Using an AirPort Base Station as a router

We noted this in passing before, but it is worth emphasizing. For those considering the purchase of a router, you might want to consider an AirPort Base Station instead. As Nate Caplin writes: "I've been happily using an AirPort Base Station not only as a wireless access point, but as a cable/DSL router to share my RoadRunner service among both AirPort-enabled PowerBooks and desktops Macs via standard Ethernet. Essentially, the AirPort Base Station is a full-fledged Ethernet-to-Ethernet router (besides just Ethernet-to-wireless or modem-to-wireless). Note that in the AirPort Admin Utility, you must check the option to assign addresses on the Ethernet segment too. The only other trick to get it to work properly is that, when you first power everything up, you must turn on your cable/DSL modem first, then the AirPort Base Station, then any computers. This way, the AirPort Base Station obtains the IP address that the cable modem gives it via DHCP, and then all other devices on the network receive their IP address from the AirPort Base Station via DHCP [Note: This step is probably not needed if your cable provider assigns a static IP]. The AirPort uses Network Address Translation (NAT) to give out internal address such as 10.0.1.2, etc. It all works like a charm and makes the purchase of a separate cable/DSL router entirely unnecessary. It also makes it unnecessary to purchase additional IP addresses from your ISP."