Is the AirPort Extreme Compatable with a Comcast Modem/Router Please Hang with me here, I am NOT an Apple User as of 'YET', and not really great at Computer Language. That said, here goes. I own a 2 year old DELL Laptop, (Don't Like It at all)! Its Slow, has 4 Gigs of RAM and a 2.16 Gighrtz Processor. I am Looking to go with an Apple Laptop. We have Comcast Internet Service Wireless Router Modem that is 150MB Download and 12MB Upload. It is there Latest Modem and was replaced 2 weeks ago.

I use my Laptop Hardwired to the Modem with an Ethernet Cable, My Wife has a Dell Desktop that is Hard Wired also, if I switch to wireless 'IE' Unplug the Ethernet Cable, I can go to Starbucks and get a cup of coffee and come back and the Page 'MIGHT BE' Loaded. Wired, it aint much faster! So, I have talked to some friends that have apple Computer Laptops and swear by them.

What I don't know is, are they Wireless 'ONLY'? How do I use my Printer that has a USB Cable attached (Not Wireless)? If I buy an Apple Laptop Computer, And, want to use it at its FASTEST / BEST Speeds and Capabilities, can I purchase the AirPort Extreme, and use it with or Attached to the Comcast Modem to get better Distance and more reliable Internet service? We Stream Netflix, VuDu, Pandora, and such regularly. Our TV Is an older Plasma Unit from 2003 and we have DIRECT TV with the Wireless GENIE'S, Can someone Explain to me in Layman's Terms if this will work without me having to call Comcast In the Philippines and getting all Upset, And, just what I have to do if I go to the Expense of Switching over to APPLE and an AirPort Extreme Router.

Sorry if I have forgotten anything, but I am not sure how much longer I can deal with DELL. My wife has No Intention of switching anything with her system until it Fails, and does not want to go away from the Hard Wired Set up. Any Help is Appreciated.

Wifi Router For Mac

Thank You So Much. By The Way, my Family all has I Phones and I Pads. Asked by fn from San Jose. Mar 3, 2016.

Best Answer: Yes you can use an Airport Extreme with a Comcast router and it is quite simple. I have an iMac (mid-2011) running El Capitan, a MacBook Pro, a MacBook Air, a few iPads and iPhones in my home. It is a condo and the router is in a closet. We subscribe to Comcast Xfinity. We had no end of issues with wireless on the iMac with Comcast. Everything you mention happened to us as well - pages hanging up, having to reboot the router repeatedly, slow wireless, etc. Finally, after many sessions at the Genius Bar and with Apple Support (and after Comcast washed its hands off the whole thing) I put in an Airport Extreme on the output side of the Comcast router.

Just hooked it up with an Ethernet cable to the Comcast modem/router and plugged it in. It started working seamlessly and it was a real breeze to set it up on my iMac as my default wireless network. My wireless problems seem to be over.

My old Panasonic plasma TV works great with Apple TV as well. I would highly recommend it. Only regret is that I bought an Airport Extreme instead of a Time Capsule. I need backup capacity and now I have to buy a separate drive or buy a Time Capsule and use the Extreme as a spare. Re; Mac computers, they all have wireless and wired connections - Ethernet ports, USB, Thunderbolt and Firewire.

So you can connect via hardwire and wireless. When I moved from Windows (HP, Dell) to Apple the thing that was the biggest surprise was how easy it was to set it all up. What took me hours with HP took minutes with Apple.

I am a convert - I would recommend it strongly. Answered by Chandra S from Chicago. Mar 29, 2016. Just got this and it's working. It's also much faster than I dreamed it could be, and I could not believe the setup process.

If I had to guess, I would say it took me about 2 minutes because I had to reboot. Pleasantly surprised! When you use a modem/router, you will have to tell Comcast to disable the router part. It may take some effort. A better way is to buy your own modem, and they work great together. (I have an Arris g surfboard modem and this router - it's so fast!).

Answered by Rochelle A. A from Dublin. Mar 16, 2016. 1) check the model of the macbook. Some newer models of the basic macbook do not have usb or ethernet. I have a macbook pro retina, doesn't have ethernet but there is an accessory you can buy that the plugs into the thunderbolt jack if you need ethernet.

It also has a usb jack 2) Comcast probably has a stand alone modem, if not, you can probably buy one. If you have no choice but to use comcast's router call them & have them disable the NAT because airport has it's own NAT. If you have to disable Airport's NAT, it limits some features that are useful.

Answered by Jenevieve M from Venice. Sep 15, 2016.

Any piece of NIC, WiFi card or router has unique MAC address embedded in the unit when they were made. It is like your SSN, Do you think there would be two identical SSN or two identical plate no. For two different cars? Another word it is like finger print. You can change it getting into brain of the hardware by hacking.

