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Airport Extreme Frustration Growing

jeffreyfranz

jeffreyfranz

macrumors member
Original poster
May 21, 2012
45
28
California
So, I went with the Airport Extreme over Netgear Nighthawk, Asus, etc., because of the ease of use, easy set-up and so on that has been described in these pages. However, after trying every possible sequence of turning off the modem, and/or the Airport, and going to the Brother site and downloading firmware for my HL-2170W printer, searching these forums, etc., etc., I still can't print over wireless and my SuperDrive neither powers up nor is recognized in the Finder. I could have had this kind of hassle with a third-party router. I paid for a nicer looking but lesser performance router from Apple to avoid these hassles. Jokes on me? Please help if you can. Thanks.:mad:
 
priitv8 said:
Don't know what bogs your printer down, but the SuperDrive (you are talking about Apple's DVD writer, right?) was never supposed to work on AirPort Extreme. As per Apple specs, the USB on APX only supports USB pirinters and HD drives. The latter needs to be formatted in Apple format or FAT16/32.
Click to expand...

WELL, YOU SOLVED IT. Now, I am unable to use my hub for multiple devices, but maybe that is beyond the capacity of APX devices. Thank you for the link, above, Don't know what bogs down your printer, as that led me to the Apple set-up/trouble-shooting page that solved my issue. I do want to be clear on a few points, after having taken up your time:

  1. Airport Set-up: Shouldn't this have been solved by the initial APX set-up, which I completed "successfully" according to Apple's set-up routine?
  2. USB slot on APX: Only one USB connection on this $200 router, and it only works for printers? And it won't/can't drive a simple hub?
  3. What am I missing: Outside of blind allegiance to Apple products, and I admit that I, too, have been guilty of this, why is this router so popular? I am no expert, but it appears to me that we are paying for a very limited, "yesterday's tech" USB 2.0 router in a super pretty case. Feature wise, it looks like a $50 router to me. I guess I'm glad I only paid $129 for refurbished.
  4. Thank you: Thanks again for you helpful post. I had spent embarrassingly many hours over several days not managing to do this on my own. In my world, today, "you da man." :)
 
jeffreyfranz said:
WELL, YOU SOLVED IT. Now, I am unable to use my hub for multiple devices, but maybe that is beyond the capacity of APX devices. Thank you for the link, above, Don't know what bogs down your printer, as that led me to the Apple set-up/trouble-shooting page that solved my issue. I do want to be clear on a few points, after having taken up your time:

  1. Airport Set-up: Shouldn't this have been solved by the initial APX set-up, which I completed "successfully" according to Apple's set-up routine?
  2. USB slot on APX: Only one USB connection on this $200 router, and it only works for printers? And it won't/can't drive a simple hub?
  3. What am I missing: Outside of blind allegiance to Apple products, and I admit that I, too, have been guilty of this, why is this router so popular? I am no expert, but it appears to me that we are paying for a very limited, "yesterday's tech" USB 2.0 router in a super pretty case. Feature wise, it looks like a $50 router to me. I guess I'm glad I only paid $129 for refurbished.
  4. Thank you: Thanks again for you helpful post. I had spent embarrassingly many hours over several days not managing to do this on my own. In my world, today, "you da man." :)
Click to expand...

1. The AirPort Utility configures printers automatically and hard drives in the "Disks" tab.

2. The USB port on an AirPort Extreme is used for both printers and USB hard drives. You can expand this by using a powered USB hub. Bus powered USB hubs are usually the causes of issues in general as USB 2.0 can only put out 500 mA out of memory. Some manufacturers of computers and hardware ship ports that can put out more power.

3. People buy the AirPort for simplicity, reliability, and ease of use. USB 3.0 on a router is usually a gimmick as the chipsets rarely can handle even USB 2.0 speeds. People see the blue USB port and go crazy these days!
 
Altemose said:
2. The USB port on an AirPort Extreme is used for both printers and USB hard drives. You can expand this by using a powered USB hub. Bus powered USB hubs are usually the causes of issues in general as USB 2.0 can only put out 500 mA out of memory. Some manufacturers of computers and hardware ship ports that can put out more power.
Click to expand...
I managed to get away with a cheap unpowered USB hub. I just used the externally powered 3.5" HDD. The printer does not draw 500mA from USB anyway.
As for USB speeds, Altemose is correct, the performance of APX is limited by it's internal CPU power, so no need to use over-specced ports anyway.

When it comes to justifying the price - it is a very solid and dependable wireless router (excellent support for all Apple clients), easy to set up and as a competitive advantage - provides you with Back to my Mac function, that no other router can do.

PS you are welcome to teach me otherwise, but I have yet to see a $50 wireless router, that provides you with simultaneous dual-band radio with 3x3:3 MIMO.
 
Last edited:
priitv8 said:
I managed to get away with a cheap unpowered USB hub. I just used the externally powered 3.5" HDD. The printer does not draw 500mA from USB anyway.
As for USB speeds, Altemose is correct, the performance of APX is limited by it's internal CPU power, so no need to use over-specced ports anyway.
Click to expand...

While a printer will have little to no draw on the USB port, hard drives often do even if they are powered. My rule of thumb is powered USB hub except for devices like multiple printers or total powered peripherals like my USB 1.0 Microsoft SideWinder steering wheel. That works just fine over an unpowered hub due to its full power draw on the external power supply.
 
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