This one is great. I’ve been using for half a year without problems.
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Apple Now Selling Linksys Velop Mesh Wi-Fi System But Will Continue Offering AirPort Line
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I’ll nurse my AE until Apple release the “Apple of mesh networking gear.”
That said it better have tri band with dedicated backhaul. And airplay music output too.
That said it better have tri band with dedicated backhaul. And airplay music output too.
I got the google mesh when it came out to replace my time capsule ... Best decision ever. Google mash is awesome (i have three for my wired house setup with thick walls to the extension ... No more wifi dead spots)
I hate seeing the Airport line languish so. Before I started buying them, I'd used products from Linksys, D-Link, and a few others. None were as problem-free - or as reliable, connection-wise - as my Airport Extremes have been.
I keep hearing other people talking about how wi-fi connections are just not consistently reliable, and I have to say that hasn't been my experience... since I moved to Apple's wifi products.
If you check my posting history, it'll be easy to see I'm not a mindless Apple fanboy - but the Airport series were great products that seemed functionally better than rival offerings. It's really too bad Apple doesn't appear willing to apply a small amount of talent towards continuing the series.
I keep hearing other people talking about how wi-fi connections are just not consistently reliable, and I have to say that hasn't been my experience... since I moved to Apple's wifi products.
If you check my posting history, it'll be easy to see I'm not a mindless Apple fanboy - but the Airport series were great products that seemed functionally better than rival offerings. It's really too bad Apple doesn't appear willing to apply a small amount of talent towards continuing the series.
I run three AirPort Extreme AC models all wired up via Cat 6, one acts as the router and the other 2 extend the network as bridges. This setup provides excellent coverage throughout my home (basement and backyard included) and I never have to touch it. It just works! I’ll wait until WPA3 products start showing up before I upgrade. Doesn’t have to be Apple when that time comes either.
I heard the same thing from a WiFi guy; Apple devices are less aggressive when deciding to move from one AP to another. That causes problems, because a radio with a weak signal means degradation for everyone. Ideally you could boot low signal devices from an AP, but I've never seen a consumer-level device that let you do that.
[doublepost=1515633357][/doublepost]Oh, as a note the edgerouter's NAT is perceptibly faster than an AEBS. Apple's NAT used to be the best, but it's slowly getting left behind.
I used Apple Express and Apple Extreme for years. Very dependable. But since we moved we now use a Comcast Router that is much faster. And we use Bluetooth speakers so no Express required. The only Apple network product we still use is our dependable ATV2.
I strongly recommend against this. It's incredibly difficult to configure Time Capsule to work within another WiFi network. You are frankly better off spending that money toward a used Mac mini (or wait for the new one, if one ever comes out) or NAS and use it as Time Machine backup target.
Is Mesh a networking term or a marketing term?
It seems that a wi-fil routers are now generic and the manufacturers need something to sell new routers. Kind of like 3d TV.
I finally took our Airport Extremes out of service and upgraded to the Netgear Orbi.
HUGE improvement in wireless speeds with it, BTW. Running a speed test from my iPhone 7 Plus, I get 200-215Mbits/sec. download speeds now. With the Airport Extreme, I was lucky to see over 90.
The fact is, the current Airport Extreme is an ok piece of equipment, but it's falling behind the competition and Apple isn't doing anything to keep up.
For example, with the setup I had here -- I owned 3 Airport Extremes. One was the main router, attached to our cable modem, and the other two were connected as wireless range extenders. One was out in my detached garage and the other upstairs. The range extenders automatically lose half of the total wireless bandwidth they'd normally have available, because it gets used for the "backhaul" that bridges it to the primary router. With the Orbi and some of the other newer units, the range extenders have separate radios in them for the backhaul channels, so it doesn't impact what's available for the wi-fi clients that connect up to it.
Also, one of my Airport Extremes recently started popping up warning messages in the Airport Utility on the Mac saying it was "overheating". Turns out this is a common issue with them because they actually have a cooling fan in them that can get clogged up and stop spinning. Putting a fan in a wireless router is kind of a poor design decision, IMO.
