Airport extreme over Asus RT-N56u

[passey]

I currently have an asus RT-N56U router in my network.

I'm slowly moving everything to mac now.

My pc has turned into an imac.

My tablet turned into an ipad4

My HTPC turned into an apple TV.

Is there any benefit / cons of an apple airport extreme over the n56-u?

 

[opinio]

I currently have an asus RT-N56U router in my network.

I'm slowly moving everything to mac now.

My pc has turned into an imac.

My tablet turned into an ipad4

My HTPC turned into an apple TV.

Is there any benefit / cons of an apple airport extreme over the n56-u?

I think you need to get an AirPort Extreme or your asus RT-N56U might turn into a pumpkin

No seriously...

I am not up on the asus so I cannot compare, although I have always thought they produce the best routers.

But in favour for the AE. I have used one for a few years. If you run all Mac/Apple, then it works seamlessly. You can add on AirPort Expresses in any corners of your house to create a complete network and that only take 30 seconds to do.

The AE allows you to plug a USB hub into the back and run multiple USB disks that appear in Finder just like that.

You can run Time Machine onto them as well. I have four Macs that each backup to a separate drive on the AE so when I need to recover I can do it over the network (even in recovery drive) or via the USB direct. It works well with portables like my MacBook Airs because they seamlessly backup where ever they are. This is obviously similar to a NAS but it works seamlessly across Apple products and finder in OSX

The AE has options in the Server App if you use that (i don't)

The AE is controlled via an OSX App that shows all your expresses as well. You can also run that App in iOS from say your iPad.

The Airport Expresses (if you run one or more) have AirPlay as well.

All-in-all I have found it to be bullet proof and in particular with the dual band with OSX.

Whether it is better than the Asus I don't know, but the AE is definitely a solid router from my experience.

 

[passey]

I think you need to get an AirPort Extreme or your asus RT-N56U might turn into a pumpkin

No seriously...

I am not up on the asus so I cannot compare, although I have always thought they produce the best routers.

But in favour for the AE. I have used one for a few years. If you run all Mac/Apple, then it works seamlessly. You can add on AirPort Expresses in any corners of your house to create a complete network and that only take 30 seconds to do.

The AE allows you to plug a USB hub into the back and run multiple USB disks that appear in Finder just like that.

You can run Time Machine onto them as well. I have four Macs that each backup to a separate drive on the AE so when I need to recover I can do it over the network (even in recovery drive) or via the USB direct. It works well with portables like my MacBook Airs because they seamlessly backup where ever they are. This is obviously similar to a NAS but it works seamlessly across Apple products and finder in OSX

The AE has options in the Server App if you use that (i don't)

The AE is controlled via an OSX App that shows all your expresses as well. You can also run that App in iOS from say your iPad.

The Airport Expresses (if you run one or more) have AirPlay as well.

All-in-all I have found it to be bullet proof and in particular with the dual band with OSX.

Whether it is better than the Asus I don't know, but the AE is definitely a solid router from my experience.

This is where I might have a problem very soon.

I've just ordered a 2TB external HDD i want to plug into the Asus and use as networked storage.

Now obviously with the AE it will work easily.

I guess i will find out Friday when it arrives if it will work or not.

Should i format as mac os journled or FAT32?

 

[opinio]

This is where I might have a problem very soon.

I've just ordered a 2TB external HDD i want to plug into the Asus and use as networked storage.

Now obviously with the AE it will work easily.

I guess i will find out Friday when it arrives if it will work or not.

Should i format as mac os journled or FAT32?

On the formatting... In the AE its is obviously journaled (once again seamless across Mac). For the Asus though, from experience it is the Router that controls the required file format, not the OS so I am reasonably sure it will be Windows based. Check the specs though. I would be surprised if it is Mac.

I have had mixed success with router based NAS's on Macs in the past (mostly with LinkSys). I either couldn't get it working or it was hideously slow. The AE version of it is the first I have actually used and relied on.

For your information, I just did a quick BlackMagic test on the AE drives and they write at around 25MB/s and read at 20MB/s give or take. That is not too bad for USB 2.0 (WD 1TB Passports) drives considering they are plugged into the AE and running over WiFi to my MacBook Air where I ran the speed test. Obviously a Gigabit NAS is better (particularly an aggregated Gigabit NAS running at Dual Gigabit) but the AE is a router not a NAS so the NAS part of it is more of a convenient benefit to use for backing up. I wouldn't use it as my primary storage drive. Relatively speaking, for a primary drive it would be very slow compared to a RAID 0 of two 7200rpm drives on USb 3.0. I get 280MB/s on that sort of drive.

Anyway, I hope that helps.

 

[passey]

I might just leave it plugged into my imac then tbh.

Red to get the twelve south backpack then and probably a usb hub asbi have too much plugged in now.

Imacs need more usb less thunder bolt.

I have

Ssd
Printer
Wacom tablet
Phone
And will be 2tb external drive
500gb portable backup to plug into it