any questions before buying Airport Extreme

[Bin]

I am a new user. I am going to buy an Airport Extreme in my renting house which has 4 people live together. My computer is macbookpro 896 with 2 systems(leopard & vista), their computers are windows systems.

My questions:

-If I buy an Airport Extreme, can windows system connect to internet?
-I want to buy a 1TB ext-Hdriver connecting to Airport Extreme as a lan hard driver so that we can share files together. Is any problems with my idea?
-If I format hard driver as HFS+, can windows identify the HD?
-Is there any speed different between 802.11n draft and 802.11g in practical application? Can vista use 802.11n?
-It is said Airport Extreme support 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz, can windows xp or vista use 5Ghz?

Thanks for any help with the above questions.

 

[Jack Flash]

I am a new user. I am going to buy an Airport Extreme in my renting house which has 4 people live together. My computer is macbookpro 896 with 2 systems(leopard & vista), their computers are windows systems.

My questions:

-If I buy an Airport Extreme, can windows system connect to internet?
-I want to buy a 1TB ext-Hdriver connecting to Airport Extreme as a lan hard driver so that we can share files together. Is any problems with my idea?
-If I format hard driver as HFS+, can windows identify the HD?
-Is there any speed different between 802.11n draft and 802.11g in practical application? Can vista use 802.11n?
-It is said Airport Extreme support 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz, can windows xp or vista use 5Ghz?

Thanks for any help with the above questions.

1) Yes, Windows will be able to connect to the Internet through the AEBS.

2) The AEBS includes AirDisk so yes, your idea is feasible.

3) HFS+ Formatted drives are not natively read by Windows. You can format it as FAT32, though.

4) 802.11n draft is 300 mbps where 802.11g is 54 mbps. You will see a difference in performance when transferring files over your network.

5) If your Windows computer has a 802.11n wireless card that supports 5 GHz you will be able to connect. OS X only runs at 300 mbps when in 5 GHz mode.

 

[flopticalcube]

I'll just add that you shouldn't expect too much from Airdisk. The transfer rates are abysmally slow due to the slow processor inside the AEBS. You get maximum rates of no more than 10MBPS.

 

[Jack Flash]

I'll just add that you shouldn't expect too much from Airdisk. The transfer rates are abysmally slow due to the slow processor inside the AEBS. You get maximum rates of no more than 10MBPS.

Though, it is perfectly adequate for streaming music, and if you buffer the video sufficiently, it can serve as a movie server of sorts.

 

[Bin]

1) Yes, Windows will be able to connect to the Internet through the AEBS.

2) The AEBS includes AirDisk so yes, your idea is feasible.

3) HFS+ Formatted drives are not natively read by Windows. You can format it as FAT32, though.

4) 802.11n draft is 300 mbps where 802.11g is 54 mbps. You will see a difference in performance when transferring files over your network.

5) If your Windows computer has a 802.11n wireless card that supports 5 GHz you will be able to connect. OS X only runs at 300 mbps when in 5 GHz mode.

thank you for your reply. as you replied:
4) 802.11n draft is 300 mbps where 802.11g is 54 mbps. You will see a difference in performance when transferring files over your network.
5) If your Windows computer has a 802.11n wireless card that supports 5 GHz you will be able to connect. OS X only runs at 300 mbps when in 5 GHz mode.

-is it mean that if I use mac os x with a 802.11n wireless card supporting 5 GHz, i can receive data faster than others who use windows system?

 

[Bin]

I'll just add that you shouldn't expect too much from Airdisk. The transfer rates are abysmally slow due to the slow processor inside the AEBS. You get maximum rates of no more than 10MBPS.

thank u 4 ur reply.
suppose if we have 4 people live in a house with using AEBS, can we transfer files more faster than 10MBPS to each other?
I think we use ext-hd to store music, movies and tv shows. we want to click the ext-hd through AEBS to watch movies or listen to musics online, not to download from the ext-hd to local disk.
r there any problems with my idea?

thank u for any advice.

