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Airport Extreme Base Station or other?

R

RHutch

macrumors 6502
Original poster
May 21, 2003
311
76
Amsterdam, OH
I apologize for rehashing a topic that has almost certainly been addressed, but I did a search of the forums and was not able to locate something on topic in a reasonable amount of time.

I just got my new 17" PB yesterday and need an 802.11g base station. I initially thought I would just get the AEBS (probably without the modem port or external antenna port), but the cost of $169 (education discount) seems high. I know that the AEBS has gotten good reviews, and I'm sure it and the accompanying software are as elegant as other Apple solutions.

But I saw this
http://www.circuitcity.com/detail.jsp?c=1&b=g&u=c&catoid=-10265&qp=0&oid=73704&m=0

and thought the $100 difference might be worth it.

Does anyone have any objective advice regarding the AEBS vs. the Belkin in the link above or any other wireless router.

My three concerns are: 1) security, 2) range (the range on the AEBS seems fairly limited), and 3) price.

Any advice would be appreciated.
 
Unless you need the ease of use of airport, my advice would be to not buy the airport. I think that they are overpriced and you are paying for ease of use and apple's name. Just my 2 cents.

- reaper
 
d-link has decent routers, ive had several.
the nice thing is they are fully mac-supported, so if you have problems during setup a call to their tech support is easy.
range is....iffy. my ibook gets great range but i will go from my living room to bedroom (about 25 ft in my apartment) and i lose a bar of signal sometimes. but the speed is unaffected.
ive also used a linksys one that gave off a great signal.
security, all routers have firewalls and security keys you can set....get a good firewall for every computer connected too and you'll be golden.
-c
 
I am considering the d-link di-624 wireless router. Does anyone have any experience with this?
 
RHutch said:
I apologize for rehashing a topic that has almost certainly been addressed, but I did a search of the forums and was not able to locate something on topic in a reasonable amount of time.

I just got my new 17" PB yesterday and need an 802.11g base station. I initially thought I would just get the AEBS (probably without the modem port or external antenna port), but the cost of $169 (education discount) seems high. I know that the AEBS has gotten good reviews, and I'm sure it and the accompanying software are as elegant as other Apple solutions.

But I saw this
http://www.circuitcity.com/detail.jsp?c=1&b=g&u=c&catoid=-10265&qp=0&oid=73704&m=0

and thought the $100 difference might be worth it.

Does anyone have any objective advice regarding the AEBS vs. the Belkin in the link above or any other wireless router.

My three concerns are: 1) security, 2) range (the range on the AEBS seems fairly limited), and 3) price.

Any advice would be appreciated.
Click to expand...

You are right to look at alternatives. There's no doubt that the Apple wireless router is the best designed. But I really like the D-Link 624 I bought, and I paid just $107 for it at Best Buy. Now $75 at amazon.com

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t..._1/103-7850724-3051814?v=glance&s=pc&n=507846

It took less than 10 minutes to unwrap, setup and configure, and it supports both my Apple iBook and Dell Dimension with no problems I can think of.

I get a strong signal -- even outside through the brick walls of my house! It's secure with full encryption.
 
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
Only thing I would say (as an owner of an AEBS) is that if you only use a laptop to consider the AEBS for it's USB print server capabilities. Believe me, it is a major pain to have to get up and plug in the USB cable every time you want to print.

If you either:
a. Have a desktop you can hook your printer up to and leave on all the time or
b. Use a networked printer (ie. ethernet)
you definetly don't need an AEBS. However, if the idea of wireless printing intrigues you remember that a wireless print server will cost you another $100 or so. That puts you in the AEBS price range for both pieces of equipment and with an AEBS you will have less equipment, fewer power cables etc.

Just my $0.02.
 
Why is it such a pain to walk over and plug in the USB cable if you're going to have to get up and get what you printed anyway? I just got a mailing today from tigerdirect that has a refurb d-link 802.11b router for 20 bucks after a 10 dollar mail in rebate. I can live with that kind of money if the only thing I'm sacrificing wireless printing and network speed that I would only use for file transfer anyway. The only thing I need to know now is if you can plug in a wireless router after another router.
 
Elbeano said:
Why is it such a pain to walk over and plug in the USB cable if you're going to have to get up and get what you printed anyway? I just got a mailing today from tigerdirect that has a refurb d-link 802.11b router for 20 bucks after a 10 dollar mail in rebate. I can live with that kind of money if the only thing I'm sacrificing wireless printing and network speed that I would only use for file transfer anyway. The only thing I need to know now is if you can plug in a wireless router after another router.
Click to expand...

Yes, you can put a wireless router after another router (or before it). Just connect your ethernet cable from a LAN port on the first router to the WAN port on the second router.
 
aswitcher said:
If you get something else can you come back and tell us how it worked out?
Click to expand...

I purchased a D-Link DI-624 today at Micro Center. After tax and rebate, it will end up costing about $70.

I had no problems with set up or connection. I am using it right now, and everything is wonderful.

The materials claim indoor/outdoor maximum ranges of 300+/1300+ feet, compared to Apple's claim of 150 for the AEBS indoors. This router has 4 ports for wired connections, but has no USB connection for a printer. I have Apple Remote Desktop, so I can print from the desktop connected to my printer by controlling the desktop from my laptop.

I have only been using this for a couple hours now, but I have no complaints. I will post more after I've used this for a while longer.
 
Personally, I like the linksys routers. I've used them since the dark days of 10/100T. Setup for them can't be easier... Step 1 open safari and type in 192.168.0.1 into the address bar when you get connected... step 2 type in admin:admin ... step 3 configure to your liking. All of the setup can be done from a simple web browser.

... on the other hand, one time I saw a linksys router come strait out of a new box and have a programed MAC address different from the one printed on the bottom of it. Of course this isn't a problem, just trust what the setup pages tells you, not what's printed...
 
Scotty476 said:
I am considering the d-link di-624 wireless router. Does anyone have any experience with this?
Click to expand...

yes it very good under two condition.

update the firmware from the site, and update the airport extreme firemware/software. there was a lot of problems with wpa and they seem to be fixed now.
 
question fear said:
d-link has decent routers, ive had several.
the nice thing is they are fully mac-supported, so if you have problems during setup a call to their tech support is easy.
range is....iffy. my ibook gets great range but i will go from my living room to bedroom (about 25 ft in my apartment) and i lose a bar of signal sometimes. but the speed is unaffected.
ive also used a linksys one that gave off a great signal.
security, all routers have firewalls and security keys you can set....get a good firewall for every computer connected too and you'll be golden.
-c
Click to expand...

I have the D-link b router. It was setup under Windoze (my pre Mac days), even under Windoze it was a easy setup. Range is pretty decent in my home
 
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