Airport Extreme - good choice?

[conkerbot]

Hi there,

I've got a dead 26-port PoE Cisco switch sitting on the table beside me. I WAS going to set up a pfSense-based enterprise-grade network for my flat (population: me) when I realised that was a colossal waste of time, electricity, money and effort - the dead-on-arrival kit was the cherry on the top for this decision.

However, I DO hate my ISP's router and want a new one. What I'd like from my router is good performance (AC wifi strongly preferred, but doesn't have to be record breaking), ability to port forward, and for it to remain 100% stable and never drop out/kick devices/need restarted. Other features are welcomed but not necessary - I'd rather stability (and decent wifi-range) over features.

The only thing to note is that I do have a little Lenovo server running Plex, that needs to be port-forwarded (or UPnP which I know the Airport doesn't support). Aside from that it's simply 1x iPad (Air 2), 1x iPhone 6, 1 rMBP, an Xbox One and a few ancillary devices such as my Kindle and TV.

I remember Anandtech praising the previous gen Airport Extreme for being able to have 24/7 uptime with no issues. Is the same true of the current generation? What are peoples experiences of it, and do they have any recommendations for alternative routers in the UK?

Thanks very much for your advice

 

[Altemose]

I remember Anandtech praising the previous gen Airport Extreme for being able to have 24/7 uptime with no issues. Is the same true of the current generation? What are peoples experiences of it, and do they have any recommendations for alternative routers in the UK?

The AirPort supports port forwarding but not uPNP. The current generation has been rock solid in my experience and never gave me any issues.

 

[Ice-Cube]

I have both the Airport Extreme and Asus RT-AC68U. While the airport is very user friendly to setup, the range and strength is not as good as Asus. With the Airport extreme, I had to pair with an Airport Express to cover the whole aparrment.

 

[robgendreau]

Check smallnetbuilder.com.

There are better performing routers, with more features, and that are easier to use. I just chucked my older AEBS for a Netgear r7000. The AEBS was reliable in the sense of it ran fine, but configurations and customizations were always a headache. And the feature set is considerably behind the times. And if you want range, I can't see buying a router without antenna options.

 

[foobarbazqux]

I'd go with a cheaper router and put OpenWRT/DD-WRT on it.