If you’re an Apple Macintosh user and you’ve just decided to try wireless networking, this topic is for you. We cover installing and setting up the AirPort Extreme card in an Apple computer as well as setting up an AirPort Extreme base station. We focus on Mac OS X versions 10.4 (Tiger) and 10.5 (Leopard) because they are the most current versions of the Mac operating system at the time of this writing (as we write, Leopard is brand spanking new!), but the advice we offer in this topic gets you up and running with any version of OS X. Along the way, Apple has added a few new features to its wireless networking software (such as, in OS X 10.5, the ability to rapidly see which networks have encryption turned on), but by and large the Wi-Fi connectivity in OS X has been the same in all versions.
Note: Apple has phased out OS 9 support for its recent computers. If you have an older Mac that still runs only OS 9, you’re not out of luck — OS 9 PCs can support and connect to AirPort and other Wi-Fi networks, but not all the features we are discussing here apply.
We’re focusing on the Apple AirPort system in this topic simply because Apple has its own (robust and easy to use) Wi-Fi home router hardware that is tightly integrated into the OS X system software — and many Mac users prefer sticking with an all-Apple network. However, this doesn’t mean that Apple computers must use AirPort routers (they can connect to any standards-based Wi-Fi router using the 802.11b, g, or n standard), or conversely, that other computers and devices can’t use an AirPort system as their Wi-Fi router (they can, again given a common Wi-Fi standard).
Understanding AirPort Hardware
Back in 1999, Apple Computer had a product launch for the iBook notebook (remember the multicolored curvy ones that looked like nothing in the world quite as much as they did a toilet seat?), and part of that big dog-and-pony show (all Apple product launches are extravaganzas!) was the introduction of the AirPort Wi-Fi wireless networking system. AirPort was the first mainstream, consumer-friendly, and consumer-focused wireless networking system. Over the years, AirPort (it’s gone through a few name changes and design upgrades, as we discuss) has become an integral part of the Apple product lineup and is installed (or available) in all of Apple’s desktop and notebook computers.
The AirPort product line includes both client adapters (known as AirPort cards), which are installed inside Apple computers, and wireless routers (known as AirPort base stations) that act as the base station for a Wi-Fi network.
Apple’s current AirPort products use the newest Wi-Fi 802.11n draft 2.0 technology, which is (as we write) the state of the art in the wireless LAN world. Apple computers equipped with AirPort Extreme cards can connect to any Wi-Fi compatible 2.4 GHz 802.11b, g, or n wireless network, as well as 5 GHz 802.11a and 802.11n networks — regardless of whether the network uses Apple equipment or wireless equipment from any other Wi-Fi certified vendor.
The current generation of AirPort products (dubbed AirPort Extreme) is compatible with the 802.11n draft 2.0 standard. You may also run into some older generations of AirPort equipment (just plain AirPort by name, as well as earlier editions of the AirPort Extreme) that are compatible with the older 802.11b or g standards but that don’t support 802.11n or a.
Getting to know the AirPort card
Apple computer models were the first on the market to feature a special wireless adapter — known as the AirPort card — as an option. The original AirPort card was similar in form to a PC Card (a Personal Computer Memory Card International Association [PCMCIA] Card) but was designed to be installed in a special AirPort slot inside an Apple computer. If you get your hands on one of the original AirPort cards, you should not try to use it in a PC Card slot found on most laptop computers. As we mention in the nearby sidebar, "The amazing disappearing AirPort card," the original 802.11b AirPort card is no longer being produced and supplies are limited — luckily, all Macs built in the past two years support the newer AirPort Extreme card, and all Macs built since late 2006 support the 802.11n version of AirPort Extreme.
The current AirPort Extreme card is a mini-PCI Card (well, it’s the same size and shape but designed to fit only in AirPort slots in Macs). It fits inside an Apple computer, such as several recent PowerBook G4s, iBooks, and iMacs, but doesn’t fit in the original AirPort slot in older Macs — and isn’t required for any of Macs built since 2005 (all of which already have Wi-Fi built in). The AirPort Extreme card has a retail price of $49. The AirPort Extreme card is Wi-Fi certified to be compliant with 802.11g, so it connects to any Wi-Fi certified 802.11b or 802.11g access point, including (but not limited to) the Apple AirPort Extreme base stations.
