Do I have to buy an Apple base station when I have a normal Wi-Fi router?

I am living in a house of PCs and am wanting to buy a new Macbook. However, I am worried that I will have to buy an Apple Wi-Fi base station. Do I have to, or will I be able to connect to the router that sends a Wi-Fi signal throughout my house? All our PCs and iPod touches/iPhones work with it.

Just wondering...would I notice any difference (in speed/problem-wise) using my standard router as opposed to an Apple one?
Your new MacBook is capable of connecting to 802.11a/b/g/n networks in either 2.4 or 5 GHz radio bands. If you current non-AirPort router is not capable of 802.11n, you may not get the full wireless performance potential out of you new laptop.
Plus, could one connect an Apple base station in parallel to this other router I have (in case I purchase Time Capsule in future)?
Actually, there are a number of ways to introduce a second router and will really depend on your networking requirements. For example, if you want to take advantage of Time Machine backups to a Time Capsule (TC), the TC can "join" an existing wireless network for that purpose.

Similar Messages

I connected the TC T2 with the iMac and used Air Port Utility to have it join my existing network. Now I have green lights on Apple Base Station and TC with the cable connected to the Base Station because hen connected to TC -- I get only yellow lights fl

I connected the TC T2 with the iMac and used Air Port Utility to have it join my existing network. Now I have green lights on Apple Base Station and TC with the cable connected to the Base Station because hen connected to TC -- I get only yellow lights flashing on both devices>
When Connected through the Apple Base station I have perfect internet wireless capability thru-out house.
Lamont

I connected the TC T2 with the iMac and used Air Port Utility to have it join my existing network. Now I have green lights on Apple Base Station and TC with the cable connected to the Base Station because hen connected to TC -- I get only yellow lights flashing on both devices>
When Connected through the Apple Base station I have perfect internet wireless capability thru-out house.
Lamont

Can I connect a airport to another Apple base station

I Have a Apple base station that I purchased a 3 years ago if that. I have a ranch home (1600 sq), my base station is located in my basement. I cannot get signal to one side of my house. So, I went back to the apple store they told me i needed to buy a airport extrem. That I shoul connect the two and should never have the problem again. Well here I am, still not working and still can't get the two to work together. It's only been 1 1/2, every time I get the courage to try to connect the two, within 30min. I want to throw it out the window. Can someone pleaSe help me?

Well... you could have purchased an AirPort Express for a lot less money to accomplish the same thing.
As you can imagine a basement is just about the worst place in a home to put any wireless device, but you ought to be able to accomplish what you want. First, "hard reset" the new Extreme (see below) and configure it again. When asked what you want to do with it, choose "Add to an existing network". That should point you in the right direction.
If you still have trouble, contact Apple using the Contact Us link below right. Telephone support is free for 90 days, and they will talk you through its setup.
To "hard reset" an AirPort Base Station: make sure it's powered up, then gently press and hold its tiny reset button. Don't apply any more force than required to feel a tactile click. Keep it depressed for five to ten seconds, long enough for its LED to flash amber rapidly. Release the reset button. Then, the LED will glow amber steadily for about a minute. Then, it will flash amber, slowly, about once every second or two, waiting for you to configure it with AirPort Utility.

Apple Base Station Connection/Recognition Problem

I have just purchased a Airport base station to use as a replacement for another router which has died. I have gone through the set-up routine, double and triple checked my connections and despite it all, I cannot connect to the Internet nor can I reestablish a wireless network within my home. All the lights on the base station are appropriately lit as per the manual. When I connect my internet connection directly to my iMac I have no problem accessing the Net.
My iMac does not appear to recognize the base station. Can anyone give me any troubleshooting tips as to how I can reestablish my wireless network and also connect my iMac directly to the Net. It should not be so much trouble to do so with all Apple equipment.
Thank-you.
iMac G5 Mac OS X (10.4.3)

