The Fastest Airport Transfers Are One Way
Even on an 802.11g network you can achieve some pretty fast transfers between your Macs & PC’s, provided one detail: one of the computers you’ll be transferring to or from is hard-wired via Ethernet.
Every wireless network has a threshold of bandwidth available on it which is somewhat in flux, due to the distances the connections are made at; the variety of devices on a network and their respective transfer speeds; and the amount of traffic on the network at the time you make a transfer.
Making a transfer of a 1.18GB video file from my Core2Duo Macbook wirelessly to an Ethernet wired Core2Duo iMac through my 802.11n Airport Extreme, I achieve wireless speeds of around 11.3Mb/sec. In terms of time, that 1.18GB video file took less than a minute to complete.
Making the same transfer with both computers wirelessly connected to the Airport Extreme, the transfer speeds were more than sliced in half. Why? (more…)
Airport Tools Of The Trade
I do a lot of mobile computing, and my MacBook gets great wireless reception no matter where I go. Unfortunately, Apple’s wireless tools leave much to be desired. Even the new Airport Utility included with Apple’s newest Airport Extreme doesn’t make for an accessible airport signal and open network monitoring app. That’s because it’s a network setup tool, first and foremost, and while it does offer a client signal monitoring and a few other useful networking tools, they’re buried deep in the advanced settings.
Not to worry, as there exist in the wild a select group of Airport tools to find and connect to networks on the go, monitor, examine, and refine your home internet and wireless setup, and diagnose and resolve wireless issues.
Some may find that simply using the Airport icon in the menu bar is sufficient to connect to wireless networks. In my opinion, it’s lacking several important indicators which you’ll need to find the best open networks on the go, and help you diagnose and deal with wireless and internet connection and configuration difficulties.
To simply beef up the Airport icon in the menu-bar’s info, try tastyapps.com’s $8 WiFind. With it, you’ll have a few added features to the Airport menu which are so obviously important it’s a wonder Apple didn’t include them yet. With WiFind, clicking on the Airport icon to open the drop down will now show you networks within range complete with a red lock symbol if they’re protected networks, and a green unlocked icon if they’re open. It will also show miniature airport icons which reveal the signal strength for each network.
WiFind currently reports signal strength in reverse for the latest Core2Duo Macs, and after e-mailing tastyapps with a report log, they said they’d get to work updating it shortly. I did some testing prior to installing it and afterwards with speedtest.net, and got very similar results. This application will not interfere with your connection or bandwidth whatsoever, and has not caused any other anamoloies of any kind. Seems stable and useful to me.
If you’re the kind of purist that would rather not modify Apple’s Airport menu icon- checkout a widget from SpinTriplet called AirTrafficControl.
A staple Airport networking-finding tool for several years, AirTrafficControl has recently undergone an extreme N makeover and is now well-endowed with the ability to scan for A,B,G, and N wireless networks. An extremely versatile widget, ATC let’s you scan for closed networks, prevent unauthorized users from changing your network settings, use the Keychain to store, retrieve and update WPA or WEP passwords, and view current connection details including network speed, vendor and signal strength.
Lastly, the master tweak tool. At $60 IPNetMonitorX doesn’t come cheap, but if you are a network administrator, or need advanced control over every aspect of your network and internet environment, this application is comprehensive. IPNetMonitorX is based on the award-winning IPNetMonitor Classic, and has been re-written using Cocoa and BSD networking to bring its functions to Mac OS X.
The tools included are: Address Scan, AirPort Signal, Connection List, DHCP Lease, DHCP Test, Finger, Interface Info, Link Rate, Lookup, Monitor, Name Server Query, Ping, Port Scan, Server Scan, Subnet Calculator, TCP Dump (including TCP Flow), TCP Info, Trace Route, and Who Is. You can download a fully-functioning demo, before deciding whether it’s right for you.
Last but not least, iStumbler. Another Airport app which has been around for years, iStumbler is now Universal and works well with Intel Macs.
The skinny on this application: it’s an airport scanning tool which sets your Airport Extreme card into active scanning mode, detecting networks and showing your signal strength, channel, security info, and more.
The fat on it: It also will show you Bluetooth items, and Bonjour lists as well. The iStumbler includes a ‘Spectrum Widget’, which displays a virtual spectrum analyzer on your Dashboard, allowing you to visually detect network radio frequency overlap on wireless networks. Spectrum gets it’s information directly from iStumbler to provide you with the most accurate signal information available.
So, iStumbler is more of a ‘jack-of-all-trades’ wireless tool, and one which is perfectly suited to the process developing a home network, analyzing neighboring wireless connections before deciding how you’ll configure yours.
There are other apps and widgets out there which will perform similar functions, each having more or less of the features included in the ones I’ve highlighted above. I’ve chosen the above for their Intel-native stability and, in my assessment, higher overall form, function, and user control with simplicity.
Ease Of Use And Familiarity
Monday April 16th 2007, 4:58 pm
By
Matthew Good
Tags:
Apple,
Browsers,
Camino,
Fire Fox,
Flock,
IE,
OmniWeb,
Opera,
Safari,
User Compatability
I wanted to start out with something practical and simple, and as somewhat of a follow up to Sonny’s recent entry about browsers.
I have been a Mac user for years and have, of course, downloaded and used all of the browsers that Sonny reviewed. One of the most important questions about browser use is not, in my mind, the complexities of its functionality, but the straightforwardness and ease of familiarity that it presents when first used. That factor would be why even though I have Fire Fox, Camino, Flock, Opera, and OmniWeb in my Applications folder, primarily for design reference, I still used Safari as my daily browser. While it has its drawbacks, especially with regards to cross-platform design, I initially found that I understood it better and faster than those previously listed, many of which have copied its traits, though not with as much ease of use. After using the latest version of Internet Explorer all weekend I was relieved to return home and use Safari again simply because it represents to me the origin of the modern browser in many ways, and because of its simplicity is easier to dig into once the basics are cemented.
One of the most interesting aspects of any browser is how much of its capabilities are actually used by regular users. Looking at my Mint statistics, even the use of RSS isn’t as large as one would think it should be, even though RSS integration has become one of the most predominant features on every new browser out there. While it certainly must be said that the likes of Flock, which have possess the built in advantages of integrating social networking platforms right into their browser, such as Flickr and Del.icio.us, it must be taken into consideration the ease with which basic users understand how to go about fully exploiting the capabilities of new browsers. I, myself, am caught in a three way tie between Flock, Camino, and OmniWeb for the title of best third party browser, but as I’ve said, I always defer to Safari because it’s what I know best.
As browsers develop, the ease with which users will be able to manipulate and customize them will become easier to understand. That said, I look forward to see what changes have been made to Safari when Leopard is released this year, and if Apple has made an attempt to stay competitive with those third party browsers that seem to be offering a few more dimensions to their applications.