Some recent Intel-based Macs were shipped with 802.11n capable AirPort Extreme cards installed but without the software that turned on the 802.11n functionality. In other words, these Macs were sold as 802.11a/b/g compatible, even though their hardware could support 802.11n as well. In order to turn on this functionality, Apple requires you to download a small software firmware patch for the card. You can get this file (called the AirPort Extreme 802.11n Enabler for Mac) in two ways:
Pay Apple $1.99 and download it from the Apple Online Store (http:// store.apple.com).
Buy an AirPort Extreme base station with Gigabit Ethernet (Apple’s 802.11n Wi-Fi router) — the software patch is included for free in the box.
If you have a MacBook Pro with Intel Core 2 Duo, Mac Pro with AirPort Extreme option, or iMac with Intel Core 2 Duo (except the 17-inch 1.83GHz iMac), you may want to upgrade to 802.11n. You can check if you already have the Enabler file by opening the Network Utility (found in the Utilities folder in your Mac’s Applications folder) and viewing the Info tab: If the en1 Network Interface is described as 802.11a/b/g/n, you don’t need the Enabler; if it just says 802.11a/b/g/, you do.
Apple AirPort Extreme-ready computers
Apple has been including Wi-Fi capability as a standard feature of all its computers for a few years — so any Mac laptop or desktop purchased since mid-to-late 2005 has at least 802.11g Wi-Fi capability built in. The only exceptions are the MacPro desktop machines, which are most often used in business environments (where wired Ethernet connections are common); these computers have the AirPort capability as an option in some configurations.
A number of Apple computers (since mid-to-late 2006) have been capable of supporting 802.11n as well, including the following:
iMac with Intel Core 2 Duo (except the 17-inch 1.83 GHz iMac) MacBook with Intel Core 2 Duo
MacBook Pro with Intel Core 2 Duo Mac Pro with AirPort Extreme card option
Some older Macintosh computers may not have an AirPort card installed but can be equipped with Apple’s AirPort Extreme card (discussed in the preceding section).You can find a list of these computers at the following URL: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107440. This Web page also includes a link to another Apple Web page that lists all Macintosh computers that can use the older AirPort card as well.
Apple computers that are equipped for installation of an AirPort Extreme card have an antenna built into the body of the computer. When you install the AirPort card, you attach the AirPort Extreme card to the built-in antenna. (All radios need an antenna to be able to send and receive radio signals, and wireless networking cards are no exception.)
If your older Mac doesn’t support AirPort or AirPort Extreme, you can try using a standard Wi-Fi network adapter with the drivers found at www. ioxperts.com/devices/devices_80211b.html.
The amazing disappearing AirPort card
The original AirPort card — the one that fits into all the older G3 and Titanium G4 PowerBooks, original iBooks, and original iMacs — has been discontinued by Apple. Not because they aren’t good guys and not because they don’t want to sell such cards to their customers. The problem is that the 802.11b chips inside these cards are no longer available (the chip vendors are spending all their time building 802.11g chips like those found in the AirPort Extreme card).
The result is that cards for these Macs are extremely rare — the only real source of these cards is the small number that have been stockpiled by folks who repair Macs as service parts. Think back to Econ 101, and you can see how this situation may drive up prices. We’ve seen these older cards (which originally cost about $100) for more than $150 on eBay and on various reseller Web sites. (They’re nowhere to be found on Apple’s own site.)
The only other alternative is to find a third-party Wi-Fi adapter that can work with your older Mac. For notebook computers such as the PowerBook, it’s a PC Card adapter, and for desktop Macs (such as Power Macs), it’s a PCI card. The AirPort software built into Mac OS X doesn’t work with these devices (and almost none of them have a set of Mac driver software). The solution is to mate a card with some specialized software that works with a Macintosh.
The most popular solution here is to find an 802.11b PC or PCI card that works with the IOXpert 802.11b driver for Mac OS X ($19.95 after a free trial period). This software works with a large number of 802.11b cards and all versions of OS X (including the current Tiger version). Go to www.ioxperts.com/devices/ devices_80211b.html to find out more, to see a list of compatible (and incompatible) cards, and to download the trial version.
"Come in, AirPort base station. Over."
