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new Airport Extreme vs Dlink

I have a Dlink 614+ wireless router that has worked really well for many years, EXCEPT with the Macbook we bought last August. The wireless performance is terrible- connection keeps getting dropped, and it is extremely slow in making a connection. For example, when browsing in Safari, the MB stalls when trying to open a page, while my older PowerBook G4 just snaps to the pages. Both are going through the same DLink router. Is this a compatibility issue between the MB and the router, which will be corrected with the new Apple Extreme Wireless router?
 
I don't know what's wrong between your MB and your DLink, but I can't imagine that the new Airport Extreme access point from Apple would leave your MacBook acting like it does now with your DLink. :eek:
 
Few questions.


Soo, there is practically no benefits for normal in/out useage of the net (in this case a 8/2Mb line) compared to the previous airports?
IF there would be some benefits, what would it be? 10-20%?
In the work we have a older airport extreme,and the max output that i have achieved is aroun 300-400kb/sec.. Wich is really crappy.
We have bee trying to up it,but nooo..

What about the computer-to-computer connections or comp-router-comp connections, are there any expected benefits?
I have a lot of files needed to transfer between intel-intel and powpc-intel setups in the enviroment,and no cabling is possible.
Could the N give some benefits there?

Anyone?

:apple:

I guarantee the BIGGEST boost for the N router is between Macs running N airport / generic 802.11n cards.. It's not gonna boost your connection speed to the net.. not unless you have multiple Macs and a fiber optic connection, only then would you see any benefits on the WAN side. The big benefit is that your Apple TV and your Macs can now stream video at greater than playback speed which allows for seemless viewing of content from any system running iTunes on your HDTV (or any TV). Secondarily, you now have an easy to use backup drive accessible to any networked Mac, wirelessly (will be a big plus when Leopard comes with Time Machine). Thirdly, Mac to Mac networking should speed up to sub-Gigabit speeds thanks to MIMO technology.. each Mac can simultaneously send/recieve 200-300 Mbps at the same time, allowing file transfers to finally exceed the speed of most wired networks).
 
I have a Dlink 614+ wireless router that has worked really well for many years, EXCEPT with the Macbook we bought last August. The wireless performance is terrible- connection keeps getting dropped, and it is extremely slow in making a connection. For example, when browsing in Safari, the MB stalls when trying to open a page, while my older PowerBook G4 just snaps to the pages. Both are going through the same DLink router. Is this a compatibility issue between the MB and the router, which will be corrected with the new Apple Extreme Wireless router?

Did you run the recent Intel Airport updater from Software Update? This was specifically for Intel systems. I've always run a genuine Airport 802.11g here, so it really didn't affect my MacBook's performance as it has always been as good as any of the PPC systems here.
 
After ordering on 28-Jan, I received the following message tonight:

"To Our Valued Apple Customer: Apple today began shipping our new AirPort Extreme Base Station (802.11n). We are delighted to tell you that we plan to ship your AirPort Extreme Base Station (802.11n) two weeks earlier than we had anticipated. We now plan to ship your product on or before Wednesday, February 14. No action on your part is required."

I got an email similar to that once (I bought a new iPod 5.5G within 10 minutes of the store coming back online after the keynote). The ship time at that point wasn't extremely quick (maybe a week?), but I got notification that since I ordered mine so quickly, it would be shipped within 24 hours.

6 days later, I got the email notifying me that FedEx had it in their hands...
 
What's the value of the unlock? $1.99? ;)

I don't honestly believe that there is gigabit hardware in the new Airport router. If there was, there is no point in crippling it, especially when having it enabled makes your solution more competitive against products in a similar price range.

In the case of the n-hardware in the C2D line, it does make sense to disable the n, since Apple didn't have any access point hardware for it, and draft-n still has lots of fun issues when using hardware from different vendors. In this case, I found that even if you have the exact same chipset in both devices, the drivers/software above it can still make them incompatible. It would be a /horrible/ experience to enable the n-hardware at a time where there was no actual n router that would work with it.
 
FYI, I just pickup the NEW Apple AirPort Extreme 802.11n at Apple Store @ Millenia Mall, Orlando FL.
It's up and running.....
 
Apple is way ahead of schedule! I was originally informed my airport would ship at the end of this month... Then I received a message from apple like many of you saying it would ship early... I was told the 14th... WELL! I just now received another message saying it was shipped like 5 mins ago... I'll have it by tomorrow apparently... Yay for overnight shipping!
 
FYI, I just pickup the NEW Apple AirPort Extreme 802.11n at Apple Store @ Millenia Mall, Orlando FL.
It's up and running.....

How is file sharing working out for you? I read a few posts saying how the whole thing is all real dodgey so I am feeling rather jittery about getting another lemon! :(
 
what sort of speeds are you getting between your Macbook/Pro w/ N and your Airport Extreme?

w/ my D-Link DIR-655, which uses the exact same Atheros chipset as my MacBook, i link up at 144 according to OS X's network utility, and my speed ranges from 103-130 when i check my D-Link's admin page?
 
what sort of speeds are you getting between your Macbook/Pro w/ N and your Airport Extreme?

w/ my D-Link DIR-655, which uses the exact same Atheros chipset as my MacBook, i link up at 144 according to OS X's network utility, and my speed ranges from 103-130 when i check my D-Link's admin page?

