Apple markets the Apple AirPort as a wireless Internet-sharing solution for Macintosh-based homes, small offices, and college campuses. Its low priceââ,¬"only US$99 for the PC Card and US$299 for the flying-saucer-style Base Station access pointââ,¬"is very attractive for these users. The AirPort is also an inexpensive solution for integrating Macintosh users into a PC-based wireless LAN; we were able to connect to the Base Station with PC-based wireless cards and attach to other access points with the AirPort PC Card.
The Base Station comes with a 56K modem, and it has a built-in network access server and DHCP server that let multiple Macintosh units share a single Internet connection. There's also an Ethernet port for sharing a DSL or cable modem, or for connecting to a wired network. Unfortunately, sparse documentation makes setup difficult for the intended novice user, and users of America Online and CompuServe should know that the AirPort does not support connections with these major national ISPs in this version. Management is also very basic compared with the other products we tested.
Newer Apple iMacs, iBooks, and G4s already come with the built-in antenna necessary to support the AirPort PC Cardââ,¬"a big part of the reason that the card is so low-priced. We installed ours under the removable keyboard of an iBook notebook. A wizard walks you through the installation process and asks for your ISP's Internet settings, which are transferred to the Base Station from the configuring Macintosh. Once this was configured, we were able to connect to the Base Station to surf the Internet and even connect to a Windows NT server on our wired LAN. While the AirPort's throughput, at 4.49 Mbps, was the slowest among the products we tested, it was similar to that of the Lucent Orinoco, which uses the same Lucent chip set. Our main complaint concerns the documentation, which consists of a small brochure. Additional information is available online, but we would like to see more screen shots and discussion leading the user through the installation and Internet connection process.
AirPort Base Station access point, US$299 list. AirPort PC Card, US$99.
PC Magazine Rating: Very Good
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