the daily snivel
What Ho From the Intertubes - Part II
Continued from Rob's adventures in high speed internet at "What Ho From the Intertubes - Part I."
Now that we actually had some decent internet throughput, the next obstacle involved answering the question of how the internet connection was to be shared. Establishing a wireless network seemed to be the easiest solution, since it required no mess of network cable (and in this huge apartment, I would have needed a lot of cable to get the internet from one end of the house to another), and to that end I purchased the simpler modem/router from FreeNet, with the intention of using it as a bridge to a Wireless N router later on.
For some time, of course, the networking issue was moot, as my iBook passed away early this Spring at a grand old age after a long battle against a bum logic board, meaning there was only one computer in the house anyway (aside from my 1986 Macintosh SE, which still works but isn't really the robust multitasking multimedia machine I was used to). Mel has a new Windows XP machine in the office/guest room of the house, and she has been nothing but a gracious housemate in allowing me to mooch off of her computer and her connection even before we signed up with the National Capital Freenet. Although I now have the means to buy a new computer (with the easing of some expenses and a modest inheritance), I am biding my time before I lay down the dollars for the iMac I've had my eye on. We are mighty close to Apple's June 11 World Wide Developer's Conference, and with the recent updates to the Mac Pro, the MacBook, the MacBook Pro, Apple TV, and the June 29 release date of the iPhone, it's more than likely that a revised iMac (which has not been updated for an uncharacteristically long 273 days since September 2006) will be announced then or shortly afterwards.
Instead of buying new right away, then, I opted to send my iBook to DT&T Computer Services in Fremont California. Many helpful posters on the Apple website's discussion forums recommended them as a shop with a lot of experience in repairing and replacing iBook logic boards, and I've yet to find a better price for the service ($195 US to repair or replace your iBook G3 logic board). At the same time, I finally decided to enhance my computer's abilities by adding as much RAM as it could handle as well as an Airport wireless adapter card, and I found a great deal on eBay for both. When my iBook returned, it not only worked as well as it ever did, it in fact became much more functional with the added memory and wireless capacity. It is now really very responsive and snappy.
Next came the wireless station. I purchased the new Airport Extreme Base Station from Apple to add wireless networking to the house, and although I had read great things about its 802.11n functionality and ease of setup, I still made lots of little impressed noises all day when I set it up. I connected it the modem, and then to my roommate's computer via one of the ethernet ports, and ran the installation CD provided. Then I entered the DSL connection information and set up some passwords for the WPA encryption scheme. Behold -- a solid, bright green indicator on the otherwise featureless white, glossy Apple hardware. We had internet, and it was playing nicely with a Windows computer over ethernet and an iBook over WiFi. The only complicated part was figuring out which wireless encryption played best with my antiquated iBook and Airport card (it felt like a larger problem at the time).
Intrigued by the freedom of having a laptop and a wireless internet connection, I decided to take my iBook for a stroll late that evening to test out the strength of the signal. First, I took it to the deck in the back yard. I could see several other wireless networks were also in range, but there was no interference or decrease in signal strength for our network. Neat. Then I took the iBook to the front porch and logged onto eBay. Still other networks were coming into range, still no degradation of our signal. So I kept on walking. I moseyed down the street a house or two, and then crossed to the other side of the street, and there was still no loss of signal. By the time I made it to the end of the block -- well over 100 feet from the house -- I still had several signal bars and I was still able to surf the web at a decent speed. I hadn't expected to make it that far, so I wasn't wearing shoes, and this (along with the vague feeling of looking like a dork or burglar carrying a laptop around in the middle of the night) cut my investigation short, but one of these days I will venture out in shoes and see how far I get before the signal vanishes.
We've had no problems since day 1, and after having only dial-up internet at my desk for the past 13 years, it is such a treat to be able to use the internet at its intended speed at long last. Given that only a few months ago, my roommate and I were rolling pennies just to buy basic groceries, the fact that I now wonder what I did without wireless high speed internet is a strange thing indeed. I am very, very spoiled.
