airport express...

[Kristofer]

Just wondering... As far as connection goes,is airport express, http://www.apple.com/airportexpress/ , just something that will extend your router's range, or does it work as a router? I know the Apple Base Station is a router, but I can't figure out if airport express is used the same way...?
I want something to replace my crappy linksys router, and I was planning on getting an apple base station, however Airport Express is so much cheaper... I don't know what the difference is, exactly... Help?

 

[sharkness]

yes

yes, it is a router also. i have one in my home and it works great!

 

[iSaint]

yes, it is a router also. i have one in my home and it works great!

Me, too! I print wirelessly, and play music wirelessly as well!

 

[psycoswimmer]

I have one and it's great.

& you can do what iSaint said.

 

[mkrishnan]

The only limitation is that it only has one wired port. So if you are using it as your primary router, that port will go to your cable or DSL modem, and you will not be able to plug in any wired devices. But yeah, Apple's routers are fabulous. I love my Airport Extreme Basestation to pieces. Flawlessly, bullet-proofly reliable for almost four years now.

 

[Kristofer]

The only limitation is that it only has one wired port. So if you are using it as your primary router, that port will go to your cable or DSL modem, and you will not be able to plug in any wired devices. But yeah, Apple's routers are fabulous. I love my Airport Extreme Basestation to pieces. Flawlessly, bullet-proofly reliable for almost four years now.

I have a PC that would need to be "wirefull" (lol), and then my macbook which is wireless of course, and my father would be running a laptop as well, which is also wireless. So I guess the airport express would be perfect, right? Since I only need my desktop PC plugged into it?
I am interested to know what the difference between this and the Apple Base station is then... Range? Speed?

 

[aristobrat]

Edit: everything I was going to say was said above .. I was just slow to post. heh

I love my Airports. I have two Extremes and one Express and they all are awesome.

 

[mkrishnan]

I have a PC that would need to be "wirefull" (lol), and then my macbook which is wireless of course, and my father would be running a laptop as well, which is also wireless. So I guess the airport express would be perfect, right? Since I only need my desktop PC plugged into it?
I am interested to know what the difference between this and the Apple Base station is then... Range? Speed?

Erm... no, not exactly... there's no simple or elegant way you can do this with just the Airport Express. It only has *one* ethernet port TOTAL, including the one that you're using to connect it to the internet.

You could...

(1) Connect the modem directly to the PC, and then share through the PC's ethernet card (but basically only if either you can connect the modem to the computer by USB or the PC has two ethernet ports). The PC would have to be on all the time to be able to do this... I really wouldn't recommend using a several $100s PC to replace a $20 router.

(2) You can use a wired router in conjunction with the airport express...including the one you've got. You plug the wired router into the modem and then you plug the airport express into one of the wired router's LAN ports

(3) You can use another router that has LAN ports (Airport Extreme Basestation, Linksys, Netgear, etc).

In terms of differences between the AEBS and the Express, assuming you're talking about the new AEBS (802.11n):

- AEBS is faster (even with 802.11g clients, because of MIMO) and longer range (802.11n clients only)
- AEBS can support both hard drives and printers on the USB port; only one printer on the Express.
- Express can stream music but not video; AEBS cannot stream anything.
- AEBS has three lan ports; the Express has none.

Compared to the old AEBS (the one that looks like a mushroom top or a UFO), the old AEBS can handle more clients, has one LAN port, and cannot stream anything.

What Linksys do you have? Is it a WRT54G, or is it a wired one? What's wrong with it? Their routers are generally excellent.

 

[Kristofer]

Erm... no, not exactly... there's no simple or elegant way you can do this with just the Airport Express. It only has *one* ethernet port TOTAL, including the one that you're using to connect it to the internet.

You could...

(1) Connect the modem directly to the PC, and then share through the PC's ethernet card (but basically only if either you can connect the modem to the computer by USB or the PC has two ethernet ports). The PC would have to be on all the time to be able to do this... I really wouldn't recommend using a several $100s PC to replace a $20 router.

(2) You can use a wired router in conjunction with the airport express...including the one you've got. You plug the wired router into the modem and then you plug the airport express into one of the wired router's LAN ports

(3) You can use another router that has LAN ports (Airport Extreme Basestation, Linksys, Netgear, etc).

In terms of differences between the AEBS and the Express, assuming you're talking about the new AEBS (802.11n):

- AEBS is faster (even with 802.11g clients, because of MIMO) and longer range (802.11n clients only)
- AEBS can support both hard drives and printers on the USB port; only one printer on the Express.
- Express can stream music but not video; AEBS cannot stream anything.
- AEBS has three lan ports; the Express has none.

Compared to the old AEBS (the one that looks like a mushroom top or a UFO), the old AEBS can handle more clients, has one LAN port, and cannot stream anything.

What Linksys do you have? Is it a WRT54G, or is it a wired one? What's wrong with it? Their routers are generally excellent.

Yep, it's a WRT54G, and it's horrible. I've reset, installed firmware twice, and reset some more. First I would lose connection on my Macbook and now I lose connection everywhere, on my mac and PC and my dad's laptop. I have to do a quick reset to kick it back to life, OR, if I want a stable connection, I always need to be seeding a torrent. If I'm not seeding, the connection invariably goes out. I have a big thread on it elsewhere but all the help people have offered didn't result in anything, sadly. So I figure it's time to switch routers.