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machobson

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 19, 2005
107
0
Ok, so I wanted to buy an airport extreme or express, but they are too expensive. So I was looking at D-Link routers and there are two. One is 802.11G and one is 802.11B. I have the original airport card in my iBook. Which router do I need buy? Thanks
 

Mitthrawnuruodo

Moderator emeritus
Mar 10, 2004
14,674
1,493
Bergen, Norway
You will only need the 802.11b router. The original AirPort cards are really just 802.11b cards renamed by Apple.

BUT, if you plan on having the router for a while then 802.11g, which is 5 times faster, is the way to go. 802.11g is backwards compatible with 802.11b and you should have no problems using the iBook with a G-base, and you will be ready for whenever you have to replace your iBook with a new one with AirPort Extreme, aka 802.11g.
 

Westside guy

macrumors 603
Oct 15, 2003
6,413
4,284
The soggy side of the Pacific NW
I agree with everything Mitthrawnuruodo said - but I want to stress that the second paragraph is important. :) The 802.11g router is the one I'd push simply because of forward compatibility.

If you end up buying the older model (802.11b) though, here's a word of advice. By default it will probably be in "short preamble" mode. The original Airport cards cannot handle short preamble - so you'll need to go into the D-Link configuration and change that to "long preamble".

With the 802.11g router I don't think you'll have to worry about that; it's probably automatic.
 
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