12-18-2008, 11:00 AM

Hi all,

I am trying to figure out how to connect a MAC and a PC to the internet at my home. This may sound very easy to most of you but it has me stumped as to what I need to do. We have just bought a desktop PC as my wife needs it for work. We used to use the MAC with the airpot plugged into the Time Warner cable modem, so the MAC was completely wireless. However now we want to connect the desktop preferably with just an ethernet cable to the modem or the aiport (this is the bit that I can't figure out) and then have the MAC wireless as before.

So my question is, how do we connect the PC with a fixed line to the internet and still utilise the Airport for the MAC? There is only one ethernet port on the Time Warner modem. I looked into an Ethernet splitter however I understand that this does not split the internet service as a cable tv would.

Do I need to get an Aiport Extreme base station (Amazon.com: Apple M8799LL/A AirPort Extreme Base Station with Modem and Antenna Port: Electronics
and) connect this to the PC and cable modem via an ethernet cable and then plug the Aiport Extreme just into a power socket?

This is probably quite straight forward but I have no idea?

Thanks

12-18-2008, 11:28 AM

Your post says you currently have an Airport Extreme. Do you mean that you have an Airport Express?

Here's a link to a little more updated model of the Airport Extreme. Amazon.com: Apple AirPort Extreme Base Station (Gigabit) MB053LL/A: Electronics
I chose this one over the one on the Apple site, because this one has a photo of the back side of the unit. It works just like the Airport Express, but it has multiple ethernet ports. Just plug the desktop into an empty port, and you're good to go.

There is a cheaper option though. They make internal wireless cards for desktops. You open up the case on the desktop and insert the card into an empty PCI slot. It has a little antenna that sticks out the back of the case. Then your desktop will be wireless just like your Mac.

Amazon.com: Super G 802.11BG Wireless Pci 64 Bit Xp Compliant Turbo Mode: Electronics

Or an even simpler solution would be a USB wireless card. Idiot proof installation, but you'd have the thing sticking out of the desktop case all the time. You could take your pick from any of these...

Amazon.com: usb wireless : Electronics

12-18-2008, 11:45 AM

Thanks for the information, that is helpful and yeah it is the Aiport Express that I currently own. I think I will probably look at getting a wireless card for the PC as that seems the cheaper option.