Comments:Now that we actually had some decent internet throughput, the next obstacle involved answering the question of how the internet connection was to be shared. Establishing a wireless network seemed to be the easiest solution, since it required no mess of network cable (and in this huge apartment, I would have needed a lot of cable to get the internet from one end of the house to another), and to that end I purchased the simpler modem/router from FreeNet, with the intention of using it as a bridge to a Wireless N router later on.
For some time, of course, the networking issue was moot, as my iBook passed away early this Spring at a grand old age after a long battle against a bum logic board, meaning there was only one computer in the house anyway (aside from my 1986 Macintosh SE, which still works but isn't really the robust multitasking multimedia machine I was used to). Mel has a new Windows XP machine in the office/guest room of the house, and she has been nothing but a gracious housemate in allowing me to mooch off of her computer and her connection even before we signed up with the National Capital Freenet. Although I now have the means to buy a new computer (with the easing of some expenses and a modest inheritance), I am biding my time before I lay down the dollars for the iMac I've had my eye on. We are mighty close to Apple's June 11 World Wide Developer's Conference, and with the recent updates to the Mac Pro, the MacBook, the MacBook Pro, Apple TV, and the June 29 release date of the iPhone, it's more than likely that a revised iMac (which has not been updated for an uncharacteristically long 273 days since September 2006) will be announced then or shortly afterwards.
Instead of buying new right away, then, I opted to send my iBook to DT&T Computer Services in Fremont California. Many helpful posters on the Apple website's discussion forums recommended them as a shop with a lot of experience in repairing and replacing iBook logic boards, and I've yet to find a better price for the service ($195 US to repair or replace your iBook G3 logic board). At the same time, I finally decided to enhance my computer's abilities by adding as much RAM as it could handle as well as an Airport wireless adapter card, and I found a great deal on eBay for both. When my iBook returned, it not only worked as well as it ever did, it in fact became much more functional with the added memory and wireless capacity. It is now really very responsive and snappy.
Next came the wireless station. I purchased the new Airport Extreme Base Station from Apple to add wireless networking to the house, and although I had read great things about its 802.11n functionality and ease of setup, I still made lots of little impressed noises all day when I set it up. I connected it the modem, and then to my roommate's computer via one of the ethernet ports, and ran the installation CD provided. Then I entered the DSL connection information and set up some passwords for the WPA encryption scheme. Behold -- a solid, bright green indicator on the otherwise featureless white, glossy Apple hardware. We had internet, and it was playing nicely with a Windows computer over ethernet and an iBook over WiFi. The only complicated part was figuring out which wireless encryption played best with my antiquated iBook and Airport card (it felt like a larger problem at the time).
Intrigued by the freedom of having a laptop and a wireless internet connection, I decided to take my iBook for a stroll late that evening to test out the strength of the signal. First, I took it to the deck in the back yard. I could see several other wireless networks were also in range, but there was no interference or decrease in signal strength for our network. Neat. Then I took the iBook to the front porch and logged onto eBay. Still other networks were coming into range, still no degradation of our signal. So I kept on walking. I moseyed down the street a house or two, and then crossed to the other side of the street, and there was still no loss of signal. By the time I made it to the end of the block -- well over 100 feet from the house -- I still had several signal bars and I was still able to surf the web at a decent speed. I hadn't expected to make it that far, so I wasn't wearing shoes, and this (along with the vague feeling of looking like a dork or burglar carrying a laptop around in the middle of the night) cut my investigation short, but one of these days I will venture out in shoes and see how far I get before the signal vanishes.
We've had no problems since day 1, and after having only dial-up internet at my desk for the past 13 years, it is such a treat to be able to use the internet at its intended speed at long last. Given that only a few months ago, my roommate and I were rolling pennies just to buy basic groceries, the fact that I now wonder what I did without wireless high speed internet is a strange thing indeed. I am very, very spoiled.
