Apple Airport is the brand name for wireless base stations that can be used for local area wireless networking. The Macworld Expo held in New York on 21 July, 1999 saw the launch of Airport.
The Airport initially included an Airport base station and an expansion card for Apple’s line of iBook notebooks. With time, the Airport card became available for almost all Apple computers such as PowerBooks, eMacs, iMacs, and PowerMacs. The earliest Airport system allowed sharing of the Internet and files by many computers. It had a transfer rate of 11Mbit/s.
Airport Extreme, based on the 802.11g specification, was unveiled on 7 January, 2003. It claims to be the next generation wireless networking solution with a data transfer rate of up to 54Mbit/s, nearly five times faster than the original Airport. It lets you surf the Internet from anywhere in your home or office without the hassles of complicated networking hardware like wires and additional phone lines. It allows schools to provide the Internet for pupils without the installation of expensive cabling.
Radio waves that are used for communication enable the Extreme to work through walls. Currently, most of Apple’s desktop and portable computers like the MacBook Pro, the Mac Mini and the iMac come with an Airport Extreme card. You can enjoy the benefits and high speed of the Extreme card with an Airport Extreme Base Station.
Airport Express, an easy-to-use and compact form of the Airport Extreme Base Station was introduced a year after the Extreme on 7 January, 2004. It includes a new feature called AirTunes that allows you to transfer music and tunes from the iPod and iPhone to your computer. It is priced at a lower rate than the Airport Extreme and allows up to ten networked users.
The updated version of Airport Extreme was launched on 9 January, 2007 and it supports the 802.11 a, b, g and n protocols. It has an Airport Disk feature that allows its users to attach a USB hard drive to it. It can then be used as a Mac OS X or Windows file server. A USB hub and printer can also be connected to it. However, this version does not have a port for an external antenna. The Apple Airport also has a series of cards with varied specifications, which when used with the base station allow greater speed and faster access. These cards are named according to the base station they operate with.
The Apple Airport line of products includes a variety of security technologies to prevent unauthorised access and eavesdropping. The line also includes several forms of cryptic language to protect important information and files. All this makes the Apple Airport a must-have product for offices, schools and other places where there are multiple Internet users.
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