AirPort Extreme experience

D

dwd3885

macrumors 68020
I am in need of a new router for my setup and I have came down to either the AirPort Extreme Base Station or the D-Link Extreme. Both routers are dual band, both have usb port for hard drive sharing. Both seem the same in all regards.

The D-Link is $99, the Apple is $179. I do plan on using a $50 BB gift card though towards the purchase.

My problem is with my netgear originally. Seems like they always crap out after 2-3 years. I was hoping I could get one of these routers and they would last longer than that, at least, not break down.

Currently, my MacBook Pro is the only thing that struggles on the netgear setup. It seems to stall on loading webpages after a while and it's not the DNS because I'm using Open DNS. But all the Windows machines run fine.

Anyway, I'm wondering which one of these would be best to get? I have one Windows laptop (802.11g), one Windows desktop (802.11n), one MacBook Pro (802.11n), one PS3 (802.11g), and an iPhone (802.11g).

Thanks for any advice.

http://www.amazon.com/D-Link-DIR-655-Extreme-Wireless-Router/dp/B000LIFB7S

http://www.amazon.com/Apple-MB763LL...2?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1237593306&sr=1-2
 
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dwd3885 said:
I am in need of a new router for my setup and I have came down to either the AirPort Extreme Base Station or the D-Link Extreme. Both routers are dual band, both have usb port for hard drive sharing. Both seem the same in all regards.

The D-Link is $99, the Apple is $179. I do plan on using a $50 BB gift card though towards the purchase.

My problem is with my netgear originally. Seems like they always crap out after 2-3 years. I was hoping I could get one of these routers and they would last longer than that, at least, not break down.

Currently, my MacBook Pro is the only thing that struggles on the netgear setup. It seems to stall on loading webpages after a while and it's not the DNS because I'm using Open DNS. But all the Windows machines run fine.

Anyway, I'm wondering which one of these would be best to get? I have one Windows laptop (802.11g), one Windows desktop (802.11n), one MacBook Pro (802.11n), one PS3 (802.11g), and an iPhone (802.11g).

Thanks for any advice.

http://www.amazon.com/D-Link-DIR-655-Extreme-Wireless-Router/dp/B000LIFB7S

http://www.amazon.com/Apple-MB763LL...2?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1237593306&sr=1-2
Click to expand...


I have no experience with the airport extreme, but I do own a D-link dir-655 Extreme. I'm pretty sure the dir-655 is not a dual band one, but in any case it works well in my house with four apple computers using it. Basic set-up was easy and took less then 7 minutes. I think its a better deal the then airport extreme and does a comparable job at the same time. If you have the BB gift card, I would just do it, if you find some glaring errors within the first week, take it back, but its been pretty solid in my house. Just remember to install the new firmware when you get it. The one that I bought had the older firmware on it and felt like a 56k modem when using the internet, but after downloading and installing the new stuff its been pretty fast.

Take the $79 saved and buy something else you need.
 
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York-Diuck said:
I have no experience with the airport extreme, but I do own a D-link dir-655 Extreme. I'm pretty sure the dir-655 is not a dual band one, but in any case it works well in my house with four apple computers using it. Basic set-up was easy and took less then 7 minutes. I think its a better deal the then airport extreme and does a comparable job at the same time. If you have the BB gift card, I would just do it, if you find some glaring errors within the first week, take it back, but its been pretty solid in my house. Just remember to install the new firmware when you get it. The one that I bought had the older firmware on it and felt like a 56k modem when using the internet, but after downloading and installing the new stuff its been pretty fast.

Take the $79 saved and buy something else you need.
Click to expand...

my mistake, you are right, the 655 is not dual band. Everything else is the same though. Thanks for your input. The D-Link would be $50 and the AirPort would be $129
 
*UPDATE*

I bought the AirPort Extreme. I wanted dual band simultaneous and it was the best deal.

Thanks for anyone, well, just York, who had any input. I guess the AirPort Extreme is not a popular product.
 
dwd3885 said:
*UPDATE*

I bought the AirPort Extreme. I wanted dual band simultaneous and it was the best deal.

Thanks for anyone, well, just York, who had any input. I guess the AirPort Extreme is not a popular product.
Click to expand...

