Sharing Apple Base Station Experiences

I started this "mini-site" in 2001 when I documented for the Airport community how to fix internal power supply failures associated with "Graphite" base stations. Since then, I have been asked to help Airport users with other issues such as how to retrofit extender antennas, add ventilation, resolve configuration issues, etc. Many people have contributed to this site, and I have attempted to credit them where possible.

Furthermore, I have tried my best to present the information as accurately as I can given time and resource constraints. Thus, all information presented here is for entertainment purposes only and all projects you undertake as a result of the following pages are at your risk alone. Please remember:

OPENING YOUR AIRPORT BASE STATION VOIDS YOUR WARRANTY.

As you will discover, there are many interesting things you can do with your Apple base station. There are now four generations of base stations. Instructions that are valid for one base station may not apply to other ones. I have attempted to group resources logically and hope that they will help you.

Cheers! Constantin von Wentzel

"Graphite" Base Station Resources

How to:

Informational Material:

"Snow" Base Station Resources


"Extreme" Base Station Resources (AEBS)


"Express" Base Station Resources


"Extreme-n" Base Station Resources


Antenna Resources

How to:
Shopping Guides:

Even More Questions Answered

How to:
Worried about the health effects of WLAN networks?

Some folks are concerned about any health effects that Wireless LANs can have. However, consider that exposure to the sun will drench you with more 2.4GHz radiation than a stock ABS can produce. Then, the strength of the (usually intermittent) microwave transmissions drop by the inverse square as distances are increased. I don't worry about the health effects of my WLAN, but to each his own. Here are a couple of links I found on the Apple Discussion board thanks to iFelix: Some industry info can be found at the Wireless LAN Association website, along with IEEE notes. Then there is a BBC story that conditionally exonerates cell phones (which expose humans to much higher doses of radiation than an ABS will, even if it is held to your head). For a dissenting perspective, check out Mercola.com. This site is also primarily concerned with cell-phone safety. However, the fundamental technology is the same.

Wireless Community Websites

There are many wireless community websites. Here are some of the best: SeattleWireless, New York City Wireless, Bay Area Wireless User Group, Personal Telco, NoCat, and Green Bay Packet Radio.

If you're Japanese, you might like Koji Iinuma's Apple Airport Site a lot.

Encryption for the Masses:

Secure Shell (SSH) is a very powerful encryption technology built right into OS X. It is the perfect tool to overcome the inherent weaknesses of the current wireless encryption standards. O'Reilly offers a number of fantastic tutorials on how to create SSH keys in OS X, then establish SSH tunnels, and finally how make your e-mail program to take advantage of SSH. Seattle Wireless also has a informative page on Wireless Security Issues.

If your goal is to create a secure network at home, you can also elect to use IPSec to connect from machine to machine instead of regular connections. IPSec is just as secure as SSH is, and may be easier to set up since it has a nice GUI interface in the "Internet Connect" application. The remote machine must have a configuration that allows remote logins (set that up in the Network Control Panel). The same sort of tunnels can secure the connection between your home computer and the corporation where you work.

Equipment Comparisons

You can find some useful Equipment Comparisons at Small Net Builder, Seattle Wireless, and Freenetwork.

Préférez-vous votre lecture en français?

Gete.net offert beaucoup de resources sur l'Airport en français. Peut-être un peu plus agréeable, mes amis francophones?


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