o.k. back to the airport extreme.

I have:

1 macbook
1 printer
1 bose receiver
1 external hard drive (to be purchased)
1 cable modem (dsl)

I would like to:

1. create a wireless connection for the macbok
2. have one printer (or 2) controlled wirelessly from the mac
3. have one external hard drive controlled wirelessly from the mac
4. be able to stream music from the mac through the bose system

my problem:
1. I don't know enough about computers
2. I thought I could do all of this via the airport extreme, however, the mac store clerk told me that I would need both the airport extreme and the airport express (hub?).
3. I still don't understand why I cannot do everything off of the one (extreme).

I know this is simple stuff but I'm slow to learn when it comes to computers.

Art,
Don't be too down on yourself! You're almost there.
I think you've got most of what you need to get 3 out of 4 of your goals met without spending a lot of money. In order to be able to hook up multiple devices to the airport extreme, you'll need to get a USB hub. Make sure you get a usb 2.0 hub, otherwise your connected devices will go slower than they should. Hook your printers and hard drive to the hub, then hook the hub to the airport express. From what I've read, this setup should do the trick.
In order to stream your music to your receiver, you would need the airport express, as it has an audio output on it that you can use to hook to your receiver. I don't know the specifics on configuring it to work with the airport extreme, but from what I've read it sounds like it should "just work."

thanks aghman!

This makes a little more sense to me now.

Did anyone else sign up to beta test and not get a link??

o.k. now I'm getting there.

does anyone use Airfoil with the mac?

Marbargarbo - I haven't yet either; not sure what the delay is, but I am looking forward to getting it too! ;-)

Ok, I'm not sure if I should ask this here (it's tech, but not at all design-related) so if I should take my question elsewhere, please tell me where.

For months I have been having serious problems with my wireless connection at home. Qwest swears my internet connection is fine and I believe them because my roommate's computer, although inferior in every other way, connects no problem. Dell swears my wireless card is fine. They suggested defragging, which made no sense to me because the computer wasn't running slow, just the connection, but anyway that didn't help. It's driving me insane. More than half the time it either will not connect or connects at some ridiculously low speed (like 11 or 24). The rest of the time it *says* it's connected at 48 or 54, but frequently runs as slow as 24. Of course it should be at 54 all the time.

Any ideas? Thanks!

mjoe, this happened to me. I knew I was plugged in all the way around but what I didn't realize was that I had an extension phone jack plug plugged into the wall jack and then another extension coming off the extension. When I got rid of one of the extensions everything started to work again on my wireless. Of course now my fax machine is unplugged.

Hm. Thanks for the idea, Anne, but I have no landline, so nothing besides the one modem is plugged into the phone line. There are a whole bunch of things plugged into that electrical plug. I feel like this is a stupd question, but is there any way that could cause a problem?

does anyone in super-techsavy land know of a portable keyboard holder that (i'm imagining) does something like slips onto the edge of a desk? i'm pretty short, and i'm looking to get my setup at the office to ergonomic standards . . . but they won't let me drill into my cube desk. right now my desk is about six inches higher than where my keyboard should be, and i need a portable solution.