New imac/New Airport: Which comes first?

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Hello everyone,

Been lurking on here for a looong time. My plan is to purchase a new imac 24" and an airport extreme the first week of November, assuming Leopard releases by then. My question is a little of the chicken vs the egg variety. I have an existing wireless network in my house. Should I:

A. Setup the imac first and get it up to speed, then install the Airport and network?

or

B. Setup the Airport first, then turn on the imac for the first time?

Nothing earth shattering, I guess...just curious.

Thanks!
 
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12" Apple PowerBook G4 (1.5GHz)
Any particular reason you're getting the Extreme and not using your existing wireless network?
 
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riguy
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Mainly for the new N speeds (even though G laptops will also connect to network) and for the built in USB connection for a shared printer.
 
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MBP l iPhone l iPod
i would do it all together so you learn in the process.
 
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If you are going to have wireless G computers on your wireless network, the Airport Extreme base station will only operate at wireless G speeds. It will only operate at wireless N speeds if every computer on your network is wireless N capable.
 
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24" iMac 3.06GHz 8GB of RAM 2TB HDD, 13" Aluminum MacBook 2.0GHz 4GB of RAM 500GB HDD
If you are going to have wireless G computers on your wireless network, the Airport Extreme base station will only operate at wireless G speeds. It will only operate at wireless N speeds if every computer on your network is wireless N capable.

This is true, however, you could leave the existing network in place and also setup the airport just for the mac and other N enabled computers. You would definitely be wasting your money if you are just buying it for N speeds and will still be using G computers on the same router.
 
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riguy
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I understand that having a G laptop on the network will slow it down. I'm not too concerned with that, as my laptop is only used for work so it will only be on if there's an issue at work I need to address. The other pc on the network will be plugged in, so I expect to have wireless N speeds for the Imac most of the time. And as i said, I also want the printer capability the Extreme will provide. To get back to the question, though...Should I install it all at once? 3 weeks left to the big day...can't wait!
 
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riguy,

I basically did the exact same thing for the exact same reasons about 1 month ago. I didn't wait for Leopard only b/c my wife finally gave me the greenlight and I needed to act before she changed her mind!

Anyway, I did them both at the same time. I plugged my DSL into the Airport Extreme and turned them both on. Then, plugged in the new iMac went through the standard iMac setup screens (username, etc). Finally, once I was at the Mac OS X desktop for the first time, I installed the Airport Base Station utilities and configured it. Next thing I knew I was surfing wirelessly at 'N' speeds and loving it!

KF
 
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If it matters, I had my MacBook for several weeks before I got the AE base station. It was super easy to set up. I've been surfing problem-free ever since.

You will want to turn the signal strength down. I have mine set at 10% and I still get full signal throughout my entire house and surrounding property. At 100% I could drive around the block and still get signal. That's not necessarily a good thing.
 

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