Mac Wireless Question

[LostintheNW]

Hello

I have an iMac that has the airport built in, can I use any wireless router to connect to the internet or do I have to use a mac airbase station?

I have 3mb broadband from NTL through a samsung box - if I can use any is it a case of plugging the router into the back of the box where the ethernet cable is and then rebooting it so the box finds a new mac address and then doing the usual registering?

Just thought I would check as I share the connection between my pc and my mac and the wires are getting a little cluttered!

Thanks in advance

[punky]

You can use any router. Don't be tempted to buy more of Apple's overpriced lumps of acrylic than you have to. I have a Linksys WRT54G and it works pretty well. Also works well with my dad's Belkin.

EDIT: You plug the router in the back of your STB. You turn everything off. You power on your STB, and then your router, and then your computer. Onec it is up, you'll have to add your router to your account (called "provisioning" I think), by loading up a browser and going to http://start.ntl You'll need you PID for it. Then shut everything down, load up your STB, then router, then computer, in that order, and enjoy. Everything should be configured automatically.

[LostintheNW]

Thanks Punky - just wanted to make sure before I shell out - looking at getting the netgear wgr614 one, looks good.

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by punky

You can use any router. Don't be tempted to buy more of Apple's overpriced lumps of acrylic than you have to. I have a Linksys WRT54G and it works pretty well.

Same here. In fact, I find the Mac works better with the Linksys than any of the Linksys wireless cards I have tried.

[LostintheNW]

Thanks for this

one other question - probably stupid but i am a newbie at this - my mac will connect to the net using the airport connection and then i want to share this with my pc, can i do this using the ethernet connection when my mac and pc are connected or will i need to get the pc setup on the wireless option?

[punky]

Your router will have a wired, and wireless option, so your PC can use wired ethernet and your iMac can use wireless, simultaneously. That's better, its much safer (I don't put much stock by wireless encryption. It can defeated with a linux packet sniffer) and more stable. You could make them both use wireless, or if you wanted to transfer things quickly, they could both use wired ports.

[LostintheNW]

thanks again punky!