Netgear Wireless Router versus Apple Airport Family
Mark Kim
Wireless Router with the Apple Airport Family Router (likely the
802.11g-compatible router). The Netgear Wireless Router is generally
more of a Windoze-friendly router rather than something that can be
used with a Wireless Mac. I wanted to use an Apple Airport Extreme
mainly because I heard that the Netgear Wireless Router might erase
certain MAC Addresses if I'm not careful.
Anyway, should I continue to use the Netgear Router to connect my Mac
to a Wireless Hotspot, or should I just consider purchasing an Airport
Family Router instead and sell the Netgear Wireless Router to an
interested Windoze user (I already posted this Netgear Router for
sale)?
I need help guys.
Hint: I also have a Wi-Fi compliant PalmOne Tungsten C that I use with
a Wireless Internet Connection as well, I have to ask you guys this
question mainly because I'm having suspicions that the Netgear Router
might erase MAC Addresses from certain devices, I'm not sure if that's
true. However, I just want to make sure you guys recommend an Apple
Airport Family Router before I go ahead and cough up my credit card in
this case.
David Besack
I've never heard of a router erasing a MAC address. I don't think
you'll get any better performance out of the Apple base station.
soothsayer
On 2004-08-07, Mark Kim <ves...@comcast.net> wrote:
> At the time of this post, I was considering to replace the Netgear
> Wireless Router with the Apple Airport Family Router (likely the
> 802.11g-compatible router). The Netgear Wireless Router is generally
> more of a Windoze-friendly router rather than something that can be
> used with a Wireless Mac.
All the Netgear routers I've ever seen are completely platform
independent. They couldn't care less what's connected, as long as
one of the machines has a web browser of some sort. In what sense do
you believe it to be "more Windoze friendly"?
> I wanted to use an Apple Airport Extreme
> mainly because I heard that the Netgear Wireless Router might erase
> certain MAC Addresses if I'm not careful.
Hunh? Where exactly did you hear this?
> Anyway, should I continue to use the Netgear Router
I can't think of any reason why not. Are you having trouble with it?
Larry Riffle
wired Mac G3 & G5. Works fine.
I also have an Apple Airport Extreme that has less range even with an
external atenna.
That said, I'd suggest going with Apple just because of the absence of
Netgear product support.
Paul Nevai
:> Hint: I also have a Wi-Fi compliant PalmOne Tungsten C that I use with
:> a Wireless Internet Connection as well, I have to ask you guys this
:> question mainly because I'm having suspicions that the Netgear Router
:> might erase MAC Addresses from certain devices, I'm not sure if that's
:> true. However, I just want to make sure you guys recommend an Apple
:> Airport Family Router before I go ahead and cough up my credit card in
:> this case.
:
:I've never heard of a router erasing a MAC address. I don't think
:you'll get any better performance out of the Apple base station.
I had an AirPort [not extreme] and a Tungsten C and the MAC address was
erased. I never figured out what/who to blame but I heard that it may have
been a Tungsten C problem. /PaulN
Mark Kim
> ["Followup-To:" header set to comp.sys.mac.hardware.misc.]
> On 2004-08-07, Mark Kim <ves...@comcast.net> wrote:
> > At the time of this post, I was considering to replace the Netgear
> > Wireless Router with the Apple Airport Family Router (likely the
> > 802.11g-compatible router). The Netgear Wireless Router is generally
> > more of a Windoze-friendly router rather than something that can be
> > used with a Wireless Mac.
>
> All the Netgear routers I've ever seen are completely platform
> independent. They couldn't care less what's connected, as long as
> one of the machines has a web browser of some sort. In what sense do
> you believe it to be "more Windoze friendly"?
>
>
> > I wanted to use an Apple Airport Extreme
> > mainly because I heard that the Netgear Wireless Router might erase
> > certain MAC Addresses if I'm not careful.
>
> Hunh? Where exactly did you hear this?
I had suspicions because I had a Tungsten C Handheld and for some
weird reason, certain Wi-Fi Networks caused my MAC Address to get
erased. I think that my Wi-Fi Router worked fine, but at times, I
can't even instantly connect to the Wi-Fi Network at my home.
>
>
>
> > Anyway, should I continue to use the Netgear Router
>
> I can't think of any reason why not. Are you having trouble with it?
Only at certain times as most of the time I never had a hard time
trying to connect to the Wi-Fi Network at home, I can actually connect
pretty easily at Panera Bread, Apple Stores, DeVry, College of DuPage,
and a Public Library (limited pages).
Wilson Cheung
general with sufficient effort you should be OK with the Netgear.
I've worked with mixed Windows and Mac WIFI and generally you will
experience no problems as long as you never try to password protect your
router and always use DHCP.
Once you deviate from this then you may need to tinker around as one maker
of a router will use some different password scheme than another.
Ultimately, one maker's password protection can be translated to passwords
that will work with another maker. You just have to read the right
documentation. Probably, one big selling point I do like about the Apple
routers is that they have always allowed you to configure the routers
wirelessly over the network.
With many Windows routers you often can only do this with only a direct
wired connection to a Windows computer.
Wilson
On 8/7/2004 4:17 PM, in article
305842f4.04080...@posting.google.com, "Mark Kim"
Peter Verdon
> soothsayer <ssa...@bushlies.com> wrote
>> Mark Kim wrote:
>> > I wanted to use an Apple Airport Extreme mainly because I heard that
>> > the Netgear Wireless Router might erase certain MAC Addresses if I'm
>> > not careful.
>> Hunh? Where exactly did you hear this?
Is that a polite way of saying "I think you're talking shite"? :-)
Because that's certainly my reaction to the idea that a rogue router is
running around erasing MAC addresses.
> I had suspicions because I had a Tungsten C Handheld and for some
> weird reason, certain Wi-Fi Networks caused my MAC Address to get erased.
What exactly do you mean when you say the MAC address was erased? Where did
you expect to see it and find it missing? Did it come back?
Even if the MAC address was somehow erased (I'll admit that it's not beyond
the bounds of probablity in a device like that) it would be due to a
(pretty serious) bug in the client device, and nothing to do with the
router.
> I think that my Wi-Fi Router worked fine, but at times, I can't even
> instantly connect to the Wi-Fi Network at my home.
There are a lot of reasons why you might not be able to connect to a
wireless network. Print the whole list of them in ten-point on wide-bar
paper and "the router erased my MAC address" is still around 3.7 miles down
it.
Pete
Me
Peter Verdon <ne...@verdonet.organisation.unitedkingdom> wrote:
Just a note here, usually the MAC address is burned into the memory of
the MAC controller and can't be erased or altered. On Powerup, it is
read into volital storage, and that can be changed with software as in
MAC cloning.
Me