Macbook air question - how to get internet?

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heavenlywild

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#113790 29-Feb-2008 15:11

tonyhughes:
I don't know why people moan about it... you don't moan about an expensive $20,000 motorbike not having room for more than 2 people, and no roof - you buy what suits you. If you want the roof, and space for five people, you can go and buy a Honda Civic.

What coincidence! I don't think Mac Air suits my needs and so I am literally picking up my brand new Honda Civic in an hour's time!:)

chiefie

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#113799 29-Feb-2008 15:39

I don't like the Airbook and I wish I am picking up something new today... (other than the social group Quiz night thing... that's the first for me)

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tonyhughes

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#113800 29-Feb-2008 15:44

chiefie: I don't like the Airbook and I wish I am picking up something new today... (other than the social group Quiz night thing... that's the first for me)

Thread hijack (sue me, Im bigger than all of you, and I am a moderator

) - quiz nights are great - I ran one for a Cancer Society fundraiser a few weeks back, it was heaps of fun. A few beers + public speaking was starting to get me a little tongue tied at times!

Been years since I have done one as a quizzee rather than a quizzer.

Cant wait to see new generations of Macbook Air. And with the proliferation of WiFi, I don't think no LAN port is a dealbreaker for many. Bluetooth helps with some peripherals too.

lyall

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#113959 1-Mar-2008 16:03

heavenly_wild:
Now this is a surprise! Wi-Fi only? This is bound to make a few people annoyed!

A surprise? I know lists of product specs can be cryptic for the uninitiated, but every review of the Air I've read makes a fairly big deal of the lack of ethernet. I'd have thought just a little basic research would be good before dropping your $3000.

All for the best though if it introduces the posters to the joys of wireless networking. A laptop that requires a network cable is about as much fun as a helicopter you plug into the mains.

tonyhughes

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#113972 1-Mar-2008 16:58

The "Air" name alludes to a few different things i think - including your connection going through it :-)

PenultimateHop

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#113980 1-Mar-2008 17:57

The Macbook Air is designed to be a trendy ultra-mobile device, and they cut down weight and space by removing everything they could. I've played with a few this week and while it's OK, I'm waiting for the Thinkpad X300 to be released - I'll definitely be picking one up on my next trip to the US, to supplement my T61.

BlakJak

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#113981 1-Mar-2008 17:58

Being (usually) a PC user i've not paid a lot of attention to the Macbook Air (except to note that yes, it is indeed thin.)

To me, a docking bay type solution having all those additional capabilities would've sorted the majority of my issues out - one presumes that you would leave the docking bay at home jacked into your ethernet/external sound system/etc and then make the most of the portability side of things when not at home...

(Or at least have that option.)

Wireless is all well and good but it still doesn't meet even 100Mbit Ethernet for speed-of-transfer. 802.11G specs you at 54Mbit or whatever it is, and even that assumes a perfect situation... the 802.11 bands are getting congested, the more users, the less bandwidth per user, etc etc...

My next notebook purchase will require, at minimum, 2 USB Ports, an optical drive and docking bay support....

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freitasm

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#115371 8-Mar-2008 10:57

The OP wants to know what's a wireless router.

It's a device you connect to your broadband modem (or in some DSL setups it is the broadband modem) that provides WiFi for your home or office.

Finch

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#115372 8-Mar-2008 11:02

ok so does anyone have any links of a wireless router that has wi-fi that i could buy please?

ie a link to a shop :)

Fossie

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#115374 8-Mar-2008 11:08

tonyhughes: The "Air" name alludes to a few different things i think - including your connection going through it :-)

Air headed?

MattD

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#115377 8-Mar-2008 11:56

M_I_C_H_A_E_L:
ok so does anyone have any links of a wireless router that has wi-fi that i could buy please?

Have you considered Apple's Time Capsule. It is the combination of an Airport Extreme Base Station (which is wireless router) and also a network based Hard Drive (NAS) so you can store/share data and also run Apple's Time Machine and automatically back up all your data from Macbook Air to the TimeCapsule.

Details

Time Capsule

or just the Airport Extreme Base Station (minus the harddrive)

Both run 802.11n (fast) and have gigabit connections, if you decide to connect more computers/devices via Ethernet.

A little pricier than some of the other options, however simplicity of administration tools and full compatability with your MacbookAir may alleviate some headaches.

lyall

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#115393 8-Mar-2008 14:53

Michael,

To answer your question from the other thread: no, you don't need to sign up for anything. A wireless router takes your broadband connection and broadcasts it round your house. Then your Air is on the internet with no wires attached.

This Linksys router ($127) is reliable and popular. Ascent (the shop I've linked to) are good people.

For really easy setup, you could buy an Apple product. It'll cost you more, but the simplicity might be worth it to you. There's no other advantage to buying an Apple product in this case, other than that they look nice. Your Apple options are:

Airport Express ($169): The cheapest (Apple) option. The signal range won't be as good as the other options, but if you don't have a very big house this would be fine for your purposes. It's also nice and small, so if you're going somewhere with wired internet only (friend's house, hotel, whatever) you can take it with you and easily create a wireless network so you can use your Air.

Airport Extreme ($279): Better range, plus you can plug other computers into it directly (I'm guessing you don't care about that).

Time Capsule ($498 +): Pricey, but it also backs up the files from your Air and makes it very easy. Great if you delete something by accident, or if the hard disk in your computer dies. There are cheaper ways to back up, but this is the easiest.

Hope this helps!

Finch

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#115406 8-Mar-2008 16:02

Thanks for that Lyall :)

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