Other problems with them include the limited options in the firmware.... With the AE, I can't even disable the 2.4Ghz frequency if I only have 5Ghz devices and don't want to use 2.4Ghz. It has no built in support for Dynamic DNS type services. If I want to place restrictions on wireless devices as to what times of day or days of the week they can connect, I have to re-enter all of those MAC addresses in each AE. The units configured as range extenders won't automatically enforce the rules set on the primary one. The Orbi supports "OpenVPN" - allowing me to run any OpenVPN client on a PC or Mac or smartphone and connect back to my home network from anywhere. (Solves security issues using free wi-fi hotspots in public.) Nothing like that on the AE.
HUGE improvement in wireless speeds with it, BTW. Running a speed test from my iPhone 7 Plus, I get 200-215Mbits/sec. download speeds now. With the Airport Extreme, I was lucky to see over 90.
The fact is, the current Airport Extreme is an ok piece of equipment, but it's falling behind the competition and Apple isn't doing anything to keep up.
For example, with the setup I had here -- I owned 3 Airport Extremes. One was the main router, attached to our cable modem, and the other two were connected as wireless range extenders. One was out in my detached garage and the other upstairs. The range extenders automatically lose half of the total wireless bandwidth they'd normally have available, because it gets used for the "backhaul" that bridges it to the primary router. With the Orbi and some of the other newer units, the range extenders have separate radios in them for the backhaul channels, so it doesn't impact what's available for the wi-fi clients that connect up to it.
Also, one of my Airport Extremes recently started popping up warning messages in the Airport Utility on the Mac saying it was "overheating". Turns out this is a common issue with them because they actually have a cooling fan in them that can get clogged up and stop spinning. Putting a fan in a wireless router is kind of a poor design decision, IMO.
Other problems with them include the limited options in the firmware.... With the AE, I can't even disable the 2.4Ghz frequency if I only have 5Ghz devices and don't want to use 2.4Ghz. It has no built in support for Dynamic DNS type services. If I want to place restrictions on wireless devices as to what times of day or days of the week they can connect, I have to re-enter all of those MAC addresses in each AE. The units configured as range extenders won't automatically enforce the rules set on the primary one. The Orbi supports "OpenVPN" - allowing me to run any OpenVPN client on a PC or Mac or smartphone and connect back to my home network from anywhere. (Solves security issues using free wi-fi hotspots in public.) Nothing like that on the AE.
It's a real term. You can tell it's a mesh system because there's only one node (the base station) connected to the upstream router/wired. The other stations connect wirelessly to each other and eventually to that base station.
Mesh is good, but wired is always better. If you can't use ethernet you can recycle your cable infrastructure with MoCA, then plug Airport Expresses into each wired socket for wireless at that location/room.
It's all pretty sad. I opened Aperture today and remembered that it was discontinued (I no longer do photography as a hobby), and it seemed insane to me all over again that Apple did this, a company that used to care about Pro products. Those were the days...
I "switched" to Apple in late 2006, when the Vista debacle was going on. It was the white 24" iMac and I loved it (I was 19 years old). Apple was exciting and innovative and the best days were ahead. The Mac got a lot of attention and they were legit and the best products out there, even in terms of price; with what they offered, the prices were justifiable and it felt like a good investment and you could actually afford them. I'm sad and I miss Steve...
Huh? What "better ways" are you referring to?
The whole "wireless roaming" thing has always been tricky to implement well, regardless of who makes the client that's doing the roaming.
There's a balancing act going on there, where the access points have to be spaced apart by the correct distance so the wireless signal fades enough from one of them so as it's just weak enough to cause the wifi radio to drop the connection or seek out another, the next access point is just coming into range as a strong signal that it can clearly roam onto.
In some cases, the trick to making roaming work well involves lowering the transmit power of the router. All of them default to 100% power but can usually be configured to use less in 10% increments.
Other times, the access points are simply spaced a bit too far apart, or possibly too close together, where any client grabbing onto one is content to stay with that one, even as you get closer to the next one.
In most real-world situations, the roaming functionality isn't all that important anyway. With computers, you're likely to use one while sitting someplace, stationary. If and when you get up and move to another part of the house or apartment, or office? It's not a big deal if the original wireless connection drops out and you have to force it to re-establish it again. (At that point, it will do the initial connection to the router with the strongest signal it sees.)
The whole "wireless roaming" thing has always been tricky to implement well, regardless of who makes the client that's doing the roaming.
