Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Newest doesn't always mean better. In my experience apple extreme router is by far the best in terms of stability and transfer rate. I never experienced disconnects or slowdowns and with D-Link,Microtik and Asus extreme super sonic ultra fast wifi gaming router i had just problems.

Absolutely correct. AirPort extreme cannot be beat when it comes to performance, stability and security. They are incredible devices, and they work seamlessly with all your Apple devices.
 
Nice to see that someone woke up over in Cupertino and realized that a lot of us paid extra a couple of years ago for a solid wireless product that’s held up miraculously well (my AirPort Express literally worked after I left it outside on our deck in a thunderstorm). It may be a neglected product, but at least it’s still maintained, even if the updates are delayed.
 
Going to mesh. But why oh why has Apple left the arena? I our purchased their first Aitport, and following generations. Why leave us now? Give us mesh! Steve Jobs wouldn’t abandon us!
 
Installing the update bricked my Airport Extreme. The update proceeded fine until reboot and then, bam, dead AirPort Extreme. No power light, nothing. I tried disconnecting power and reconnecting, nothing. CRAP!!!!!

Mine is the AirPort Extreme just before Apple moved to the tall ones.

CRAP!!!! This is incredibly inconvenient!

Mark
 
Welcomed update, but man I wish they’d continue router development.
Very much yes please. The Airport base stations have been world leaders in the past, I'd love to see them continually improved. Just updated my Airport and Time Capsule and it was easy and pain-free, and they just keep working and working and working...
 
No power light, nothing.
After successfully updating one of my AExp, I went to update my 4th-gen (the one before the tallboys). It went well, until it didn't. Finished with an error and then fell off the network. When I went to look at it, no status light at all. Power cycle, attempt at hard reset - nothing. But I unplugged it for 30 min or so and then when I plugged it in it booted up normally. New firmware and everything! Not the smoothest, but in the end it worked out.
 
I'm not a network engineer but wouldn't it be better to have separate modem and router? In the very least the router can be used with any modem but any modem cannot be used with any service (or even the same service changes standards). I am fairly sure the most “recent” AirPort Extreme supports IPv6... I know mine is set to auto IPv6/IPv4. Not even sure what benefit there would be to local IPv6 since I do not have anywhere near billions of devices on my LAN.
Yep, but without AirPort support for this stuff then you need three devices; the modem/ONT, a router to apply VLAN tagging, and finally the AirPort for Wi-Fi.

While current AirPorts support IPv6 over DHCP, it doesn't work if your ISP uses PPPoE. Guess what mine uses...

Annoyingly the documentation doesn't bother to mention this; you follow the instructions for setting up v6 and the option simply isn't there when using PPPoE. I thought it was a bug until I opened a ticket with Apple Engineering, who confirmed that it only works over DHCP.
 
  • Like
Reactions: macintoshmac
I'm curious; what ISPs require VLAN support in a router? That seems to be an odd thing to require.

Centurylink fiber. I have their 1GB service. Had to replace the Time Capsule because it does not support vlan or gigabit speeds on the WAN side, only LAN. The most I could get was around 450mb down. Been happy with a Netgear wrt1900acs supporting 20-30 wireless connections at once.
 
After successfully updating one of my AExp, I went to update my 4th-gen (the one before the tallboys). It went well, until it didn't. Finished with an error and then fell off the network. When I went to look at it, no status light at all. Power cycle, attempt at hard reset - nothing. But I unplugged it for 30 min or so and then when I plugged it in it booted up normally. New firmware and everything! Not the smoothest, but in the end it worked out.

Thanks. I had mine unplugged for maybe 5 minutes. I've just pulled the plug again and I'll leave it out for 30 minutes.

Mark
 
Installing the update bricked my Airport Extreme. The update proceeded fine until reboot and then, bam, dead AirPort Extreme. No power light, nothing. I tried disconnecting power and reconnecting, nothing. CRAP!!!!!

Mine is the AirPort Extreme just before Apple moved to the tall ones.

I have both that version and the 802.11ac (latest) one. Both updated fine. The older one has some other issues that predated this update... but it’s probably 8-10 years old at this point, and hardware does fail over time.

I mention that just to say that sometime old hardware keeps chugging along until you touch it. It’s possible your issue (and that of the other person) may not be the fault of the firmware update. At work we have a couple old (and thankfully not important) servers that run fine, as long as we don’t power cycle them. If we do, then sometimes we have to sacrifice a chicken and flog ourselves before they’ll come back up.
 
Last edited:
Leaving it unplugged for 30 minuted didn't help. I measured the output of the power supply with my multimeter, it's putting out 12 volts. The power light on the Extreme doesn't come on or flash or anything. Dead, dead, DEAD.

Now I have to decide if I want to get Apple's 802.11ac tower model (still available at my local Best Buy) or get one made by someone else. I wasn't able to save the configuration file from the dead one, so I'll have to input all of my device's MAC addresses again. And all of my port forwarding settings. ROYAL PAIN IN THE ASS!

Mark
 
Thanks. I had mine unplugged for maybe 5 minutes. I've just pulled the plug again and I'll leave it out for 30 minutes.

Mark
Did the 30 minutes of unplugging fix your problem? My TC (tall one using 802.11ac) “can’t be found” the Airport Apps on my iPhone and iPad don’t see it.
 
I dont understand all those whining about discontinuation. Airport extreme got all you need. 802.11ac, 1.3 Gbp with simultaneous dual-band. Its not like something new will emerge next year,and tbh i dont see any new WIFI tech in next 5 years
You have a point in that there's not a lot of better products out there if you look at the Time Capsule or Extreme.

The Express though, is stuck at 802.11n, which makes it a poor range extender for a 802.11ac network and would have loved to see an update of it.

Also, it would have been interesting to see Apples take on Mesh networking, and compete with the Google Wifi.

Oh, and update the iOS app to support iPhone X screen size. Embarrassing that Apple themselves are slacking, but I guess that's proof if anything that Apple is not focusing on the Airport products.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ijbond
Let’s not panic regarding the routers. Apple also said that they existed the standalone display market after the Thunderbolt Display and then earlier this year announced that they are working on a new pro display for the new modular Mac Pro. So nothing is ever final.
 
Just updated my 2nd gen Express & Extreme : no issues. Up until today uptime is 99.99% for years. Both are hooked up to a UPS just in case. I know many people that are on their 3rd-5th router in the last decade; not here. Apple has been phenomenal.

side note: great article and forum discussion over on Small Netbuilder about the fallacy of MU-MIMO and Wave2 of .AC TLDR: do not buy into it....and take a moment before jumping into "mesh"
 
My both Extremes updated easy and well.
My both ultraold Expresses that I use with ethernet to my both Extremes, did say something went wrong. But when restarted them, they had updated just fine. I didn’t wait anything, just restarted them.

I Hope Apple update these things more.
 
  • Like
Reactions: iapplelove
I used to use two AirPort Extremes and one of them was used as a wireless bridge. Anecdotally, it seems that a lot of people on these forums either have or had the same setup.
Indeed. For you it’s an important fix. I installed the update, but it wasn’t urgent for me as I don’t use mine as a wireless bridge.
 
You would have thought they would have jumped into the Mesh market, but I guess since they didn't develop it totally they didn't see it worthwhile competing for a small market share.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.