Welcome On board, Airport Express
posted at 8:33 pm
on Jul. 18, 2004
Prrrevious entry:
Me Right Ear
'nother entry:
Boat Trouble? No, Oakland Volkwagen Service Trouble
I’m not a tech review kind o' lubber. I just use th' stuff, and don’t usually talk about it.
However, since I seem t' be one o' th' first t' receive an Airport Express, I thought I’d describe settin' it up, because I ran into a few things that ye ought t' be knowin'.
First o' all, it’s amazingly small fer what it does. A wireless hub that support ten users at 54 Mbps in a space th' size o' two cigarette packs. Stunnin'.
I took it out o' th' package, removed th' plastic wrap on both th' main unit and th' detachable plug, and stuck it into th' wall. Ye can put it behind furniture, as long as there’s at least 12 centimeters o' space—it sticks straight out o' th' socket.
It looks like ye could use a plug extender like th' one on a PowerBook brick, if ye wants t' plug it in t' a crowded outlet, or if ye wanted t' loft th' Express a bit t' get better signal.
Please note: as far as I could be tellin', ye need t' have an existin' computer wi' a wireless card t' set up th' device. Me existin' network be a G4, a router, and an Airport Extreme base station. This be not enough not allow ye t' set up yer new Airport Express wirelessly. Once th' Express be set up correctly, I could stream tunes from me G4 t' it via th' Extreme station, but setup be impossible!
So how did I get aroun' it? I also have a laptop that has a wireless card. If ye’re in th' same situation, try borrowin' a bucko’s laptop. Or invest in an airport card fer yer computer and skip th' Airport Extreme.
I did not try pluggin' th' express directly into th' router via an Ethernet cable; th' instructions didn’t say anythin' about whether this would work and say explicitly that ye need a computer wi' an Airport card t' set up th' Express, so I wouldn’t count on this method.
Airport Express comes wi' a CD wi' Airport software version 4.0 (and iTunes 4.6). Ye can’t get th' 4.0 Airport tools via software update (yet), and ye must install th' software on th' CD t' set up yer Express. if ye think, hey, I’ve got th' latest software, I should just be able t' plug th' thin' in and start configurin', ye’ll be scratchin' yer head.
When I installed it on me G4 desktop, things went smoothly. I already had iTunes 4.6, so it skipped o'er that. On me laptop, though, I experienced a hard freeze: th' computer completely locked up durin' th' installation process and had t' be hard rebooted. Luckily, it started up fine, and when I retried th' installation, it went off without a second freeze. I be even bein' good and had all th' other software shut down and wasn’t messin' wi' th' laptop while th' installation be takin' place like I sometimes do. So, do remember th' other golden rule: back up and be careful when installin' new software!
Th' streamin' o' tunes (AirTunes) t' th' Express works flawlessly no matter what I have me main computer doin'; it keeps up th' flow durin' even heavy processor usage. It will sometimes cut out when several maties pick up and handle th' Express—I think their bodies block th' signal, or th' Express be just shy. There be a delay o' about two or three seconds form th' time I be tellin' iTunes t' play t' th' time Express starts; there’s a buffer in there somewhere, I suppose in th' Express t' handle occasional wireless glitches.
Th' sound be just fine; I think I’m a little morrrr aware o' th' sound quality because it’s me stereo and not me computer speakers, but I’m no audiophile so I can’t even really say that it sounds that different from a CD.
Oh, and it’s been runnin' fer several hours o' every day since it arrived last week. I can’t believe how much easier and morrrr fun it makes listenin' t' music.
It has also made me whole house a wireless paradise; I can go just about anywhere and get smartly speeds and no weak signals. Fer $129, I cannot recommend it highly enough. I could not imagine buyin' a Mac without buyin' one o' these from now on.