There's a balancing act going on there, where the access points have to be spaced apart by the correct distance so the wireless signal fades enough from one of them so as it's just weak enough to cause the wifi radio to drop the connection or seek out another, the next access point is just coming into range as a strong signal that it can clearly roam onto.
In some cases, the trick to making roaming work well involves lowering the transmit power of the router. All of them default to 100% power but can usually be configured to use less in 10% increments.
Other times, the access points are simply spaced a bit too far apart, or possibly too close together, where any client grabbing onto one is content to stay with that one, even as you get closer to the next one.
In most real-world situations, the roaming functionality isn't all that important anyway. With computers, you're likely to use one while sitting someplace, stationary. If and when you get up and move to another part of the house or apartment, or office? It's not a big deal if the original wireless connection drops out and you have to force it to re-establish it again. (At that point, it will do the initial connection to the router with the strongest signal it sees.)
The irony for me is that it was Linksys, and their terrible support, that pushed me into an exclusive Apple ecosystem for the past 15 years. I wouldn’t even consider the Alternatives if Apple sold a product in that domain..
But now, the buggy iTunes pushed me to Sonos and Spotify. The buggy TV app and buggy ITunes Store on AppleTV almost has me leaving the iTunes ecosystem as movies are all that I care to buy from Apple, and the bugs are getting unbearable. It can never seem to remember if I have purchased something or not. And the App,eTv is hobbled by bugs and by Comcast which does not support app logins 90% of the time.
The crappy LG 5K Display and MBP Keyboard pushed me out of the portable line. And the bugs in iOS 11 have me doubting the iPad is a productivity device—hardware alone is not enough. Because of iOS 11 on the iPad and the new MBP, I May buy my first PC In over 15 years because at least I know Microsoft as crappy as they are still is investing heavily in Windows and hardware innovation beyond just making things thinner for no reason.
It breaks my heart to pile on like this. I’ve spent tens of thousands of dollars in the various Apple content stores. Even more on hardware. I want to believe.
But Apple is making it very hard to stay a customer nowadays. And the lack of Airport support, the reliable it just works for internet and backup, it’s the cherry on this turd sundae.
They are looking more and more like the Linksys I left, so of course, now they are Partners.
But now, the buggy iTunes pushed me to Sonos and Spotify. The buggy TV app and buggy ITunes Store on AppleTV almost has me leaving the iTunes ecosystem as movies are all that I care to buy from Apple, and the bugs are getting unbearable. It can never seem to remember if I have purchased something or not. And the App,eTv is hobbled by bugs and by Comcast which does not support app logins 90% of the time.
The crappy LG 5K Display and MBP Keyboard pushed me out of the portable line. And the bugs in iOS 11 have me doubting the iPad is a productivity device—hardware alone is not enough. Because of iOS 11 on the iPad and the new MBP, I May buy my first PC In over 15 years because at least I know Microsoft as crappy as they are still is investing heavily in Windows and hardware innovation beyond just making things thinner for no reason.
It breaks my heart to pile on like this. I’ve spent tens of thousands of dollars in the various Apple content stores. Even more on hardware. I want to believe.
But Apple is making it very hard to stay a customer nowadays. And the lack of Airport support, the reliable it just works for internet and backup, it’s the cherry on this turd sundae.
They are looking more and more like the Linksys I left, so of course, now they are Partners.
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I thought they crossed this bridge at least a year ago with the news of having disbanded the Airport team entirely and shut the project down, rather than updating and fixing its issues.
You should have brought Netgear Orbi! Fantastic router. I am using for my 3 story building and I get end to end coverage.
Synology routers and NAS boxes support time machine.
[doublepost=1515639927][/doublepost]
They’ve actually released updates to fix security bugs quite recently.
I have to wonder why Google got into the router game, when so many others were already doing it. It would be like Facebook offering routers.
Tim Cook is a dotard seriously no one cares about driverless cars put the team back for better WiFi airport routers.
If I have learned anything it's that Apple only makes devices for the head of the household. They build a use case for one person, with disposable income, living alone. There wouldn't be any other devices to slow down, and if there were, it's more important to ensure they have some signal than the best signal. If someone else suffers, well, they probably didn't pay for it and should be thankful for what they have.
/s (1/2)
