AirPort Blog

Asanté's firmware upgrade for the FR1104 802.11g router brings it up to speed against the AirPort Extreme Base Station: For a list price of $117, the FR1104 offers the most significant AirPort Extreme Base Station differences at a little more than half its cost: WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) encryption support; 802.11g speeds; and AppleTalk support for backwards compatibility with Mac OS 8/9 systems, with OS X boxes running AppleTalk servers, and printers that only talk AppleTalk.

Missing is the WDS (Wireless Distribution System) offering that lets the AxBS work as a base station and a bridge to other base stations. It can now also log to the standard Unix syslog facility, which Apple added in the latest firmware for the AxBS as well.

The previous generation of Asanté routers didn't offer roaming: that is, you couldn't set multiple base stations to the same SSID (network name) across a single network and have your wireless card automatically switch you to a better base station signal as necessary. It's unclear whether roaming is supported or not in this release, but it's not a significant issue unless you're setting up a multi-access point Wi-Fi network.

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 11:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

You own a Titanium PowerBook. You have an AirPort Card. You've been frustrated with its range, possibly for years. You could buy and install a third-party card using AirPort Software 3.2 or later and get the benefit of 802.11g's 54 Mbps. And that will improve your range somewhat, often substantially. But...you...want...more...

QuickerTek says they have the answer: they combine the Buffalo 802.11g PC Card with a whip antenna to produce four times the range of a native Titanium with AirPort Card. It comes at a price: $170 less a $35 rebate if you send them your AirPort Card. (You can get about $60 on eBay for the item, but you have to deal with the whole transaction and fulfillment.)

You can purchase the Buffalo card separately for as little as $50 after a $20 rebate. It works with Mac OS X 10.2.6 or later, but I believe it requires that self-same AirPort Software 3.2 noted above.

(The one flaw with this package is a legal one; while it's legal for QuickerTek to sell the antenna to use with the card, it's illegal for a user to combine an antenna with any wireless equipment that hasn't been specifically been certified by the FCC to work together as a system. Now, you're not going to get arrested by the FCC police for this act, nor have we ever heard of anyone being fined or prosecuted for it. Still, it's wise to know when you're breaking the law and when you're not.)

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 08:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Apple has pushed out a micro-update to the AirPort 3.4 software, now numbered 3.4.1. The problems we've heard include lower signal strength (or reported signal strength) and problems with base station not allowing connections. Ostensibly, 3.4.1 fixes this but there's no information on the Web site.

Can I share our best AirPort Extreme Base Station tip? Whenever you make a configuration change, use Save As in AirPort Admin Utility to save a dated copy of that's base station's configuration file. In case that unit dies or freaks out (as mine did), you can merely hard reset or replace it, reload the configuration file, and you're instantly back in business with a reboot.

The AirPort Management Tools 1.0 are still missing in action. I expect we'll see a return of them, too. (A reader noted that you can still download them from the AirPort Support Page, but the pages explaining the tools are gone.)

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 02:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 08:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Apple released a tool today to make LAN managers -- or even those of us with two or three Base Stations -- leap with joy: AirPort Management Tools 1.0. The AirPort Management Utility provides a way to view and modify the settings of many AirPort Extreme Base Stations all at once. It's a sophisticated tool that should dramatically reduce the staff cost in administering a network of Base Stations -- academic institutions must be ecstatic. The client tool lets you monitor speed and traffic over time, which can help you better troubleshoot a network's problems. (This tool is similar to a monitoring tab in the original WaveLAN/Lucent/Agere/Proxim Orinoco software.)

The management tools requires AirPort 3.4 and Mac OS X 10.3. AirPort 3.4 was released this morning, and it includes a firmware upgrade for AirPort Extreme Base Stations that adds the ability to push logs to an external "syslog" daemon, which is a standard Unix service for recording error messages and warnings. It's part of Mac OS X, so if you reconfigure an always-on box on your network, your AirPort Extreme Base Station(s) can push its/their messages directly to that system for centralized monitoring.

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 09:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Apple is now offering an AirPort Extreme Base Station that uses Power over Ethernet (802.3af) which allows you to forego running AC power to a base station, and instead "injecting" it over the same cable used for Ethernet. It's a growing technology for access points, often located in places where it's expensive or impossible to run AC power. Even better, existing Ethernet wiring can often handle the power injection. The PoE base station has no modem but does include an external antenna connection and retails for $250.

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 09:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Apple announced today that the entire PowerBook G4 line would include AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth as standard, built-in features--no more build to order delays. Certain models of the PowerBook G4 already included these features, but now even the introductory 12-inch (boosted to 1.33 GHz) has all the wireless you could ask for.

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 07:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (1)

Mac Skeptic columnist says Mac OS X Bluetooth easier than Windows: It's partly an integration issue, which is odd given how many tools are "integrated" with Windows XP. Mac OS X has Bluetooth on its mind; with Windows, you have to install drivers. (This will change for most Bluetooth adapters under Windows XP Service Pack 2 due out later this year.)

Apple's included software really does make the difference. The writer complains about the number of steps and odd non-reproducible performance under Windows XP when adding a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, where with Mac OS X it's a single long wizard. Likewise, she gave up on syncing her Palm with her Sony Ericsson phone (which itself could pair up just fine) under Windows, but it was practically a single leap from pairing the phone to syncing data on the Mac.

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 10:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)