I was reading up on the Airport Extreme and like the feature that an external hard drive can be plugged into the router and can be accessed wirelessly. I was wondering if there were any cheaper routers that supported this feature? I just don't really want to spend $175 and a $500 time capsule is just too much money.
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Airport Extreme Alternative?
- Thread starter nortmansdad
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I've been considering the same thing and here's what I've come up with.
Assuming you already have an external hard drive to plug in and really want this feature, then I would just go with the Airport Extreme. I don't know of any other routers that have that functionality. One alternative would be to use an external enclosure that has network functionality -- you plug an Ethernet cable into the hard drive enclosure and the router. You should be able to use just about any router or Ethernet switch with that type of hard drive enclosure.
The problem is that a good NAS (Network Accessible Storage) enclosure will run at least $60 -- maybe more as I haven't priced them all out yet.
Assuming you already have an external hard drive to plug in and really want this feature, then I would just go with the Airport Extreme. I don't know of any other routers that have that functionality. One alternative would be to use an external enclosure that has network functionality -- you plug an Ethernet cable into the hard drive enclosure and the router. You should be able to use just about any router or Ethernet switch with that type of hard drive enclosure.
The problem is that a good NAS (Network Accessible Storage) enclosure will run at least $60 -- maybe more as I haven't priced them all out yet.
Well the Airport Extreme + HD / Time Capsule combination is only way you can use Time Machine on the network; as with a router, the Airport Extreme is a pretty good router for the price.
The only two other routers I've owned that have this network store are the Linksys WRT350N and the WRT600N, both worth looking at. Of course the WRT350N is only about $40 cheaper (More MSRP, but less online); well I just have to put it out there that the WRT600N is the best router money can buy IMHO(as a consumer).
The only two other routers I've owned that have this network store are the Linksys WRT350N and the WRT600N, both worth looking at. Of course the WRT350N is only about $40 cheaper (More MSRP, but less online); well I just have to put it out there that the WRT600N is the best router money can buy IMHO(as a consumer).
I bought a refurb AE and use an external hdd I already owned. Was as cheap as most of the other N routers I found. The printer sharing is a nice feature too, just needs a USB hub to use it at the same time as the external hdd. Sadly, the iPhone apparently isn't 802.11N, must be G, so I can't have it be N only unless I use another device plugged into it through ethernet, which I don't really want to bother with.
