Administrator
i hate mine. if i could run wires everywhere i would. it's always dropping the connection, except i don't know if it's the DSL or the aging router that's responsible. the internet company says it's the latter, but they would. a while back they sent a combo modem-router which made things worse by not connecting with any machine running os x 10.4. :rolleyes:
 
connect_icut

connect_icut

Well-known member
In my experience setting up and maintaining a home wireless network is a fucking nightmare. I have a Trendnet router (they seem to be the best cheapo ones) going to two Macs and a PC. It works okay but if anything goes wrong... Gah! I'm also genuinely worried the health implications of beaming all those microwaves around the house. I plan to start researching the best/cheapest ways to have Internet in multiple rooms without needing wireless.
 
M

mistersloane

heavy heavy monster sound
I got horrible, horrible conjunctivitis the day I installed wireless in my place, and then weirdly was round at a meeting at someone's house two weeks later and they apologised for having conjunctivitis and I was like...."Don't suppose you just installed wireless did you?" and they had. Creeped me out. But did I do anything about it? No.
 
john eden

john eden

male pale and stale
got it sorted by tinkering and turning a lot of stuff off and on again, so a tip of the hat to everyone on this thread... :cool:
 
nomos

nomos

Administrator
I spent 2 hrs on the phone today. Seems the DSL company had my line rated for much higher speeds than it could handle, causing all sorts of instability. Turns out, despite being in the centre of the city, the line to my area is pitifully slow. So they bumped me down to their cheapest plan (old account - I'd been paying more than the cost of their best! Fuckers) and took the pressure off the line. Much better so far. Doesn't do anything for Wifi interference though. Or my conjunctivitis :mad:
 
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