Talk:AirPort

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This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the AirPort article.
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Suggestions for future changes.

When did AirPort debut?
Which models support AirPort?
Similar products?
--Ellmist

Originally from Apple AirPort before I redirected that here. I believe I covered everything here, but if you cared: Airport is Apple's implementation of the IEEE 802.11b wireless protocol. This allows ethernet-speed networking over a small (house sized) wireless LAN. Apple was the first company to implement 802.11b wireless networking to a broad consumer base.

An Airport network consists of at least one base station (which also functions as an IP router as well as a ppp modem connection if necessary) and an Airport card in each wireless computer. Some Macs (later iMacs, the Cube) can also function as the base station if so configured. -- Ellmist

Contents

[edit] Generations?

Is AirPort Express really a separate generation from AirPort Extreme?

[edit] AirPort Extreme Card Drivers

Perhaps a comment regarding the (lack of) open source drivers for the AirPort Extreme Card is in order?


>AirPort Extreme Cards can also be made to operate at a restricted military frequency, which is why the drivers are not made open source.

Is that serious? I have never heard that one before.

[edit] 03:46, 14 Apr 2005 Changes

Okay, Wikipedia seems to be unable to produce a reasonable diff of my changes. So here's what I did:

  1. Added a paragraph that the AirPort and AirPort Extreme terms can refer to card, station or protocol.
  2. Split the first paragraph of overview into two paragraphs.
  3. Merged the AirPort Extreme section that appeared after Overview. One was essentially the overview for AirPort, the other for AirPort Extreme. To this end, I moved the details of the original AirPort card to the end of this section. It's less of an overview and more details.
  4. Split Base Stations->Versions into AirPort and AirPort Extreme.
  5. Various minor wording improvements throughout.

Hopefully with this info, the diff will be easier to follow. --Steven Fisher 09:38, 25 May 2005 (UTC)

I should add I in no way consider this to be a perfect structure; my intent was only to improve slightly on the existing structure. I think that somehow protocols, base stations and cards should be treated with equal importantance, which is something I've failed to accomplish. Perhaps removing the sub headings in the Base Stations section would help with this, I'm not sure. But I figured I'd commit this and see if there's a reaction before I go too far and mess things up completely. --Steven Fisher 09:42, 25 May 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Airport Extreme

Merge: There is a seperate article on Airport Extreme that should be merged into this one. Dread Lord CyberSkull ✎☠ 01:34, 2005 July 16 (UTC)

Logic Error: Airport express will integrate with networks that have 802.11a, b, or g? Afaik, as a vendor, AirPort's only compatibility is 802.11b, g, and now draft n. If the third party router is a, b, g, then it will merge the networks but devices will not be able to connect to the AirPort over 802.11a. And if the router is only 802.11a, then the networks won't connect as all. Fixed the logic error in the main page. --Cos --129.65.95.177 16:31, 1 March 2007 (UTC)

No error. the devices out of the box support a/b/g/n. Any of the 4 types of devices can connect to it. There are also other operation modes, such as "802.11n and 802.11 only," 802.11n and 802.11g/b only" etc. Currently, I actually have set up several of these in n+a only mode, and connected several macs that did not have the n enabler patch installed (so their cards are a/b/g), and they connected fine over a with no problems. I'll edit the article to try to clear this up. – Fʀɪɺøʟɛ ( тɐʟк • ¢ʘи†ʀ¡βs ) 19:13, 1 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Re-write

I did a bit of a rewrite. Hope you all like it. I decided to merge the stub that was AirPort Extreme. I cut down on the Security portion -- what was there was pretty good (althought POV was a bit negative towards AirPort, I thought) but also slightly off-topic. Cleaned up the links, made them more consistence. etc. etc. etc. --Kwnd 07:06, 16 July 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Airport Express USB support

The article states that the AirPort Express USB can be used for remote printing and IR remote control of iTunes. Can the port also be used to connect to other USB devices (most particularly, a NSLU2)?

--193.133.69.162 13:39, 17 July 2006 (UTC)

in short words, no Markthemac (talk) 19:09, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Picture

Can anyone do a better picture of the thing? It looks like crap because the lighting isn't good, it is hard to see, and it is just thrown on a stack of papers. Can anyone take a picture of it like it was in a show room? Wikipedia deserves this quality! User:Finest1

I agree, the photo is of a very amateur nature.

I have seen a better photo of it on this page last time I checked. A photo's purpose here is for clarity in description.

Crappiest. Picture. Ever. — A sketch in ballpoint pen on a napkin would be better. - Quantumbuddha

Is this better? It may not be the greatest, but it's the first picture I've uploaded...so...yeah. It looks pretty good (imho). (Me-pawel 00:21, 28 October 2006 (UTC))


Wouldn't Apples stock "studio" images of their products be acceptable under Fair Use? Apple always do a fine job of photographing their products. 139.168.56.35 06:14, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Card Upgrade?

Did Apple upgrade the Airport Extreme wireless card to have draft-N standards? Arbiteroftruth 01:25, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

on Macworld Expo 2007, they released an 802.11n-based AirPort base station as well as revealed that the rumors about having n-draft cards in some Macs are true: Airport Extreme - Performance see footnote 2. Madd the sane 03:25, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

What I mean is this: In Apple Stores, you can buy Airport Wireless cards. Are those cards Pre-N complient? Arbiteroftruth 01:08, 13 January 2007 (UTC) Nope. the cards for sale are still 802.11g. – Fʀɪɺøʟɛ ( тɐʟк • ¢ʘи†ʀ¡βs ) 16:16, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Citation requested

I take responsibility for the citation requested tag in the page. --KushalClick me! write to me 15:34, 7 October 2007 (UTC)