One of the more frustrating computing challenges I’ve encountered is setting up a wireless network in my home. I knew enough not to attempt to try this on my own and called on some of very clever men and women I work with. But it was a booger, even for them.

Today my buddy George came over and set up my new Apple AirPort Extreme (“Easy as a Mac”):

“Just take the AirPort Extreme out of the box. Plug it in. Install the software, and in five minutes or less, you’re good to go.”

And it literally took George 5 minutes to install and configure the base station. My Netgear base station was doing the job but the AirPort Extreme had a couple of features I wanted.

Before, I had to have my Dell desktop box turned on to print from our laptops. We can now print directly through the router.

I also now have an external hard drive hooked to the router…and visible on my MacBook desktop when I’m at home. No more storage issues and three times a week the MacBook does an automatic back-up.

Yes, I’m sure it’s possible to accomplish these things in Windows on PC’s. But the folks at Apple just made it fast and simple. And I promise to share any problems I have with the new base station down the road.

Speaking of down the road… the Apple TV is scheduled to start shipping in early March and George tells me our new TV has the necessary connections and cables to take advantage of the features.

Update: Surfing from the couch (base station upstairs in the office) and –perceptually– pages are loading twice as fast as before (on the Netgear base station).

I ordered one of the new Apple TV doo-dads right after they were announced. Didn’t/don’t fully understand it but it sounded like fun, so… Since then I’ve been hearing and reading all kinds of knocks on the gadget, usually from serious video-philes.

Then I came across an interesting theory about where Apple might be headed:

“Here is what I think is happening with the Apple TV hard drive. I think sometime this summer Apple will ship a firmware upgrade for the Apple TV and it will suddenly gain an important new capability. That’s when the Apple TV becomes a node on the iTunes peer-to-peer video network. ”

“Apple would have one or many content channels roughly equivalent to an HBO, Showtime, or perhaps Discovery. Yes, I think Apple will do direct content deals, buying programming that it will then either distribute to subscribers or support with Google ads, thanks to Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s position on the Apple board. Apple’s network will give you the same content with or without ads, delivered from the same servers, one of which may be underneath your TV.”

Hmmm.