LinkSys and macs/wireless

[danaeris]

So... I'm looking at these linksys routers and wireless thingies. They say they work with PCs/windows.

Will they work with my iBook?

I'm also feeling tempted to buy a wireless and router in one. More expensive, but kills two birds with one stone.

I can order the linksys etherfast wireless/4 port router for $80 new online. That's all. Not much. And wireless+4 ports should be plenty for a three person household since I'll probably just be using the wireless.

Comments

[digitalsidhe.livejournal.com]

They should. TCP/IP is TCP/IP; the whole point of them is that they can be used by anything with a TCP/IP stack.

I think LinkSys’ stuff comes with an installation program that runs on Windows machines, and is basically designed to talk scared Windoze users through doing things that 4-year-olds should be able to accomplish. Their lack of Mac compatibility claims simply mean they haven’t bothered to make any similar hand-holding software for the Mac platform, not that their hardware is incompatible with it.

Are you thinking of buying the LinkSys BEFSR41W (http://www.linksys.com/products/product.asp?grid=34&scid=29&prid=405)? Note that it’s “wireless reasy”, not actually wireless. To make it fully wireless, you’ll need a wireless card to fit in the hub. You might just want to go for something like the BEFW11S4 (http://www.linksys.com/products/product.asp?grid=33&scid=35&prid=415), but make sure your own wireless card is 802.11b compatible — I’m not sure if your current equipment uses plain old 802.11, 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g, or something else.

[lyadann.livejournal.com]

We have a linksys 4 port + wireless and it works fine with my iBook. If you have any questions, you can email me and I'll do my best to answer them :)

[nathanjw]

Some of these things (mostly older ones) have management tools that only run on PCs. Most of them, though, just have a web interface to configuration, and work fine from a Mac.