Apple Airport networking tip

If using a second AirPort Express to extend the wireless network in your home, as well as setting the new unit to extend a network, ensure that your first unit is allowed to extend: in Airport Utility select the existing unit, click Manual Setup, then the Wireless tab, then check the “Allow this network to be extended” box.

I came across this by accident while trying to set up X-Box Live for my son using an Ethernet cable into the second Airport Express. Although I’d set the second unit to extend my existing network it never gave the improvement I’d hoped – now I know why. Only when trying to work out why the X-Box wouldn’t connect did I discover that the second AP unit wasn’t showing up in Airport Utility, or doing so intermittently.

The above seems to have fixed all my home network problems.

If your network is still slow try a different channel. To this open Airport Utility and click on Manual Setup.

Have a happy, healthy and successful 2011!

Google phone, Apple, etc

Phone and computer manufacturers, you just don’t get it, do you. Despite what you might think you do not compete with Apple’s Macs and iPhone, because Apple does not aim to compete with you.

Is Google’s phone an “iPhone killer”? asked one BBC reporter. No chance, mate.

Apple’s products are by no means the cheapest, Macs not necessarily the fastest — they are quite simply *the best*. I have a 3-year old iMac that’s still going strong, a MacBook Pro that’s a joy to use. The software’s reliable, intuitive, easy to use. I have no iPhone as yet, but I’ll probably get one in June when they bring a new one out* – in the process undoubtedly leapfrogging the “competition” with a new handset design and a new OS.

My kids both have Windows laptops – they’re a nightmare, a pain in my arse from start to finish. The operating system is so user unfriendly it’s quite phenomenal, as if it’s been designed so. The machines themselves are plastic and cheap. If ever I can afford to do so I’ll do them both a favour and buy them MacBooks.

Apple Fanboy? Me? You bet.

* I predict an aluminium case, greater capacity, loss of that tacky chrome strip, less rounded corners, a higher resolution screen and camera…