I've never dealt with wireless, so bear with me please...
I'm planning a trip and want to take my new toy (MBP) along. If I want to use it to access the internet on the road and/or hotel, do I need an Airport Express or something else to pick up a signal? And how do I set it up?
Your "new toy" has a built-in wireless adapter. Apple calls it "Airport," but it is a standard 802.11x transceiver. This allows you to pick up any wireless network that is also 802.11x compliant, including a home wireless network router, or a hotel's wireless router.
That doesn't mean that you'll be allowed on a given network. Most networks are encrypted and password-protected, but some are not. Many hotels provide wireless internet access, some free of charge, some not. In some cases where there is a charge for access, you can get on free if you belong to the hotel's "rewards club" or some such. Some hotels require a password just to connect to the network, and some use a "gateway" where you'll need to enter some type of credentials (room #, password provided at the front desk, etc.). Even some "free" hotels require that you access the internet through the gateway, and confirm your agreement to their stated regulations and disclaimers. There are as many "routines" as there are hotels. Suffice it to say that internet access is widely available at hotels.
If you want to access the internet on your own, without connecting to someone's wireless network, you'll need a cellular data plan from one of the carriers. For example, I connect to the internet using my Sprint mobile phone. I can connect it directly to my MBP with a USB adapter, or I can connect via Bluetooth.
Another way to connect through your cellular provider is by using an Expresscard or USB "dongle" mobile data card. These are a more expensive alternative, and the plans for their use are generally more expensive, too ($60/month for unlimited access with an accompanying voice plan, $80/month without). In all cases, you must sign a contract for one of these plans, and there are usually hefty early termination fees.
Sprint offers unlimited access for only $40/month, when using a cellular phone as a modem. As far as I know, they are the only carrier to do so. Check with your own carrier for plans and rates.
An Airport Express can
sometimes be a handy thing to have on the road, but only in specific circumstances. If, for example, you are staying at a hotel that only provides "wired" internet access (via ethernet), you can use an Airport Express to create a wireless "bridge" to the hotel's network, thereby allowing you to connect wirelessly. In many cases, this works well.
It may just be the MBP and have nothing to do with 10.5.2. Actually, both at home and at the office, I run under static IP addresses. But, today, I did some more testing. I run also VM Ware and Windows Vista and my assumption had been, since Vista, running under VM Ware, utilizes all of the Mac I/O ports, that Vista would share the same slowness with the Mac Airport Wi-Fi. I tried it today and, much to my surprise, the connection speed was great (like normal). I also tried a hardwire to the Ethernet port on the APEBSg and got the same great connection speed.
So, MBP Airport works with Vista but not with Mac OS and by-passing the Airport Wi-Fi with a hardwire works with both Vista and Mac OS. It's only the Mac OS trying to go through the onboard Airport that gets choked down to unacceptable connection speeds.
Let us know what the AppleCare folks have to say 😉
Learned a few things by spending almost 2 1/2 hours with 3 different people at Applecare (apparently, I wore out the first two 🙂 .... when the first one was out of ideas, I got bumped up to a "better" expert, etc. It was enlightening and they were helpful and knowledgeable, but, in the end, the fact remained that my iMac and the MBP could/would not talk to each other via Airport, so I broke down and bought a wireless router yesterday - an inexpensive D-Link as suggested by the last "wireless expert" I spoke with and I must say, he was very knowledgeable; I was relieved because he didn't even try to make me reset this or that, re-install, or whatever, but went straight to the heart of the problem.
He had me trash the entire system configuration on both, but that did not help either and we tried dozens of different Network settings on both without success.
I managed to get the router all set up last night to have my iMac hard wired to it (so I don't have to endure dropped signals or whatever on my "workhorse") and the MBP connecting to it via Airport. So far, so good, although I noticed this morning that Airport apparently does not remember the network I used last night; I had to "create" it again, but once I did, I had no problem connecting to the internet. Last night, I had the usual (fast) page loading while sitting 50 ft away, so we'll see how this works in the long run.
A couple of interesting things Apple's wireless expert mentioned that might be of help to others:
Do not buy a wireless router with N capabilities yet; that is only in draft mode and works only intermittently at best at this point, so save your money and buy a cheap G router.
The "self-assigned" IP number (there is another post re. that) appears because Airport cannot find or connect to a router, network, etc. that does have a valid IP number. Changing that number will not do anything; if Airport can find a network with an IP number, that number will automatically be assigned. If an IP number is not automatically assigned, either Airport is not communicating with the device or there is something amiss with the device's settings.
