AirPort Extreme vs. Linksys EA 3500???

[Apple Fan 21]

I just upgraded our wireless network w/ a Motorola Sure Board modem linked to a Linksys EA 3500. My IT friends (both Apple fans) talked me into the Linksys instead of the Airport Extreme. Setting up the Linksys wasn’t too hard or too easy but it’s done. Only concern was I was only getting 1.5 Mbps on my iPad while I was uploading a 4 GB iMovie to YouTube on my hardwired iMac. I am paying for 20 Mbps service through Comcast and was getting 25 Mbps when not uploading. Thinking of taking the Linksys back and getting a Airport Extreme. I have read that the Linksys will quit working after a few weeks and Cisco tech support sucks. I am concerned that the Airport Extreme was released in June 2011 so it probable will get updated next year. Thoughts?

 

[Apple Fan 21]

Anyone???..............

 

[waw74]

upload and download speeds will be different, the 20 Mb/s is for the download, you will have to see what Comcast says for upload but 1.5 is about what i would expect.
and as you noted, if you are maxing out your upload, the download will be affected.

also if you notice all of the speeds posted say "up to xxMb/s" so if it's slower they are covered.

i've been running a linksys e4200 for a year or more, it's rock solid. I don't have an extreme, but from basic comments i've seen on the forums, you should listen to you IT friends.

 

[Mactabulous]

i've been running a linksys e4200 for a year or more, it's rock solid.

My E4200 was so solid it committed harakiri before the end of a full year after purchase. I replaced it with an Airport Express. Never been happier.

 

[Apple Fan 21]

Well I ordered a AirPort Extreme from the Apple store that should be here today. Going to take the Linksys back. Hope I made the right choice. The Linksys wad worked fine since having it, just concerned about longevity. Anyone know if the AirPort Utility App for iOS has the ability to remotely monitor your network??

 

[Primejimbo]

+1 in the Apple AE

BUT did you hard wire the computer to the modem to see what the speeds were? If you still got bad speeds, it could be the modem or Comcast, if your speeds improved (20mbps) then it could be the router.

 

[Apple Fan 21]

+1 in the Apple AE

BUT did you hard wire the computer to the modem to see what the speeds were? If you still got bad speeds, it could be the modem or Comcast, if your speeds improved (20mbps) then it could be the router.

My iMac was/is wired.

 

[Primejimbo]

My iMac was/is wired.

To the modem or the router?

 

[Apple Fan 21]

To the router.

 

[Primejimbo]

To the router.

ok, my point. I would go hard wire to the modem to be sure. That's what I was saying on my post to try this. I seen this too many times and just break it down and see if it is the modem or the router.

 

[araje]

Glad I saw this thread. It inspired me to write.
I was on ea3500 for about 3 weeks. I tried to upgrade the firmware to Cisco cloud connect and it failed. Had to reset and try again. It worked well after that but the additional features such as NAS drives and all were painfully slow. It took a great deal to make them visible on mac. Also they don't get recognized by Time machine so you can't just leave it to auto backup.

A few days back I bought my friend's airport extreme to give it a shot. It was just very simple and straightforward. My office windows 7 easily recognizes the drives, time machine auto backs up and as a bonus my Galaxy S3 flawlessly connects to the NAS drives as well. It all did it by itself mostly. The only thing I have configured is my ssid, passwords for my NAS flash drives and finally just enabled 5ghz band. Everything else just fell in place. 5ghz band is more faster and connections over and between my home network are cool. My 5-6GB time machine backup gets done with 1 or 2mins but most importantly I don't have to wait to disconnect the drives or anything like that. They just keep happening by themselves. If I stop in between or shutoff the mac they just resume when I start.
No issues.

So I just enjoyed this experience and ordered myself an airport extreme. No I am not an apple fan and actually hate Iphone. But I like this experience a lot.

However I found the range of ea3500 better compared to apple extreme. But that's in test mode checking at places I would never be while working. So it doesn't matter.

Hope this helps.
Anup