Overlooked in all of the recent iPhone excitment was the anouncement of the new Airport Extreme Base Station. It has been packed with many new features as well. One of the most expected and exciting features is the addition of the 802.11n Wi-Fi spec. This will allow the base station to have much faster transfer rates over 802.11b/g. Of course your Mac will also need a 802.11n card, but if you have any Intel Core 2 Duo Mac it looks like you are in luck.
One of the other more exciting new features, and one that has not been discussed much, is the ability to share files or storage using the base station. Apple has allowed up to plug in a USB storage device that can be shared over the airport network.
Instant drive sharing.
New to AirPort Extreme, AirPort Disk turns almost any external USB hard drive into a shared drive. Simply connect the drive to the USB port on the back of your AirPort Extreme and — voila — all the documents, videos, photos, and other files on the drive instantly become available to anyone on the secure network, Mac and PC alike. It’s perfect for backups, collaborative projects, and more.
The best part of this is that you don’t have to give up your USB printer for storage, you can actually use both with the addition of a USB hub.
Do everything.
What if you’d like to exchange files over your wireless network and still have access to a network printer? Easy. Just connect a USB hub to AirPort Extreme and attach your devices to the hub. Share both a printer and a hard drive, multiple printers, or multiple hard drives.
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Is there a cheap alternative to using an Airport Extreme? I would like to go the NAS route, plugging a 500GB Fantom USB external drive that I have right into my wireless router, so that it shows up on the computers on my home network. Any tips on how to do this?
Also, if my printer is not a network printer (Canon iP 4300), is there a way to make it work on a network, plugged into the router?
Thanks a million,
Jeff