Gary as you say it shouldn't be this much of a problem with all Apple equipment.
However sometimes after doing one thing or another you will need to do a system reset to make it work.
Normally you simply connect from the Modem they furnised you to the WAN port on an Airport Extreme Base station that is the port with the circle of dots, and the port with the 2 arrows pointing away from one another is for plugging in a hardwired computer.
It should be set up for the Airport to DHCP and it should assign IP's
Most of us that use the Airport Extreme or Express Base Stations use the Airport Set-up Assistant and Airport Admin Utility Software that comes with your Mac with Airport technology.
Often times if your confiquration is correct, and if you have a Power blip or you loose the connection there is a correct way to reset your system when about all else fails, and that is first turn off your computer.
Next pull the Power adapter from the back of both your Modem and the Airport Base.
Next is normally the hardest part because when this happens we are normally mad enough to throw it all out the window from jacking with it for an hour or 2.
You have to wait at least 5 minutes.
After your wait.
Plug in the power adapter to the Modem and wait until it reaquires the signal and depending on the modem they furnished you want 3 lights from left to right.
After you get this far and all looks ok you can plug in the Power Adapter to the Airport Base and again you must wait for the lights and signal, this will also take about a minute. NOTE: If you get in to big a hurry and don't let the equipment do it's work you will have to repeat to get it to work properly.
Now that you have both of these up and running you can restart your computer. This is the recommended reset by almost all Modem and Router Manufactures.
You should be good to go.

ATT UVerse 2 wire gateway connection with Apple Base Station

I ordered AT&T UVerse which uses a wireles gateway 2wire and I'm unable to connect my Apple Base Station supporting 802.11N. I was first told that AT&T supported this when I purchased this service and durning the installation they informed me that I was unable to use the base station.
Has anyone figured out a way around this?

You just need to connect an ethernet cable from one of the LAN <-> ports on the 2wire to the WAN (circle icon) port on your Apple base station and configure as follows:
Hard Drive > Applications > Utilities > AirPort Utility
Click Manual Setup
Click the Internet icon in the row of icons at the top of the setup page
Look for the setting at the bottom of the page for Connection Sharing and set this to "Off (Bridge Mode)".
Click Update
If AirPort Utility does not "see" the base station when you try to configure it using wireless, temporarily connect an ethernet cable from your computer to one of the LAN ports on the base station. Once you have it configured, you can remove the ethernet cable.
Please post back on your progress.

Apple Base Station Versions (same for all types?)

I have 3 base stations, 2 Airport Extremes, and 1 Airport Express. The two Extremes show "Apple Base Station V5.6" in the 'Select Base Station' window of the Airport Admin Utility. The Express shows "Apple Base Station V6.2". Shouldn't they all be the same? When I click 'Configure', it does not ask me to update them...

No they shouldn't be the same, they are different.
The AEBS' newest firmware is 5.6 and the AX's newest firmware is 6.2.

Apple Base Station V5.7 router not allowing VPN to work?

I am not able to connect via a VPN client through Apple Base Station V5.7. Directly connected the VPN client works. How do I need to configure Apple Base Station V5.7 to permit IPSEC?

jhn56 wrote:
I'm curious why it's not OK to have the AEBS handing out IP addresses on the network it creates.
There are basic two methods of connecting another router behind the Actiontec.
Actiontec LAN port to AEBS (for example) WAN port. If your do this the AEBS must have a different subnet from the Actiontec (e.g. 192.168.2.x). In this case, the AEBS will hand out DHCP addresses on its subnet. THe disabvantage of this approach is that every thing behind the AEBS will be double natted.
Actiontec LAN port to AEBS LAN port. In this case, the WAN side of the AEBS is not used and DHCP server must be disabled on the AEBS because the LAN side of both routers are on the same subnet. If DHCP is not disabled, a client will randomly get a DHCP address from one or the other. If it gets its DHCP information from the AEBS, the AEBS will think it is the WAN gateway, when in fact it is not.

File Locking Apple Base Station?

