wireless router?

[palhockeymomof2]

Most routers/Access points should just work if you plug them in. The Apple Airport Express (which I and others have advocated) will complain about double NAT when you hook them up (as I recall you don't get a real IP address you get a RFC-1918 address.)

But the express is a great for travel, it's light it has no external antennas or anything to break (even the power prongs fold down into the unit.) It looks like a wall-wort/power supply, with 4 ports on it (ethernet, audio, USB, and 120/220 power.)

If you are taking your home unit, you should "backup" the unit before you leave. You might have to change some of the settings and it will be easier to replace them if you backup what you have.

Between my wife and I we normally have 4 or 5 wireless devices (between laptops, PDAs, and smartphones.) And I know I've told this story before, at Halloween, we had about 5 laptops, 1 PDA, 4 smartphones, and 3 handheld games sharing our connection. (See 3rd picture down from the top; http://sos-brainfreeze.blogspot.com/2008/12/scarredy-squirrel-to-rescue.html )

johno

thinking about getting an Apple airport express for our trips....is this easy to use..any advanced prep needed.....and would a netbook work with it ....thanks

 

[jco_direwolf]

thinking about getting an Apple airport express for our trips....is this easy to use..any advanced prep needed.....and would a netbook work with it ....thanks

Apple makes everything trivial to use. One thing some people don't like it about it is it doesn't have a Web Interface. You need to load a configuration program on your machine to program it. As far as I can tell they have a good validation suite in the setup program because it's never let me push a "bad" configuration.

That said, it's pretty straight forward. You plug it in the wall, join the network, and run the setup utility.

I would break it out of the box when I got it. But just to make sure it's working right before I went to WDW (ooh new toy.) But there is nothing you really need to do to make it work.

Airport Express

Apple Store has refurbished ones right now for $85.

As long as your netbook has 802.11b/g/n it will work fine. I've used a lot of different machines (Apple, Nintendo, Sony, LG, and Dell) and never had a compatibility issue.

johno

 

[Cricket2]

I have an AirCard and that is the ultimate, imo!

For a single unit it's great I'm sure but this trip we will have 3 (possibly 4 + IPod touch) laptops running and at least one of them isn't ours so the router makes things a bit easier to deal with for the whole family

 

[BostonDisneyKid]

For a single unit it's great I'm sure but this trip we will have 3 (possibly 4 + IPod touch) laptops running and at least one of them isn't ours so the router makes things a bit easier to deal with for the whole family

No doubt then, router is the way to go with 4 (possibly 5) systems for sure !

 

[palhockeymomof2]

Apple makes everything trivial to use. One thing some people don't like it about it is it doesn't have a Web Interface. You need to load a configuration program on your machine to program it. As far as I can tell they have a good validation suite in the setup program because it's never let me push a "bad" configuration.

That said, it's pretty straight forward. You plug it in the wall, join the network, and run the setup utility.

I would break it out of the box when I got it. But just to make sure it's working right before I went to WDW (ooh new toy.) But there is nothing you really need to do to make it work.

Airport Express

Apple Store has refurbished ones right now for $85.

As long as your netbook has 802.11b/g/n it will work fine. I've used a lot of different machines (Apple, Nintendo, Sony, LG, and Dell) and never had a compatibility issue.

johno

thanks appreciate the info

 

[nuts]

Because with wireless they wouldn't have anyway to verify who was using the wireless.

Remember Disney still charges for internet access. DVC has cut some other deal so when we are staying on points, it's free. You still have to click on the "I agree to allowing this to be charged to my room" and it's just not charged if you stay on points.

Yes they could do something complicated like have you get PIN code from your room and type it into your browser to allow access, but something tells me that would be more problems than just not offering wireless access.

johno

hmmm...good point

 

[DisDaydreamer]

How much do those aircards run a month? If your business pays for it, yep the way to go. But aircard service and internet service would be a steep monthly bill I bet!

I have been using an aircard for a couple years (company paid). As BDK says (that sounds evil) it is about $60/month. But I much prefer to have a local wireless connection (faster). I am happy to hear VB has finally got their WAN up and running. 3G is great on the train and anywhere there isn't a WAN, but WAN runs circles around 3G.

Edit: Don't get me wrong I love my card... it has come through every time I needed it to, but like cell phones you have limited bandwidth and limited usage... meaning you have limited time or minutes too. So you can't be streaming stuff or moving a lot of images. WAN is FREE and unlimited in usage.