I get linked at 144Mbit on the Extreme as well (you have to configure it for wide-band mode to get full speed, which excludes g/b clients). However, in my case, I also saw this:

D-Link speeds: ISP - 12Mbit download, 25Kbit upload (supposed to be 386Kbit, but the D-Link will eventually 'catch up' to the proper speed if I try uploading a file for more than a couple minutes... iDisk is worthless on this)... Network - 100-140Mbit download, 4Mbit upload. I returned it, obviously.

Apple speeds: ISP - 10Mbit download, 360Kbit upload... Network - 100-140Mbit download, 100-140Mbit upload. I have setup a 5Ghz n-only network and still get about 100Mbit to my wired clients, for obvious reasons, but the link itself is 280-300Mbit.

(Note: These are actual transfer speeds, rather than what is reported by a tools that try to report what the link speed is)
 
I get linked at 144Mbit on the Extreme as well (you have to configure it for wide-band mode to get full speed, which excludes g/b clients). However, in my case, I also saw this:

D-Link speeds: ISP - 12Mbit download, 25Kbit upload (supposed to be 386Kbit, but the D-Link will eventually 'catch up' to the proper speed if I try uploading a file for more than a couple minutes... iDisk is worthless on this)... Network - 100-140Mbit download, 4Mbit upload. I returned it, obviously.

Apple speeds: ISP - 10Mbit download, 360Kbit upload... Network - 100-140Mbit download, 100-140Mbit upload. I have setup a 5Ghz n-only network and still get about 100Mbit to my wired clients, for obvious reasons, but the link itself is 280-300Mbit.

(Note: These are actual transfer speeds, rather than what is reported by a tools that try to report what the link speed is)

interesting... mine definitely transfers closer to 100 mbit on the upload. did you upgrade to the latest 1.02 firmware?

i'll hold off before i start panicking, because it's certainly faster than my linksys G router, and the range is better. hopefully it will improve with apple & d-link firmware updates
 
How are you figuring out your upload/download speed?

For ISP links, I use speedtest.net, followed by a timed test of copying a 50MB file to iDisk, or vice versa, to make sure that speedtest's results are accurate.

For the local network, I use an Infrant ReadyNAS and my Mac Pro, doing a timed test on a 600MB file... It gets pretty obvious when your rate drops really low (4Mbit/sec is about 500KB/sec).
 
interesting... mine definitely transfers closer to 100 mbit on the upload. did you upgrade to the latest 1.02 firmware?

i'll hold off before i start panicking, because it's certainly faster than my linksys G router, and the range is better. hopefully it will improve with apple & d-link firmware updates

It was on the latest firmware out of the box, and it was just really annoying to see such crappy upload. It affected all clients to the router, wired and wireless, so it wasn't an 802.11n issue.
 
I'm confused about what the new Extreme is showing for rates for the clients connected to it (in the picture below).

The first two clients are older Airports (802.11g) connected via WDS and are bridging for TiVos. Make sense that their rate is 54, if the 54 indicates 54mbps (which is what 802.11g is).

The third client is my roommate's Dell laptop, connected at 802.11n

The last two clients are two MacBook Pros, also connected at 802.11n

What I don't understand is why the rate for the Dell laptop is so high. Can it really be connected at 270mpbs, or am I reading this whole rate thing incorrectly?
 

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I'm confused about what the new Extreme is showing for rates for the clients connected to it (in the picture below).

The first two clients are older Airports (802.11g) connected via WDS and are bridging for TiVos. Make sense that their rate is 54, if the 54 indicates 54mbps (which is what 802.11g is).

The third client is my roommate's Dell laptop, connected at 802.11n

The last two clients are two MacBook Pros, also connected at 802.11n

What I don't understand is why the rate for the Dell laptop is so high. Can it really be connected at 270mpbs, or am I reading this whole rate thing incorrectly?

Are you sure the 2 MBP's have the .n enabler installed on their laptops? And what version OS X are they running and dumb question.Are they Core 2 Duo's?
 
I'm confused about what the new Extreme is showing for rates for the clients connected to it (in the picture below).

The first two clients are older Airports (802.11g) connected via WDS and are bridging for TiVos. Make sense that their rate is 54, if the 54 indicates 54mbps (which is what 802.11g is).

The third client is my roommate's Dell laptop, connected at 802.11n

The last two clients are two MacBook Pros, also connected at 802.11n

What I don't understand is why the rate for the Dell laptop is so high. Can it really be connected at 270mpbs, or am I reading this whole rate thing incorrectly?

802.11n supports up to 300Mbps, although it needs to span two channels to do it (usually). I am not sure why the Apple clients are actually not connected at the same speed. :/
 
I'm confused about what the new Extreme is showing for rates for the clients connected to it (in the picture below).

The first two clients are older Airports (802.11g) connected via WDS and are bridging for TiVos. Make sense that their rate is 54, if the 54 indicates 54mbps (which is what 802.11g is).

The third client is my roommate's Dell laptop, connected at 802.11n

The last two clients are two MacBook Pros, also connected at 802.11n

What I don't understand is why the rate for the Dell laptop is so high. Can it really be connected at 270mpbs, or am I reading this whole rate thing incorrectly?

Your interpretation looks right to me. The Dell has the best reception and seems to be getting the highest transfer. Or the software is reading the Dell differently because the standards are different.

Your only true way of knowing is to move some large files and see how fast they move.

By the way can the software detect and show other interferance and un attached networks.
 
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