I'm Trying to delete Files on my USB drive that is connected to the Apple base station..
Error message window is saying: "The operation can’t be completed because the item "xxx.xxx" is in use."
I tried all the files the same thing.
I plugged the drive directly into the Mac and MacBook to do a disk utility app the only thing I can select is Verify disk and it was okay.. But could not select repair permission option??
I can delete files from my MacBook connected to Apple Base station with no problems.
I can delete files on my Mac though Terminal connected to Apple Base Station.
I have connected the drive directly to the Mac and can delete files with no problems.
I have saved files from my Mac to the drive connected to Apple Base station and can't delete them.
I have saved files from my MacBook to the drive connected to Apple Base station and can't delete them from the mac cna fro my MacBook.
The problem is on my Mac... and what now???
please see https://discussions.apple.com/message/18524043?ac_cid=mh123456#18524043

No they shouldn't be the same, they are different.
The AEBS' newest firmware is 5.6 and the AX's newest firmware is 6.2.

How to control an Apple Base Station with 3rd-party wireless card?

I recently upgraded my early 2004 Power Mac G5 2GHz DP to the 802.11n standard using a Newertechnology MAXPower 802.11n/g/b Wireless PCI Adapter to communicate with my new "n"-standard 2TB Time Capsule. My G5 shipped with an 802.11g-standard Airport Card which I disconnected when I installed the PCI card to avoid hardware conflicts. The new n-standard wireless set-up works without a problem, but having lost the Apple Airport Card, I no longer have the ability to control/manipulate the Timecapsule via the third-party card e.g. I cannot connect/disconnect my internet connection or otherwise troubleshoot the base station.
So, the question is, how can control an Apple base station with a third-party wireless card? As it stands now, I must boot up my laptop just to see if I have a connection.
My thanks in advance,
T. North
Brussels, Belgium

Thanks for the assistance. Yes, I can indeed administer the Time Capsule from inside the Airport Utility, but I am still unable to connect or disconnect the Internet connection like you can with an Airport card (using the Airport drop-down menu.) If my ISP signal drops for whatever reason (which is does often) I have to boot up my laptop just to reconnect. Is there some feature within the Airport Utility that permits one to connect/disconnect the signal? If there is, I haven't found it yet.

Can one apple base be connected to another apple base station with ethernet?

Can one apple base be connected to another apple base station with ethernet?

Yes, it would be called a roaming network.
See the Roaming network here:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4260

I lost my connection with my AirPort Base Station when I upgraded to the OS Maverick. How can I get my system to recognize the base station again?

I lost my connection with my AirPort Base Station when I upgraded to the OS Maverick. I can still see the Internet, but the Time Machine cannot backup now because it cannot locate the AirPort base station. How can I resolve this issue?
Steps already taken with zero success:
1. Restarted the AirPort Base Station multiple times.
2. Restarted the Mac Pro multiple times.
3. Looked online for AirPort update for 6.3.2 version.
Other Apple products in my house can still see the AirPort Base Station, however my Mac Pro and Mac Book Pro cannot.
Please advise.

That information helps. If you want to use one of the SmartStor's disks as a repository for sharing your iTunes Library, then do not configure that disk as a RAID. Format it with Disk Utility using the Erase tab. Mac OS Extended (Journaled) is the correct choice.
Connect it to your Time Capsule, then use AirPort Utility to configure access requirements for sharing it on your network. It should appear as a shared volume in the Finder, available to all your Macs as you thought it should.
I also thought maybe the extra HD space would be added to the existing Airport Disk. It isn't.
Correct. There is no way to do that. The only way to increase the capacity of a Time Capsule's hard disk is to replace the Time Capsule (or its disk, if you are amenable to disassembling it) with a larger capacity model.
If you also want to use the SmartStor as a RAID, that is another story, and you should probably attack that problem separately.

Airport without apple base station

The Ibook i just ordered does not come with the airport card installed. I'm just wondering if the airport card will work with the quest dsl modem i already have. Or will i have to buy one of the base stations?