Apple currently sells two wireless routers, which they call base stations. The current state-of-the-Apple-art is the AirPort Extreme base station with Gigabit Ethernet. This $179 base station is fully compatible with the 802.11n draft 2.0 standard and includes the following features:
* High-speed networking: Using 802.11n on the wireless side of the house and full Gigabit (1000 Kbps) wired Ethernet connections for three devices, this router provides connections as fast as any on the market.
* A USB port: The USB port can be configured to provide
• A printer connection (using the built-in print server) that lets you share just about any USB printer over the network, so you can send print jobs from your Macs or Windows computers to a central printer.
• A shared storage device (called AirPort Disk), using a USB hard drive. You simply plug in any USB external hard drive and enable the AirPort Disk feature by using Apple’s software, and Macs and Windows computers can share the hard drive space for backups, storage of media files (such as digital music), and more.
• A USB hub feature (you need to provide your own hub), with which you can "double up" your AirPort Extreme base station’s USB port, attaching more than one printer and/or hard drive at once.
* Up-to-date security support: The AirPort Extreme base station with Gigabit Ethernet supports WPA and WPA2 encryption, as well as support for business-grade security standards such as RADIUS and 802.1x.
* Dual-band support: Like most 802.11n draft 2.0 devices, the AirPort Extreme base station with Gigabit Ethernet can be used on either the 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz bands, meaning you can move your wireless traffic to the less crowded 5 GHz band if that’s an issue in your home, or keep it on the 2.4 GHz band for maximum range and compatibility with older 802.11b or g equipment.
Figure 8-1 shows the AirPort Extreme base station with Gigabit Ethernet.
Getting aboard the Express
The AirPort Extreme isn’t the only Apple entry in the AP space (and, in fact, it’s not even the most interesting!). Apple also has a small form factor (about the size of a deck of cards) access point known as the AirPort Express (see Figure 8-2).
Figure 8-1:
Going 802.11n Apple style.
Figure 8-2:
The AirPort Express is a jack of all trades.
This $99 device can fulfill a bunch of different roles in your wireless life, including the following:
A full-fledged AP and router: The AirPort Express can do pretty much everything any full-size AP can do — you can build your entire wireless LAN around an AirPort Express.
A travel router: A cool new category of APs are those designed for use on the road — travel routers that you can pack up and plug into any broadband access (like that available in most hotels) and provide yourself with an instant Wi-Fi hot spot. The small size of the AirPort Express lets you stick it in your laptop bag and bring it wherever you go.
A WDS repeater: The Apple AirPort system supports the WDS (wireless distribution system) standard, which allows you to extend your network throughout even a huge house by having your wireless signals hop from AP to AP until they reach your distant clients.
A USB print server: You can plug a USB printer into the AirPort Express and get printer access from the entire network.
An AirTunes player: Perhaps our favorite feature of the AirPort Express is its support for AirTunes. AirTunes is the Apple software system that lets you listen to the music in your iTunes collection (and from your iPod) throughout your entire network. The AirPort Express has analog and digital audio connectors that you plug into a stereo or home theater. Although Apple’s fancy AppleTV is an even better way of doing this, it costs four times as much as the AirPort Express, so if your focus is on music more than TV, you might consider choosing the AirPort Express.
Like the AirPort Extreme base station, the AirPort Express uses the 802.11g standard and can work with any type of Wi-Fi certified 802.11g or 802.11b client.
We haven’t heard anything about this from Apple, but we certainly expect that Apple will come out with an 802.11n version of the AirPort Express in the not-so-distant future. If you are setting up a new network and don’t need a router to fill the roles that the AirPort Express fills right away, you might want to hold off on the purchase of the device for a while.
Using AirPort with OS X Macs
Apple makes it exceptionally easy to configure an AirPort Extreme base station or an AirPort Express. All Mac OS X computers that are capable of working with an AirPort system have two bits of software installed in the Utilities folder (found in your Applications folder):
AirPort Setup Assistant AirPort Admin Utility
The Setup Assistant is a "follow along with the steps" program (like the wizard programs often used on Windows computers) that guides you through the setup of an AirPort system by asking you simple questions. The Admin Utility is used for tweaking and updating your settings later, after you already have everything set up. Most people can just use the Setup Assistant for all their configuration needs — though we recommend that you occasionally run the Admin Utility program to upgrade the firmware (the underlying software inside your AirPort), as we discuss later in the "Upgrading AirPort base station firmware on OS X" section.
