5th gen Airport Extreme or Linksys WET/S610n

[147798]

I would prefer to stay in the Apple family, but if I'm reading it right, I think the Linksys WET610n or WES610n seem to prioritize video and gaming packets. Video is more of what i'm interested in.

I have several computers, as my wife and I work from home, but we also stream video to a mac mini hooked to a TV. We also watch a bit of video on our own laptops.

Is there a reason to choose one of these Linksys over the Extreme? Can video packets be prioritized from sites like Amazon, Hulu, Youtube, etc.?

Oh -- ignore price for now, as it's not that relevant to me. The extreme can be had refurb in the $90s and used in the $60s. That's close enough for me.

 

[wmitch]

Not sure which is better but here is a good price on the extreme if you decide to go that route-

5th gen. $75 with free shipping- http://www.dealfisher.com/product/Apple-MD031LL/A.html

 

[spatlese44]

You might consider a refurb Time Capsule. They are $100 off, so the 2TB version is $200, 3TB is $300. Not sure how long those prices are going to last as they did this when they came out with the new design of Extreme and Time Capsule (refurb is the previous version and does N but not AC).

As for the video streaming capabilities, maybe someone else can chime in here, but I don't see anything that would make you chose the one of the other in that category. Apple TV, and I would guess all streaming devices, buffer content making average speed important and little else. I'm not sure, but I think you could watch a movie on dialup if you were willing to wait for it to buffer long enough.

Then there's reliability. I got tired of buying routers every 1 or 2 years after they would fry. Might be more bad luck, but I only have Apple routers now and haven't had any problems. I have an IT friend who works more on the PC side and is often critical of Apple, except on this point. He did the same thing. His words: "...costs more, but it works."