Ever since I went wireless a couple of years ago it made such a difference in how I set up my computers and where I do my work. I had gotten a Linksys wireless router with 4 ports in the back. I connected my desktop to one of the ports; my laptop went wirelessly to it.
Life was good. I could read and work on my bed, or I could carry the laptop into the kitchen and read recipes off of it, or I could sit outside in my patio and get some breeze. I still had to turn on my desktop computer to print anything and I was always running around copying files to it so they could be printed---at least the USB drive made it a lot easier to move files around. And then one day I got an Airport Express.
I think I had been eyeing it for some time. I had started using iTunes a lot more and was really getting the hang of using it, so I started looking around for accessories. About the same time I had been looking around for a wireless print server so I could print from both my laptop and my desktop without ever having to turn on the main computer---that always took such a long time to boot!
When I first put in the Airport Express I was amazed at how quickly the setup went. It was literally just a case of plugging it in. Whoever was on the genius team that put that product together made it so darned easy I was amazed. I then got my printer working at that was great! For some reason I had a bit of a hard time getting the Airport Express to join onto my existing wireless network (or maybe I missed the option), so I ended up disabling the wireless portion on the Airport Express and plugged it into the router by a CAT-5 cable. Finally, I connected up my home stereo to the Airport Express and ... wow! I had a network of computers all linked up pretty much wirelessly, a printer which could print while I was anywhere in the room, and I could broadcast music to my stereo straight from the laptop! It was so cool!
And then. I moved.
About a year went by and I longed to get my Airport Express set up again. I missed having wireless connectivity to my printer and had found a hokey solution to it. Well, just last week one of my roomies and I decided to move our wireless router around a little. That led me to think about our wireless network again. After about an hour I had something figured out, and I plugged the Airport Express back in...
"HOLY CRAPOLA!" I gasped after I got the iTunes on my laptop to find the Airport Express. It was a bit of setup, but I changed thigns around: I found the option to have the Airport Express join an existing wireless network! Wow! Now the Airport Express talks directly to the wireless router and my laptop can see it! Even better, my desktop can also see the Airport Express! So once again I can get the Airport Express to play out music from both my desktop and laptop, and my printer can be networked! WOW WOW WOW! And the final piece...since my computer has a sound card and the Airport Express also has a sound output, I now run both into my mixing board and my stereo can play the mixed output of both devices!!! I'm back in business!!!
It's almost scary that I can sit on my bed and control the music being broadcast to my stereo as well as printing wirelessly! Oh I love being a geek.