Configuring the AirPort base station on OS X
When you’ve purchased a new AirPort Extreme base station or AirPort Express (that you will use as a base station), the easiest way to set it up for use in your wireless home network is to use the AirPort Setup Assistant. The AirPort Setup Assistant reads the Internet settings from your computer and transfers them to the base station so that you can access the Internet over your wireless network. To use the AirPort Setup Assistant, follow these steps:
1. Before running the AirPort Setup Assistant, set up your computer to connect to the Internet by dial-up modem or by broadband (cable or DSL) modem.
Check with your ISP for instructions on getting connected:
• If you connect to the Internet by dial-up modem: Connect the telephone line to the phone line port on the base station.
• If you connect to the Internet by DSL or cable modem: Use an Ethernet cable to connect the modem to the base station’s WAN port.
2. Click the Applications Folder on the dock.
3. When the Applications folder opens, double-click the Utilities folder icon.
4. In the Utilities folder, double-click the AirPort Setup Assistant icon to display the AirPort Setup Assistant window, as shown in Figure 8-3.
5. Select the Set Up a New AirPort Base Station option, and then click the Continue button.
If your computer is in range of your wireless network, the Setup Assistant automatically configures your AirPort card to select that network and proceeds to the America Online Access panel. However, if you happen to be in range of more than one wireless network, you see the Select an AirPort Network panel, which asks you to select your network from a pop-up list. Your network will have its name assigned at the factory, similar to Apple Network xxxxxx, where xxxxxx is a six-digit hexadecimal number. After selecting your network, click the Continue button to go to the next panel.
6. In the America Online Access panel:
• If you connect to the Internet via AOL: Select the I Am Using America Online option, and then click the Continue button.
• If you’re not using AOL: Select the I Am Using Another Internet Service Provider option, and then click the Continue button to display the Internet Access panel.
Figure 8-3:
The OS X AirPort Setup Assistant window.
7. In the Internet Access panel, choose one of the following options, and then click the Continue button:
• Local Area Network: You should select this option if your computer is connected to a high-speed LAN.
• Cable Modem or DSL Using Static IP or DHCP: Select this option if you connect to the Internet by cable modem or by DSL, but only if your ISP doesn’t use the PPP over Ethernet (PPPoE) protocol.
• Cable Modem or DSL Using PPPoE: If your ISP uses the PPPoE protocol, select this option. It’s important that you make a successful connection to the Internet with your computer connected directly to the cable or DSL modem before attempting to configure the base station. The AirPort Setup Assistant can then copy the PPPoE settings from your computer to the base station so that the base station can log on to the Internet with your user ID and password. All the computers on your wireless network can then share the Internet connection without needing to log on.
8. The next panel you see at this step depends on the choice you make in Step 7. After you enter the appropriate information, click the Continue button:
• LAN, or Broadband Using Static IP or DHCP: If you choose either a LAN or a broadband (cable modem or DSL) connection that doesn’t use PPPoE, the Ethernet Access panel presents the option to use DHCP or to assign a static IP address. If your ISP has assigned you a static IP address — along with other values, such as subnet mask, router address, domain name, and DHCP client name — you have to enter this data if it isn’t automatically copied from your computer.
• Broadband Using PPPoE: If you select the Cable Modem or DSL Using PPPoE option, the PPPoE Access panel presents text boxes for entering an account name, password, and other account information sometimes required by PPPoE providers. Again, in most cases, this information is automatically copied from your computer.
9. In the Network Name and Password panel that appears, enter the name and password you want to use for your wireless network, and then click the Continue button.
10. In the base station Password panel, use the network password or assign a different password for changing the settings on your base station.
If you’re the only person who will configure the computers on the network, using the same one in both places is probably the easiest. However, if you plan to share the network password with other users, assign a different password to the base station so that only you can change the base station’s settings.
11. Click the Continue button.
You see a Conclusion panel, which informs you that the Setup Assistant is ready to set up your base station.
12. Click the Continue button.
After the Setup Assistant downloads the new settings to the base station, it displays a message that it’s waiting for the base station to reset. As soon as the base station resets, the Setup Assistant displays a panel announcing that it’s finished and that it has been able to configure this computer to connect to the Internet.
13. Click the Done button to close the AirPort Setup Assistant.
