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Airport Extreme vs Time Capsule? Other N Router?

Masters

Masters

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 1, 2008
25
0
California
Not to dig up old topics, but I was curious to hear from people who own these products. Yesterday my wireless router stopped working. It's a D-Link DI524 which is utter crap to me now but must say never really gave me crap before. I was able to connect two Xbox 360's wirelessly, my PC, and two laptops. My modem is connecting but the signal is not getting past the router anymore. Weak.

Anyway, I want to buy a router today and since I'll be switching to Mac soon, I want to get the best router possible. Keep in mind that my family will still be using their Windows based laptop. I want an N router. Here are my questions:

1. What are your opinions on the Airport Extreme and the Time Capsule? Does one's network performance outdo the other?

2. Is there a better N Router available out there that is compatible with Mac?

3. If I were to buy an Airport Extreme or Time Capsule, what would my families' Windows based laptops need to connect to said routers at 802.11n?

4. Lastly, I play on my Xbox 360 online a lot. Must be compatible and if it can support two Xbox 360's at once for online play than even better. Are Apple N Routers compatible with Xbox Live?

Thanks in advance everyone. These forums are always filled with knowledgeable people. Go :apple:!!
 
1) Airport extreme and time capsule have one thing different:time capsule has a hard drive. Everything else pertaining to networking is exactly the same. I have an airport extreme N version and it works fantastically. Wireless never drops, the signal carries very far. One thing to note, is that you will not get full N speeds if you are going to have to connect other devices that only support G speeds. If you put the airport into B/G/N mode, all devices connecting with an N card will only connect at 130MB/s, compared to 300 if you had it in only N mode.

2) cant comment on this, I havnt had any other experience with other N routers.

3) To connect, nothing. It is just like any other wireless router, as long as the laptops support whichever security you decide to use. To connect at N speeds though, the laptops will need N wireless cards. I have both windows and mac laptops connected to my base station with no problem.

4)yes and yes
 
My sister has a D-Link router and it seems to do alright with my MacBook, but it doesn't carry as far as my AEBS does with her Gateway notebook. It costed about $100 less than my AirPort did though.
 
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