 

[Bin]

Though, it is perfectly adequate for streaming music, and if you buffer the video sufficiently, it can serve as a movie server of sorts.

thank u for ur reply.
do u mean if i watch movies which stored on it online through AEBS, there will be a long time wait for buffering?

 

[flopticalcube]

thank u 4 ur reply.
suppose if we have 4 people live in a house with using AEBS, can we transfer files more faster than 10MBPS to each other?
I think we use ext-hd to store music, movies and tv shows. we want to click the ext-hd through AEBS to watch movies or listen to musics online, not to download from the ext-hd to local disk.
r there any problems with my idea?

thank u for any advice.

Machine to machine is fine. I can get 240mbps between my iMacs sustained. The problem is in transferring to and from the disk attached to the AEBS. The speed is sufficient for audio and maybe even video streaming but loading the disks with music and movies is a pain. I tend to write to the disks when they are attached directly to the computer and then disconnect them and reconnect them to the AEBS for reading.

 

[DoFoT9]

thank u for ur reply.
do u mean if i watch movies which stored on it online through AEBS, there will be a long time wait for buffering?

most movies (even high quality movies) can transfer over my ABES 802.11g.
i can watch movies that are around 2000~3000kbps without seeing any lag or distortion to the movie/audio, even with 4 other computers and a airport express on the network.

 

[foidulus]

My advice, don't

I just got one and I have to say without a doubt it is the buggiest Apple hardware I have ever used. First when I tried to have it extend a wireless base station it would infinitely reboot until I hit the factory reset. Second, when I try to share my disk, I can see the disk from my laptops, but I cannot see it's contents. And I know I am not alone on this. I hit buttons and it says it does stuff but does nothing etc.

Airport Extreme is Apple's attempt to imitate Microsoft. And its doing a bangup job

 

[Bin]

Machine to machine is fine. I can get 240mbps between my iMacs sustained. The problem is in transferring to and from the disk attached to the AEBS. The speed is sufficient for audio and maybe even video streaming but loading the disks with music and movies is a pain. I tend to write to the disks when they are attached directly to the computer and then disconnect them and reconnect them to the AEBS for reading.

thank u for ur reply.
I agree with u. so i think i need to have a change when i want to transfer files. maybe i can use firewire 800 or usb2.0.
anyway, do u think AEBS is still good?

 

[Bin]

most movies (even high quality movies) can transfer over my ABES 802.11g.
i can watch movies that are around 2000~3000kbps without seeing any lag or distortion to the movie/audio, even with 4 other computers and a airport express on the network.

MBP CD2.16ghz, 2GB Ram, X1600 OC'd, 19"
iMac24" 2.8ghz 750gb 4gbram
~2tb

wow...
2TB
do u use it to connect to AEBS as a share hd?

 

[Bin]

I just got one and I have to say without a doubt it is the buggiest Apple hardware I have ever used. First when I tried to have it extend a wireless base station it would infinitely reboot until I hit the factory reset. Second, when I try to share my disk, I can see the disk from my laptops, but I cannot see it's contents. And I know I am not alone on this. I hit buttons and it says it does stuff but does nothing etc.

Airport Extreme is Apple's attempt to imitate Microsoft. And its doing a bangup job

are there any wrong settings with your computer?

 

[DoFoT9]

MBP CD2.16ghz, 2GB Ram, X1600 OC'd, 19"
iMac24" 2.8ghz 750gb 4gbram
~2tb

wow...
2TB
do u use it to connect to AEBS as a share hd?

unfortunately i am unable to connect these drives to my AEBS because i have the older version of it, and it runs on FW. i do have an external lacie 200gb which i plug in via the AEBS tho thru ethernet

the 2tb is just via firewire

 

[flopticalcube]

thank u for ur reply.
I agree with u. so i think i need to have a change when i want to transfer files. maybe i can use firewire 800 or usb2.0.
anyway, do u think AEBS is still good?

As a router its good. The wireless range is fantastic and the connections are rock solid. The firmware needs work as far as Airdisk goes, however. Hopefully they will make a fix soon.