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Which Airport Extreme Sation?

T

TheT

macrumors 6502
Original poster
I did a search on the forums for this, but I only found topics on whether to get an Apple or Linksys solution... I pretty much decided I want to get an Airport Extreme station, but I don't know which one. What are your experiences...? In a normal 100sq.m. amartment with really thick walls, would I need the external antenna port? I don't use a fax and won't move if I can't get broadband, do I need the modem for anything else?
Any comment welcome 🙂
 
i have the cheaper airport BS in a 1100 sq.ft. townhouse and i have no problems getting a signal anywhere, i can even go downstairs(the BS is located upstairs) and outside and still recieve a signal through the brick wall....plus if you are willing to and need the attenna you can mod the basestation, drill a hole and change some stuff around to add the attenna to the cheaper one.....so really its up to you, if you are not going to use the modem at all i would get the cheaper one and ifyou need a better signal then i would modify it so you can add the attenna....
 
I have the old Airport and I can't go more then 10-20 yards before I lose the signal. I would assume the extreme version is better tho I have no experience with it.
 
Kid Red said:
I have the old Airport and I can't go more then 10-20 yards before I lose the signal. I would assume the extreme version is better tho I have no experience with it.
Click to expand...
Thank you for bringing this up! That's another thing I wanna know... are you using a computer with AE? That would mean the original stations don't work well with AE... (I could get a cheap old one from eBay). A friend told me a similar thing... he just got a 15" PB with AE, and at home with his old Airport net, the reception is horrible.
If this is true, how about the other way around? Currently, I use an old iMac DV SE only capable of normal Airport, but I will eventually buy a PowerBook... if I get an AE station now, will my wireless connection to the iMac be bad?
 
At home I have the model with the modem and external antenna port. I have the transmitter set to 25% and still get a strong signal everywhere in my 1000ish square foot apartment. At work I have the model without, and it's set up to allow b and g with transmitter at 100% power and I can access it everywhere in the building--through a lot of walls (not thick ones, but metal framed).
 
Sounds like you could get away with the cheaper AE. I got the one with the modem since who knows, I might move somewhere without broadband (though I doubt it) but I do like to be able to send and recieve faxes wirelessly. Sounds like you don't need that though. If you aren't squeamish about drilling a hole in your AE, get the cheaper one. If you ever need an antenna you can add one on. I'm glad I got the one with the antenna port though, my reception is terrible in my house, but it's an old plaster-and-lath house where the walls have almost an inch of masonry on each side. Great for noise (and heat) insulation, but terrible for hanging pictures and for wireless reception. At my old place I used to be able to take my laptop anywhere, but in this new house I can be 15' away from the base station, but if it's through two or more walls my reception is zero with my TiBook. My wife's G4 iBook does a little better, but it still can't print through two walls although she can web surf.
 
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