Does Airport Extreme Base Station have advantages?

[markw10]

My Airport Extreme Base station just gave out this week so I need to replace it. I had the first version of the Gigabit models and I know there's a newer version out but I am also looking heavily at the Linksys E3000.
I know the E3000 is cheaper but that is not the deciding factor. I want the parental controls that the E3000 has and it seems like the AEBS doesn't have parental controls.
I have always tried to buy Apple products though and I want to know, am I giving up any features by going to the E3000 instead of staying with the Apple model? It seems when it comes to the actual hardware they are very similar. When I looked at the Airport Utility I noticed there is a section to set it up with MobileMe and when I did research on Google I found an article from 2008 from Apple stating that in order to use Back to My Mac an AEBS is required. Is this still the case or does it just need a certain protocol that is now available in other routers such as the E3000? Are there any other possible features that I give up by not getting an AEBS?
I haven't really had much luck getting Back to My mac working reliably with even the AEBS but it's a feature I want to use more in the future so don't want to give this up.
Thank you for your help.

 

[ozthegweat]

Well, Airport Base Station may not have a ton of features, there certainly are routers from other manufacturers which are a nerd's dream. But Apple's WiFi routers are the most reliable and stable routers I've ever had. And I have experience with Linksys, D-Link, Zyxel, Netgear, FritzBox

Some routers crap out while doing heavy stuff like torrent downloads, others suddenly don't let a certain WiFi client connect anymore, configuring is a hassle, forwarding ports works for a minute, the next it doesn't etc.

But not Apple's. They just work. That's what counts for me, really.

EDIT: and regarding the parental controls: there's this part on Apple's Website:

Parent easy, kid safe.

A useful access control feature lets you decide not only who accesses your network but also when they can access it. If you have kids with their own computers, for example, you can control the times they’re allowed to access the network. They can have accounts that are available only at certain hours of the day — for example, when you can be home to keep an eye on them.

I don't know if this is only available on newer models or not. I didn't see anything regarding parental controls on my first gen Time Capsule, but I also haven't looked for it.

 

[John T]

Apart from the above, the Airport Extreme is extremely easy to set up.

 

[markw10]

Thank you for the information both of you provided. I have always liked the simplicity of Apple hardware and really want to stay with the Apple Extreme Bsae Station. That's what's making it hard to change to the Linksys E3000. As for parental controls, one feature I need is website blocking so I can block specific websites. Does the AEBS do this?

 

[cube]

Google 'airport extreme disk disconnects'

 

[SidewaysTakumi]

Quick question on this...not to take it too off topic

Do you have to have a static ip to forward ports with the airport?

I've tried googling around but can't really get any straight forward answers.

I need to forward ports for xbox live.

 

[lexvo]

Do you have to have a static ip to forward ports with the airport?

As far as I know, you always need a static IP if you want to do port forwarding, regardless of the router used.

 

[Coolestdude]

You can do website blocking with any router if you use OpenDNS. I've found that OpenDNS is more accurate then my corporate firewalls (Fortinet & Sonicwall).