I just ordered a new 24" iMac, I am also about to buy last years AE (b/g). I plan on connecting my Tivo to it and using it as remote speakers. My router is b/g. For my needs will I be at a disadvantage speedwise by going with last years AE instead of the current model?
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airport express b/g vs. n
- Thread starter drfp25
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Why not just get the new one? It is backward compatible and also you are future proofing a little bit if you end up replacing your router (which you really should do anyway)....
Are you buying a refurb express at a $30 savings? I recently had to make decision between refurb for $69 versus new N version for $99. I bought the N from amazon because price difference was less than $25 after tax and it was worth it to have newest. Currently I don't have any advantage in using N. I only have 1 device out of 4 that are N compatible.
Will you be using the ethernet port for Tivo or does Tivo connect wirelessly? With only one ethernet port on the express, you have to use that as your WAN port if it's your primary router.
Will you be using the ethernet port for Tivo or does Tivo connect wirelessly? With only one ethernet port on the express, you have to use that as your WAN port if it's your primary router.
I will be using my AE as a secondary router and it will connect to the tivo via ethernet. I can be get a used last years model for $60. My parents laptop isnt N compatible and my iMAC will be the only n-capable device in my house.
When I had my express setup to join a wireless network (Non-WDS), the ethernet port didn't work. It was only good to relay airtunes. I was trying to give my Dish DVR an IP, but nada. I now have 2 Express' with WDS and the remote one has a working ethernet port that gets an IP.
From the Airport Utility help files:
You can set up multiple AirPort Extreme or AirPort Express Base Stations as a Wireless Distribution System (WDS) to extend the range of your AirPort wireless network. When you connect base stations wirelessly in a WDS, you set up each base stations as a main base station, a remote base station, or a relay base station.
That info above isn't really helpful after re-reading it. Below may help.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107454
How much speed improvement 802.11n (5 GHz) will give you over 802.11g (2.4 GHz) depends on the nature of your network. If you setup an n Airport Express, or as I did a Time Capsule, so that all of its wireless clients are n devices the network’s speed improvement over having both g and n devices served by the n router should be considerable.
To get the maximum benefit out of n speeds, I have setup my Time Capsule so that its only wireless clients are my MB Pro and Apple TV, both n devices. My PowerBook G4 and TiVo Series 3, both g devices are still served by my old g wireless router, a Belkin pre-N, set to g only. The g router is connected to the Internet via the Time Capsule, so the MB Pro can see both networks and I can use it to select which to use. The Airport Utility took care of the configuration fairly easily.
The short answer to your problem seems to me to be that unless you plan to do backups wirelessly on a dedicated 5 GHz network that has only n wireless clients, the old g AE would probably serve about as well as the new n one.
I did not know drfp25 ( OP ) before we started negotiating a transaction, via email, for him to purchase my Airport Express NIB. However, drfp25 was a pleasure to deal with, he is courteous and prompt. Our transaction was flawless.
Hi quick question about this.
I have a Airport extreme that connects my external hard drives to my macbook.
Now im looking at getting an Airport express for airtunes. Do i need the 'n'? or will 'g' be good enough.
My network at the moment is 'n' via the Airport extreme.
Thanks in advance
I have a Airport extreme that connects my external hard drives to my macbook.
Now im looking at getting an Airport express for airtunes. Do i need the 'n'? or will 'g' be good enough.
My network at the moment is 'n' via the Airport extreme.
Thanks in advance
FYI, any router that supports b/g/n will only run as fast as the slowest device on the network. In other words, if just one device connects at a speed lower than n, the entire network runs at that speed (b or g).
Still I would buy the newer model until you are cool with updating the router in the future. I have the b/g model right now, and curious how much of a speed difference there is between the two. Both my Macs have n-capable wireless cards.
I'm curious how you set up the two routers to the internet and also controlled which devices use which router.
I'm looking to upgrade to the n speed model to help with EyeTV video streaming, but would be great to attach the Wii to the older Airport Express to avoid network slowdowns since the Wii only connects at b (or g?).
For routers without simultaneous dual-band, the above is true.
The latest Airport Extreme and Time Capsule routers, however, have simultaneous dual-band, which allows G devices to connect without slowing down N devices. Of course, any device sending or receiving to a G-speed device is subject to the G bandwidth limitation, but N-to-N transmission remains at N speeds otherwise.
EDIT: Just checked the latest Airport Express specs, which say nothing about SDB, so I must assume it can't do it.
I wasn't aware of the SDB feature, thanks for pointing that out. Bummer the Airport Express doesn't have that, but not surprising.