Question

I am planning to buy a second-hand intel Mac Mini to use as a media center, web server and file server. I want the Mini to be asleep as much as possible but also always available. To do this I plan to use the 'wake on demand' feature of Snow Leopard.

However, 'wake on demand' is not available to older Macs. Is it possible to work around this problem?

The only solution I can think of is to use a second router to connect to the AEBS and connect the Mac Mini to the second router via a wired connection. Would this solution work? Are there any other alternatives?

Update

I want to connect to the mac mini via wifi. I guess my question could be stated more clearly as "does the 'wake-on-demand' feature in Snow Leopard work over a wireless-to-ethernet bridge?"

Answer 1

I'm assuming that you hope to connect the mini wirelessly. Is that right?

If so, it's hardware doesn't support wake-on-WLAN and you're correct that the only option is to connect it over wired ethernet. If there's no drop at the mini's planned location, you can connect it to a gaming adapter, which is a cheap wireless-to-ethernet bridge designed for exactly this situation.