AirPort Express

AirPort is a local area wireless networking system from Apple Computer based on the IEEE 802.11b standard (also known as Wi-Fi) and certified as compatible with other 802.11b devices. A later family of products based on the IEEE 802. more...

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11g specification is known as AirPort Extreme, offering speeds up to 54 megabits per second and interoperability with older (802.11b) products.

AirPort and AirPort Extreme in common usage can refer to the protocol (802.11b and 802.11g, respectively), the expansion card or the base station.

In Japan, AirPort is known as AirMac due to trademark conflicts.

Overview

AirPort debuted on July 21, 1999 at the Macworld Expo in New York City with Steve Jobs picking up an iBook supposedly to give the cameraman a better shot as he surfed the web – the applause quickly built as people realized there were no wires. The initial offering included an optional expansion card for Apple's new line of iBook notebooks, plus an AirPort Base Station. The AirPort card (a repackaged Proxim - ORiNOCO Gold Card PCMCIA adapter) was later added as an option for almost all of Apple's product line, including PowerBooks, eMacs, iMacs, and Power Macs. Only Xserves do not have an AirPort card option. The original AirPort system allowed transfer rates up to 11 Mbit/s and was commonly used to share internet access and files between multiple computers.

On January 7, 2003, Apple introduced AirPort Extreme, based on the 802.11g specification. AirPort Extreme allows theoretical peak data transfer rates of up to 54 Mbit/s, and is fully backwards-compatible with existing 802.11b wireless network cards and base stations. Several of Apple's current desktop computers and portable computers, including the MacBook Pro, MacBook, Mac Mini, and iMac ship with an AirPort Extreme card as standard (as of May 2006). All other modern Macs have an expansion slot for the card. AirPort and AirPort Extreme cards are not physically compatible: AirPort Extreme cards cannot be installed in older Macs, and AirPort cards cannot be installed in newer Macs. The original AirPort card was discontinued in June 2004.

On June 7, 2004, Apple released the AirPort Express Base Station as a lower-priced, more mass-market alternative to the AirPort Extreme Base Station.

Although both AirPort and AirPort Extreme cards are available only for Macintosh computers, all AirPort base stations and cards are fully compatible with third-party base stations and wireless cards; so long as they conform to the 802.11b or 802.11g networking standards. Because of this interoperability, it is not uncommon to see wireless networks composed of several types of AirPort base station serving both old and new Macintosh, Microsoft Windows, and even Linux systems. Apple's software drivers for Airport Extreme also support some Broadcom-based PCI Wireless adapters when fitted to PowerMac computers.

Read more at Wikipedia.org