Glad to hear it all worked out. I'm sure you'll be pleased with the results. :)
 
dwd3885 said:
*UPDATE*

I bought the AirPort Extreme. I wanted dual band simultaneous and it was the best deal.

Thanks for anyone, well, just York, who had any input. I guess the AirPort Extreme is not a popular product.
Click to expand...

....how do you like it?

I've been waiting for our base PX to start carrying them so I can replace my old Linksys G router with the dual band AEBS...
 
J&JPolangin said:
....how do you like it?

I've been waiting for our base PX to start carrying them so I can replace my old Linksys G router with the dual band AEBS...
Click to expand...

It is great so far. Happy with my decision. The 5ghz speeds are really fast and I love that I can plug in my external hard drive and use it as a drive on my laptop and desktop. Setup was a breeze with the AirPort Utility. It's well worth the money so far anyway.
 
I am going to turn this thread around since I did purchase the new AirPort Extreme dual band router and let you guys know about my experiences with the router. I've only had it for three days now, but it has been a pretty good experience overall.

Prior to purchasing this, I had used two netgears and a linksys router that always seemed to go bad after about a year or so, with network setup rather tricky. But getting the AirPort Extreme changed all of that. I plugged in the router and within 10 minutes my network was setup with a 2.4 GHz 802.11a/b/g/n network and a 5 GHz network.

My MacBook Pro uses the 5 GHz Wireless N network and my HP dv2000, Dell 530 Quad with Wireless-N adapter, Playstation 3 and iPhone all connect to the 2.4 GHz network. With the Dell connecting to the 802.11n network and the rest connect to the 2.4 GHz network.

I live in an apartment complex and haven't experienced any interference or any disconnections whatsoever. The networking has been flawless.

I have a 250gb hard drive connected to the APE's usb port and my MBP saw the drive right away and it's connected. You have to either install AirPort Utility or map the network drive manually. I chose to install the utility and once installation was complete, the drive was found on my Dell. I can stream my 1080p movie trailers and other videos without a hitch.

I setup a guest network, but really have no use for it now and I do not have a printer connected, but could via a hub.

It's been a great experience so far. I haven't experienced any disconnections, any lags on any device and the AirPort Extreme is just great so far.

I would give it a 9/10.
 
So I've had the AirPort Extreme Base Station for nearly two months now. Everything is still working flawlessly. Just wanted to update those who might be in need of a new wireless router. The dual-band performance works great for my network and the shared disk features also work on my Windows 7 machine.

Still is the best wireless-n router in my mind.
 
J&JPolangin said:
...great, thanks for the update...our base PX doesn't expect to get them in for at least 3 more weeks...:mad:
Click to expand...

dwd3885 said:
So I've had the AirPort Extreme Base Station for nearly two months now. Everything is still working flawlessly. Just wanted to update those who might be in need of a new wireless router. The dual-band performance works great for my network and the shared disk features also work on my Windows 7 machine.

Still is the best wireless-n router in my mind.
Click to expand...

...I've had mine for 2 weeks now and its fantastic...all the G devices run great and all the N devices run even better... the guest network is also a plus, I'd recommend spending the $$ for it:D
 
J&JPolangin said:
...I've had mine for 2 weeks now and its fantastic...all the G devices run great and all the N devices run even better... the guest network is also a plus, I'd recommend spending the $$ for it:D
Click to expand...

There are some things that I don't like about Apple, but this is one of those products that make me love Apple.
 
Palliser said:
This is an older thread but I just bought the MB763LL/A Airport Extreme, it works great!
Click to expand...

After about 7 months with my AirPort Extreme, it's still working great. Started connecting an external hdd to it and use it as a Time Machine backup with my MacBook Pro.
 
Yeah same here, everything is working well. I have a 5 port USB hub connected to it, and time machine works excellent. I'm still trying to get my PC to print through the USB printer I have though, I realized I need to install Bonjour, will do that later tonight probably. The unit does run a bit warm, but overall a very noticible speed increase from my old Linksys 54g router.
 
I'm still super happy with my SDB AEBS also!

And I'm glad they don't have the issues at 18 months that the time capsules have...
 
I thought I was running an AEBS for the last 6 weeks. When I went down to clean the cellar I realized I had the linksys connected.

AEBS connected the Extreme back up, no difference in network performance.
 
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