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Airport Extreme - Worth the Apple premium?

J

jipp0

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 3, 2010
10
1
Finland
Hey guys,

I am leaning towards buying the Airport Extreme (costs 217$USD here) since my old D-Link is toast. Is this a good deal or should I go for a different wireless router? It will be used by Six computers (all Macs) and I have a feeling that this would be the right choice for me. What do you guys think, in terms of personal experience? I have read tons of reviews, which all seem to vary a lot. Feel free to contribute!
 
It is the way to go for me because it has always been the easiest way to plug in a printer and print from both a mac and PC. It's also one that people can use if they're at my house and need to actually print from their laptop.
 
I don't think it's worth it. You can print wirelessly from pretty much every wireless router these days. Are you planning on hardwiring any of the machines? The AEBS only has 3 ethernet ports while most competing routers have 4.

The AEBS is good for people who want to plug it in and not worry about it. For advanced features like QoS you should look elsewhere.
 
miles01110 said:
I don't think it's worth it. You can print wirelessly from pretty much every wireless router these days. Are you planning on hardwiring any of the machines? The AEBS only has 3 ethernet ports while most competing routers have 4.

The AEBS is good for people who want to plug it in and not worry about it. For advanced features like QoS you should look elsewhere.
Click to expand...


Thanks for the information. Printing is not a huge issue for me, but DL speed and consistency is key for me. Three is enough for me, since this will be only one of many to come.

What router would you recommend for the same price as the airport extreme?
 
If you are in an all or mostly Mac environment as you mentioned then I can highly recommend the Airport Extreme. I've had problems big and small with all my routers and most recently with a new Netgear WNDR3700 dual band. Devices often wouldn't connect and my Apple TV would take at least 30 seconds to connect again and often forgot the network password. Needless to say very frustrating and the Netgear was not a cheap router.

On a whim I decided to try the Airport Extreme. It has literally been running flawlessly for almost a month now. Everything connects perfectly and my Apple TV works great again. Another unexpected bonus, the Extreme wakes up my wireless Lexmark printer from standby mode automatically for print jobs. The previous Netgear router would simply return a "communications error" unless I physically woke up the printer with the power button.

The Extreme also has the ability to send a wake up command to your Mac's when requested. My new Apple TV 2 now wakes up my iMac when requested for home sharing my music. Sweet.

Extreme is also simultaneous dual radio so you can keep all your fast traffic on the 5.0ghz band and then let slower devices share the 2.4ghz band so they don't slow down your faster wireless stuff. My ATV2, iMac and iPad all share the 5.0ghz band exclusively. PC's, PS3, Wii, Netbook and iPhones all connect to the 2.4ghz radio. Lack of hard ports on the Extreme is not an issue either as you can simply add a cheap gigabit ethernet switch to the router to expand the ports.

Your mileage may vary of course but for me, the Extreme has solved all my wireless issues 100% and I'm sold. Cheers!

James
 
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There's another thread going on here about this. Starts in July, but got picked up again last week.

I just got one from the Refurb store and it was over $50 off the retail price. So far I love it and with it's easy set up, connectivity and features, I have to say it was well worth the price.
 
I'd highly recommend it. I've had nothing but problems with other routers, netgear, linksys, etc. . . dropping connections, constant resets, or would just not power on anymore. I tried the AEBS as a last resort and it has worked flawlessly from day one. It is used in a mixed Mac / Windows environment.

The only thing I wish it had was Firewire800.
 
Love mine. Had a Netgear router before this one and that thing drove me nuts trying to set up. The Apple router is made for people like me. SUPER easy to set up and reconfigure when you need to. Love it!!!:)
 
i have two Airport Extremes. one is about 1.5 years old, and the other about 3 years old. i have never once encountered a problem with them. you just "set it, and forget it". setup is so easy to navigate and manage. they have worked flawlessly, and i will probably by two more when these die.

i use to buy Linksys and D-Link routers, but always ran into some issue, and the setup was always confusing. i'm sure its not like that for everyone. my Airport Extremes have been incredible, especially if your connecting them to Macs. their software and/or firmware updates come through the OSX Software Update as well. to me, they are definitely worth the premium.

also, if you buy a Mac and Airport Extreme together with Apple Care, the router is covered under the Apple Care warranty.
 
I have to reboot mine every few weeks or apple tv needs reset sometimes to work.
the dual band i find not so useful since I use remote. that means all the iphones and appletv all need to be on it so you don't get the speeds anyway.
 
worth it to me

I purchased an AEBS 2 weeks ago, needed to set up a network within the house for the iMac and 2 PCs. I have had other routers previously which were a constant pain in the butt, resetting, configuring much too often not to mention dropped signals and poor connectivity. The AEBS is expensive when compared to other routers but the easy setup with no issues is well worth it to me, so far it works brilliantly.
 
steve knight said:
I have to reboot mine every few weeks or apple tv needs reset sometimes to work.
the dual band i find not so useful since I use remote. that means all the iphones and appletv all need to be on it so you don't get the speeds anyway.
Click to expand...

Not sure how you have yours set up but this is certainly not the case with my new Airport Extreme which is simultaneous dual band. Both bands are automatically on the exact same network and subnet by default (but using different SSID's) and I use the remote feature as well.

My iPhone's as previously mentioned are on the 2.4ghz band and the ATV2 and my iMac are on the 5ghz band. No issues and they don't slow each other down which is definitely a major benefit of dual bands. Remote from the iPhone and/or my iPad works just fine in this setup.

James
 
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love mine

I have had a few inksys and they were okay. I would always have to reboot them about once a month. They would last about a couple of years. This lastime I went with the airport extreme. It is much, much more reliable. The interface through the OS is great. You can reset it from the PC if need be, but I have yet to have had to reboot mine. I have had it about 9 months. It is a bit pricey, just like everything else Apple. If I am not mistaken, if you have applecare on your Mac it covers the Apple Air. Correct me if I am wrong. :)
 
I've had my Extreme going on 2 yrs now and never had any problems connecting with it. always loved the fast and easy set up of extreme & the dual band helps out a lot. Another great feature is having my friends connect to it when they come over without me giving out my information.
 
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