Section 35. AirPort Extreme Wireless Networking

35. AirPort Extreme Wireless Networking

My friend Jason set up his home wireless network today. He opened a box, took out his AirPort Extreme wireless base station (pictured in Figure 13), powered it up, and plugged a cable modem into it. Time elapsed? Three minutes.

Figure 13. Apple's AirPort Extreme base unit makes setting up a 50-user wireless network as easy as opening a box. (Image courtesy of Apple.)

Next, he loaded the AirPort setup utility on his Mac, named his network, assigned a password, and answered two questions about his Internet connection. In 10 minutes, we were pulling email and browsing the Web over a speedy, secure wireless network.

There are more powerful wireless base stations, but the AirPort Extreme makes setting up a 50-user 802.11g network as easy as opening a box and answering a question or two. Shouldn't everything be this easy?