Wiring the Network

13.1. Wiring the Network Most people connect their computers using one of two connection systems: Ethernet or Wi-Fi (which Apple calls AirPort).
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Wiring the Network13.1. Wiring the NetworkMost people connect their computers using one of two connection systems: Ethernet orWi-Fi (which Apple calls AirPort).13.1.1. Ethernet NetworksThese days, every Mac and every network-ready laser printer has an Ethernet jack on theback or side panel (see Figure 13-1). If you connect all of the Macs and Ethernet printersin your small office to a central Ethernet hub or router —acompact, inexpensive box withjacks for 5, 10, or even more computers and printers —youve got yourself a very fast,very reliable network. (Most people wind up hiding the hub in a closet, and running thewiring either along the edges of the room or inside the walls.) You can buy Ethernetcables, plus the hub, at any computer store or, less expensively, from an Internet-basedmail-order house. (Hubs arent Mac-specific.)Tip: If you want to connect only two Macs —say, your laptop and your desktop machine—you dont need an Ethernet hub. Instead, you just need a standard Ethernet cable. Run itdirectly between the Ethernet jacks of the two computers. (You dont need a specialcrossover Ethernet cable, as you did with Macs of old.) Then connect the Macs asdescribed in the box on Section 13.1.2.Or dont use Ethernet at all; just use a FireWirecable or a person-to-person AirPort network.Figure 13-1. Every Mac OS X–compatible Mac has an Ethernet jack (left). It lookslike an overweight telephone jack. It connects to an Ethernet router or hub (right)via an Ethernet cable (also known as Cat 5 or Cat 6), which ends in what looks like an overweight telephone-wire plug (also known as an RJ-45 connector).Ethernet is the best networking system for many offices. Its fast, easy, and cheap.13.1.2. AirPort NetworksWi-Fi, known to the geeks as 802.11 and to Apple fans as AirPort, means wirelessnetworking. Its the technology that lets laptops the world over get online at high speed inany Wi-Fi hot spot. Hot spots are everywhere these days: in homes, offices, coffeeshops (notably Starbucks), hotels, airports, and thousands of other places.Tip: At www.jiwire.com, you can type in an address or a city and learn exactly where tofind the closest Wi-Fi hot spots.When youre in a Wi-Fi hot spot, your Mac has a very fast connection to the Internet, asthough its connected to a cable modem or DSL.AirPort circuitry comes preinstalled every Mac laptop, iMac, and Mac Mini, and you canorder it built into a new Mac Pro.This circuitry lets your machine connect to your network and the Internet without anywires at all. You just have to be within about 150 feet of a base station or (as Windowspeople call it) access point, which must in turn be physically connected to your networkand Internet connection.If you think about it, the AirPort system is a lot like a cordless phone, where the basestation is, well, the base station, and the Mac is the handset.The base station can take any of these forms: • AirPort base station. Apples sleek, white, squarish or rounded base stations ($100 to $180) permit as many as 50 computers to connect simultaneously. UP TO SPEED AirPort a, b, g, and n: Regular or Supersized? In the short history of wireless networking, Wi-Fi gear has come in several variants, bearing the absurdly user-hostile names 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11a, 802.11n, and so on. The difference involves the technical specs of the wireless signal. Original AirPort uses the 802.11b standard; AirPort Extreme uses 802.11g; the current AirPort cards and base stations use 802.11n. So whats the difference? Equipment bearing the b label transfers data through the air at up to 11 megabits per second; the g system is almost five times as fast (54 Mbytes/sec); and n is supposed to be four times as fast as that. (Traditionally, geeks measure network speeds in megabits, not megabytes. If youre more familiar with megabytes, though, heres a translation: The older AirPort gear has a top speed of 1.4 megabytes per second, versus more than 6 megabytes per second for the AirPort Extreme stuff.) (Oh, and while were using parentheses here: The only place youll get the quoted speeds out of this gear is when youre on the moon. Here on earth, signal strength is affected by pesky things like air, furniture, walls, floors, wiring, phone interference, and antenna angle. Speed and signal strength diminish proportionally as you move away from the base station.) Now, each successive version of the Wi-Fi base station/laptop circuitry standard is backward-compatible. For example, you can buy a new, 802.11n base station, and still connect to it from your ancient 802.11g PowerBook. You wont get any greater speed, of course —that would require a laptop with an 802.11n transmitter —but youll enjoy the greater range in your house. Its important to understand, though, that even the most expensive, top-tier cable modem or DSL service delivers Internet information at only about half a megabyte per second. The bottleneck is the Internet connection, not your network. Dont buy newer AirPort gear thinking that youre going to speed up your email and Web activity. Instead, the speed boost you get with AirPort Extreme is useful only for transferring files between computers and gadgets on your own network (like the bandwidth-hungry Apple TV) —and playing networkable games. And one more note: All Wi-Fi gear works together, no matter what kind of computer you have. Theres no such thing as a Windows wireless network or a Macintosh wireless network. Macs can use non-Apple base stations, PCs can use AirPort base stations, and so on.•• The less expensive one, the AirPort Express, is so small that it ...