Are there any Cheaper AEBS alternatives?

[thenewguy]

SO the AEBS seems pretty cool - I don't have a wireless printer, so the ability to make my printer wireless, and then to also hook up my external drives wirelessly so I can pull media off them (and eventually backup to them once apple fixes that) would be really useful for the setup I have.

But it is NOT cheap - are there any cheaper alternatives that do the same thing? routers with a usb plug?

Also - is the AEBS considered a good idea? Or is it flakey? Any thoughts appreciated.

thanks!

 

[flopticalcube]

AEBS on refurb is $139 ($149 w gigabit) or I have seen D-Link 655's for $129 (but no drive mode). The Airport Express ($79 refurb, $99 new) will also print to USB printers but can only use g mode and no drive mode. There is a Linksys that can do both drives and printers but it is as expensive as the AEBS.

There are some flaky aspects to the AEBS and maximum speed from the Airdisk is about 6-10Mbps sustained. This is due to the underpowered CPU in the AEBS so it shows up in wireless or wired. All in all a decent router with great wireless range and speed but still needs some decent firmware and Airdisk is just too slow for anything big and too flaky for Time Machine.