Hi, and welcome to Apple Discussions.
If your modem provides a wireless signal that is compatible with the 802.11b standard (most that are 802.11g are also backwards-compatible with 802.11b), that is all that is necessary for wireless.
The 802.11b standard assumes that you are getting a G3 iBook. If so, you will need the original AirPort card. They are getting kind of scarce and pricey since Apple quit selling them a couple of years ago.
Here are possible sources for the original AirPort card:
http://www.macwireless.com/html/products/11g11bcards/airportcard.php
http://store.yahoo.com/hardcoremac/apaicau.html
http://www.ifixit.com/cart/customer/product.php?productid=98&cat=&page=1
http://www.lacomputercompany.com/cgi-bin/rpcart/index.cgi?command=dispitem&type= sku&sku=10061
http://www.expercom.com/productdetail.html?PRODUCTID=305851
http://store.macsolutions.com/airportad.html
http://memorysolutions.com/memorysolutions/orapaica1.html
http://powerbookguy.com/
The newer AirPort Extreme will not work in a G3 iBook, and damages the logic board irreparably if you attempt to install it.
Good luck!

Use old apple base stations with a new one

Can I use an Apple extreme base station (A1034) with Apple express base station to use feaures like AirPlay and extend WiFi coverage?
Express station would be the main base then (A1034) would extend its coverage and use features. Would this work or is it too old?
Jamie

Thanks for the info.
You are going to run into some problems.
The Mac(s) running Mavericks cannot be used to set up or configure the older AirPort Extreme.
But, even if they could, there is no setting on the older AirPort Extreme to "extend a wireless network".
If you could permanently connect the older AirPort Extreme to the AirPort Express using an Ethernet cable, you would have some limited use, but you would need to have a Mac running Leopard, or Snow Leopard, or a PC to be able to set up the old AirPort.

Can I buy any wifi base station for an airport extreme card?

At my mom's house, there is no wifi, so I was thinking of buying an aebs. but I was wondering if I can buy any wifi base and if it will work with my mac?

The Ethernet output of the modem should be connected to the WAN port on the AEBS.
...and the modem doesnt have a WAN port, but it has two wifi plugs on the top.
"wifi plug"... what is that?
If these other computers don't have a wireless capability, connect an Ethernet switch (or hub) to the AEBS's LAN port. Then connect these other computers to the Ethernet switch (or hub).

Super Hard Reset for a Apple Base Station m5757

Apple AirPort Base Station Model M5757?
E-bay item, something used to be on there. How is it I can do a TOTAL hard reset?
Any information would rock....

Maybe not time yet1
Yep, printing via AEBS woes were here too. Used to work fine from the one spot I REGULARLY PRINTED FROM-that formerly worked fine- it was so odd- printing que “took” the file to print but POOF- not stalled in the que nor printed. Did the usual reconfigure EVERYTHING.....
No joy - I checked all over this discussion thread and called Apple( have care plan..)
All I got was it is a grey area, since I have the AEBS set up via a Linksys router network. Of course they recommend I use only an Apple router....
In any case I solved the problem by doing a new AEBS set up, without the Linksys-, ONCE AGAIN FOR THE GAZILLIONTH TIME ADDING THE PRINTER, WHICH IT ALWAYS SAW- then checking all 3 computers on the wifi network- ahha! One did work!
I traced the change in function back to the fact my husband recently replaced the phones in our live-work loft, ( PHONES which we never use- i basically only an answering machine where we can see where the junk callS come from). The new phones ( handsets) apparently were interfering!
Hope that helps problem solve! I am surprised that even tho I was bumped up to a higher level of techsupport- this aspect was not touched upon. LOL- handsets are outside in car! Possibly by changing to a different channel, everything can coexist again!
Good luck EVERYONE!

Do I have to buy an Apple base station when I have a normal Wi-Fi router?

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for