# Can I use my iMac's inbuilt airport extreme as a wireless base station?



## Beast Of Bodmin (Apr 14, 2007)

Greetings! my first post  

Can I use my iMac's inbuilt airport extreme as a wireless base station?

If so, how might I do this?

If not, is this because a wireless base station needs different hardware than for a simple "node"?


----------



## fryke (Apr 14, 2007)

You can, if you connect your iMac (not iMAC) to the 'net via Ethernet. Then you can share the Ethernet connection over WiFi. But you can't connect to the net via WiFi and share that very same connection over the same AirPort card. You'd need _another_ AirPort card in order to do both via WiFi.


----------



## Beast Of Bodmin (Apr 14, 2007)

fryke said:


> You can, if you connect your iMac (not iMAC) to the 'net via Ethernet. Then you can share the Ethernet connection over WiFi. But you can't connect to the net via WiFi and share that very same connection over the same AirPort card. You'd need _another_ AirPort card in order to do both via WiFi.


Hmm. My device (a squeezebox 3) insists on being given a wireless network name (SSID) to join. I think that means I must somehow create a SSID and apply it to the iMac's airport.

Is there a way to do this?


----------



## Kees Buijs (Apr 14, 2007)

Beast Of Bodmin said:


> Hmm. My device (a squeezebox 3) insists on being given a wireless network name (SSID) to join. I think that means I must somehow create a SSID and apply it to the iMac's airport.
> 
> Is there a way to do this?



Is the name of the wifi network visible when scanning for available wifi networks. In general you can not have a connection between 2 networks cards directly (unless specially adapted for that), but require a base station as intermediate. When looking for available wifi networks, the name of the base station should be in the list.


Good luck, Kees


----------



## Beast Of Bodmin (Apr 14, 2007)

Kees Buijs said:


> Is the name of the wifi network visible when scanning for available wifi networks. In general you can not have a connection between 2 networks cards directly (unless specially adapted for that), but require a base station as intermediate. When looking for available wifi networks, the name of the base station should be in the list.
> 
> Good luck, Kees


I was trying to do this without a separate base station. I was interested to know if there was a way to make my iMac airport behave like a base station. From what you say, I now I cannot do this. I'm not sure why. I suppose it must be a hardware thing, as surely it can't be software.

Cheers.


----------



## Decade (Apr 15, 2007)

It's surely a software thing. The Linux and FreeBSD drivers for the Atheros chipset used in a lot of newer iMacs and MacBooks support a Master mode. Combined with an authenticator like hostapd, they can be used as full-blown access points. Assuming that that specific version of the Atheros chipset is supported yet.

The Broadcom chips used in many other Macs are harder to crack, but they can at least technically be used as access points. Indeed, I'm using the wireless card from my access point that just died as an ordinary wireless card in my laptop.


----------



## disconap (Apr 17, 2007)

You can make your Imac act as a network/base station, but you need to have the imac connected to the internet via ethernet or phone.  Here is how to do it if that is the case:

Make sure internet is functioning.
Go to sytem preferences-->sharing-->internet (tab)
choose which connection (ethernet or modem) you wish to share FROM.
Then check the box next to Airport in the "to" box underneath
Finally, click the airport pull-down menu (top of screen) and choose "create network".  Name it and follow the instructions.  The network should appear on other computers' wireless set-ups.

Done and done.


----------



## Decade (Apr 18, 2007)

disconap said:


> Click the airport pull-down menu (top of screen) and choose "create network".  Name it and follow the instructions.  The network should appear on other computers' wireless set-ups.



That's what I did for my first wireless network. It uses the IBSS mode of the wireless chips, also known as Ad-Hoc networking. I don't like it, because it doesn't have the congestion controls of a managed network, and the hidden node problem is actually annoying.

However, it should work in small spaces, where all the machines can always see each other when turned on. There seems to be very little documentation on it (just a couple Wiki posts), but the Squeezebox should also support IBSS. The very little documentation means I can't tell you how.


----------



## Beast Of Bodmin (Apr 21, 2007)

disconap said:


> You can make your Imac act as a network/base station, but you need to have the imac connected to the internet via ethernet or phone.  Here is how to do it if that is the case:


It did indeed work.

Many thanks.


----------

