Airport Extreme longevity?

[lanceh5]

I was wondering what others have experience with Airport Extreme longevity? My first AE was purchased about 2008 not exactly sure, it has the power brick built into the power cord and 2.4 Ghz WiFi speed. This has been continuously in use since it was purchased. Today the WiFi quit but the ethernet ports are working. So I can not use the iPad or Macbook but an iMac and Mac Pro connected by cat5e cable work fine.

In June 2012, I bought a new AE that had the dual band WiFi. This new AE replaced the old AE and used the old AE to extend the WiFi network. The new AE lasted just over a year when the internal power supply failed.

Tonight I ordered a new AE. The third one in 6 years. What have others experienced with Airport Extreme?

 

[Altemose]

I was wondering what others have experience with Airport Extreme longevity? My first AE was purchased about 2008 not exactly sure, it has the power brick built into the power cord and 2.4 Ghz WiFi speed. This has been continuously in use since it was purchased. Today the WiFi quit but the ethernet ports are working. So I can not use the iPad or Macbook but an iMac and Mac Pro connected by cat5e cable work fine.

In June 2012, I bought a new AE that had the dual band WiFi. This new AE replaced the old AE and used the old AE to extend the WiFi network. The new AE lasted just over a year when the internal power supply failed.

Tonight I ordered a new AE. The third one in 6 years. What have others experienced with Airport Extreme?

Mine have all been fantastic both at home and at school. We had one failure due to a power surge (not the fault of the AirPort) and one failed antenna (would not get to full transmit rate). We are currently using a sixth generation Extreme at home and a sixth generation Extreme as the controller/router for the network at school. We have 12 AirPort Expresses at school connected via Ethernet as APs which supports 150+ clients.

 

[PsyOpWarlord]

I have a 4th Gen and the new 6th Gen Airport Extremes. I also have a 3rd Gen Airport Express. All have been working great.

The only issue I had, which was not Apples fault, was a lightning strike took out one of the ethernet ports on the 4th Gen to where that port would only work at 10/100 speeds and not gigabit.

 

[BrettApple]

At home we have a 3rd/4th gen that's been through three houses and we've had it since 2009. I think it's the same one, but I know we went through at least 2 or 3 before it from lightning strikes when we had a big tower on top of the house (no cable out where we were). So it may be a replacement 4/5th gen by now.

Either way, we've had them since 2009 and none have gone out by themselves. The one in our current house has been there since early 2011 and has operated 24/7 since. Never a problem.

At my place of work we have, um, 15 or so AirPorts. Most are express units extending the network, but a few are Extreme units. Not all are on this particular map, but this is the main setup. Some are used for AirPlay or on their own media network in the auditorium.

 

[SusanK]

Airport Extreme A1034

I bought this AE in 2007. It works flawlessly.

If you wireless failed maybe you can replace the Airport card to get it working again.

 

[campyguy]

At my current home office I've got a 4th Gen AE without wireless enabled purchased in 2009 that's serving as a router, serving a 6th Gen AE that has wireless enabled to several AC-capable devices.

The older AE survived a transformer surge when the grounding leg went out - the transformer is just outside the home office. The surge fried several electronics, including my beloved Fissler induction tabletop (a glorified hot plate) - all replaced by the utility. The 4th Gen AE just shrugged it off and it working great as an easy-to-configure router - my IT guy just loves AEs and he says they're "stupid easy" to use.

My only wish for AEs is that I wish Apple would have updated the latest version with USB 3. I'll buy another AE when the need arises.

 

[brentmore]

I just retired a 5th gen Airport Extreme that I've been using since it came out. It's served as the main router/AP and AP-only in my setup. It was a tough decision because it still works wonderfully, but I recently picked up Ubiquiti Unifi to replace it.

 

[Velin]

Had a 2007 AE that operated flawlessly, until I upgraded to the latest AE, which also is operating flawlessly. In my opinion, this is excellent reliability, eight years of flawless operation.

Apple's wifi routers have been and continue to be the best I've ever used. Before Apple, I had Cisco and Netgear routers, and they generally failed after a couple years, usually by dropping signals. They also were cheaply built and signal dispersion was poor.

I'd stick with the Airport Extreme, it seems perhaps you had a bad patch. Hopefully your latest will last a decade.

 

[gwerhart0800]

I had a similar thing happen to me last year. The wifi would periodically lock up for 15 seconds to 2 minutes. Really annoying when you are working from home and on lots of video conferences. The AE I had was the first version that was dual band. I replaced it with the current generation.

In my experience, home wifi routers seem to have 2-3 year life spans. (Or less in the case of Buffalo products.) I have been through lots of D-link, Buffalo, NetGear, etc, products and so far, Apple seems to be toward the top in terms of reliability and longevity.

(The old router is going to a take-apart day at my local makerspace. It may not be as exciting to disassemble as a old PC or printer, but the kids will still get a kick out of it.)

 

[S.B.G]

I have a 2nd Generation AEBS and bought it when Wireless 'N' was still in draft status. It's been in use since I first bought it and it's been probably the most rock solid piece of tech I own. It's never given me a problem and has always worked. I know it won't last forever, but it's exceeded my expectations and has outlasted several Linksys's routers I've used at other places.

I've thought about buying a new one a few times, but it meets all my needs and is still working so I couldn't justify the price of getting a new one.