But I don't see the purpose. In the case of router you have two MAC one for wired, one for wireless. May I ask why you want to change it? Or I think you are talking about MAC cloning when you set up the router? If you play with MAC cloning you can lose I'net connection.

I have my reason and I don't really feel like it matters for this discussion. I know how DHCP works and the ISP leases an IP that is tied to the MAC address. If I call them they won't change the IP. That's their policy but technically they are easily capable of doing it. I've tried rebooting the router/modem but obviously the IP doesn't change because the MAC is the same and it picks up the same lease from the ISP. So is there a way to do what I want to do, short of buying a whole new router/modem? The short answer is, there is no way to change the MAC address without buying a separate modem and router.

Best Modem Router For Mac

What you are failing to understand is that this goes beyond tying an IP address to a MAC address. When it comes to coax cable Internet service, the ISP ties your Internet subscription to your modem's MAC address. As in, 'Magister76 is a paying customer with MAC address XYZ'. If you were, somehow, able to change your modem's MAC address, your ISP would no longer recognize your modem as being associated with you. You would be perceived as either a non-customer (e.g. A guy moves into a house and hooks up a modem without subscribing for service) or as another customer with the same MAC address. Do you see the havoc that would ensue if customers chould change the MAC addresses on their modems?

You correctly point out that an IP address is tied to a MAC address for DHCP. It's not too hard to guess that you want to change your IP address because you are being DoS attacked or you are trying to hide your identity. Changing the MAC address is often useful to force a change in IP address.

The problem is that a combination router/modem only has one Internet-facing MAC address. In this respect, a modem/router is just like a pure modem in that its MAC address cannot be changed for the reason I gave previously.

You can try shutting off your modem/router for at least one full day in the hopes that the ISP's DHCP server will flush its IP to MAC assignment. If that fails, then you will have to replace your modem/router. If you expect to change your IP address multiple times, then I suggest you buy a separate modem and router. This will decouple the customer-to-MAC and IP-to-MAC association (i.e. Your modem's MAC identifies you as a customer and your router's MAC is used for IP adddress assignments). Then you can use the router's MAC spoofing/cloning feature to force IP address changes.

TheEther, thanks for the explanation. I appreciate that. Just to verify what you are saying.I think I understand now that since my Nighthawk is an all-in-one cable modem and router device, there is only one WAN facing MAC address and that, therefore, the software hasn't been programmed to allow MAC cloning since it would be disruptive to the ISP. Also, I think I understand from what you said, if I had a cable modem and a router as two separate devices, the router would have it's own MAC and the cable modem would also have it's own MAC. And, therefore, the feature to allow MAC spoofing would be enabled for the router since doing so wouldn't interfere with the cable modem's MAC. Now I have another question (assuming what I said above is correct).if I did go ahead and get a separate router and a separate cable modem, would cloning the MAC of the router work to get a new IP lease even though the MAC of the cable modem would stay the same? I'm not familiar with how DHCP operates with ISP's and their cable modems, but it seems to me that, regardless of the router's MAC address, if the MAC of the cable modem does not change then the leased IP would stay the same.

Magister76 wrote: TheEther, thanks for the explanation. I appreciate that. Just to verify what you are saying.I think I understand now that since my Nighthawk is an all-in-one cable modem and router device, there is only one WAN facing MAC address and that, therefore, the software hasn't been programmed to allow MAC cloning since it would be disruptive to the ISP. Also, I think I understand from what you said, if I had a cable modem and a router as two separate devices, the router would have it's own MAC and the cable modem would also have it's own MAC. And, therefore, the feature to allow MAC spoofing would be enabled for the router since doing so wouldn't interfere with the cable modem's MAC. Yes, this is correct. Now I have another question (assuming what I said above is correct).if I did go ahead and get a separate router and a separate cable modem, would cloning the MAC of the router work to get a new IP lease even though the MAC of the cable modem would stay the same?

I'm not familiar with how DHCP operates with ISP's and their cable modems, but it seems to me that, regardless of the router's MAC address, if the MAC of the cable modem does not change then the leased IP would stay the same. A pure modem is a layer 2 networking device. It won't request an IP address from your ISP. Only your router will request an IP address, so MAC cloning will work. VE6CGX wrote: Checked 3rd party f/w on this?

3rd party firmware is virtually non-existent for router/modems. You can probably count on one hand the number of models with 3rd party firmware.

On this, for example, I think the DGND3700 is the only one. TheEther wrote: A pure modem is a layer 2 networking device.

It won't request an IP address from your ISP. Only your router will request an IP address, so MAC cloning will work.That makes perfect sense. Thanks again. Now I think I want to buy a separate router and cable modem. I really like the features of the Nighthawk.

Would you recommend a router that is comparable to the Nighthawk? Especially one that has MAC cloning capability. And, as far as the cable modem goes, I guess any DOCSIS 3 would be fine?