This is a selling point for me once my current D-Link dies; it'll be nice to have a dedicated N network for streaming stuff from my wired Mini to my laptop at decent speeds.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Is the Airport Extreme worth the price??
- Thread starter galgould
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I think you are going through the same phase most people go through when they buy a new apple product. Try and find all matching apple accesorries to go with it! I woul suggest you to hold off. If you are staying an apartment / dorm. You will barely get any better signal than a 30$ wireless N router. Even hen multiple channel N routers are 50-70$. So yes you will not get much out of the airport extreme. Also some people might say wireless printing... but scanning does not work and Wireless printers from HP are dime a dozen. So don't bother if you are not even planning to use time capsule or some thing like that.
Yes, the dedicated N is nice, but I haven't had to use that yet, as my iMac is my only N-enabled client so far. You'll be pleasantly surprised at how well the Simultaneous Dual Band function does on the general mixed network. My iMac stays at N speeds even though my homebuilt PC desktop and my wife's iPod touch are only G.
I must agree with this reasoning for dorm use, as my college dorm (oh so many years ago) had concrete walls, which attenuate a LOT of signal. The AEBS would be overkill in a dorm room setting.
I've gone through a couple routers that were 35 dollars on Amazon. They always worked "ok" but needed the occasional "reset" which got tiresome since I put it far far away. 
At some point I just got tired of dealing with the little annoyances and got a (refurbished) Extreme.
Took me 10 minutes to set up, haven't touched it more than once or twice for 12 months now. I'm assuming it will be here for many years to come.
I think hassle free is worth the premium. And it is the only router in the world that looks good in an HTPC cabinet.
At some point I just got tired of dealing with the little annoyances and got a (refurbished) Extreme.
Took me 10 minutes to set up, haven't touched it more than once or twice for 12 months now. I'm assuming it will be here for many years to come.
I think hassle free is worth the premium. And it is the only router in the world that looks good in an HTPC cabinet.
Yes the Airport Extreme is nice. If you go from a cheap $50 DLink/Netgear/Cisco router to the AE, then yes, you will definitely notice a huge difference.
But if you look at $180 routers from Netgear/Cisco/Dlink, you will find that they outperform the AE.
Try the Netgear WNDR3700. It is arguably the best consumer router. It sells for $150. Or the $180 Cisco E3000.
For < $100, you can get very respectable routers. The $80 Netgear WNR3500L and the $90 Asus RT-N16 comes to mind. Flash these with Tomato or DD-WRT, and you instantly have a router worth $300.
True that the Airport Extreme is good. But is it $180 good? I would think not. But it is extremely easy to configure and maintain though.
But if you look at $180 routers from Netgear/Cisco/Dlink, you will find that they outperform the AE.
Try the Netgear WNDR3700. It is arguably the best consumer router. It sells for $150. Or the $180 Cisco E3000.
For < $100, you can get very respectable routers. The $80 Netgear WNR3500L and the $90 Asus RT-N16 comes to mind. Flash these with Tomato or DD-WRT, and you instantly have a router worth $300.
True that the Airport Extreme is good. But is it $180 good? I would think not. But it is extremely easy to configure and maintain though.
More Apple props
After using Cox Cable and my AEBS for a year and loving it, I moved and had to switch to Qwest and DSL. Now, the Qwest modems are also routers, so I figured I'd do the easy thing and just bridge the connection with my AEBS and have the modem/router do the work.
Holy good god was that a mistake. Slow page loads, crappy network speeds and an Apple TV that could only find both computers after a computer restart. Completely unacceptable. So I turned DHCP on the Qwest modem/router off, set the AEBS to a static IP and turned DHCP back on the AEBS.
It's been two days and not a damn thing has even hiccuped.
After using Cox Cable and my AEBS for a year and loving it, I moved and had to switch to Qwest and DSL. Now, the Qwest modems are also routers, so I figured I'd do the easy thing and just bridge the connection with my AEBS and have the modem/router do the work.
Holy good god was that a mistake. Slow page loads, crappy network speeds and an Apple TV that could only find both computers after a computer restart. Completely unacceptable. So I turned DHCP on the Qwest modem/router off, set the AEBS to a static IP and turned DHCP back on the AEBS.
It's been two days and not a damn thing has even hiccuped.
refurbished AEBS (MC340LL/A) seem to sell for $110 on Ebay. That may be a good option if the sellr is reputable.
Why bother when you can get brand spanking new, better performing routers for less than that?
If ease of configuration is that important to you then ok. But you will probably only spend 15 minutes on initial configuration anyway.
i haven't rebooted my AEBS in the last 18month. Every other router (admittedly for less than $80) made problems twice a week and need to be rebooted. so for $30-40 a worry free internet is a good deal to me.
printing and guest access are a big bonus together with the ease of setup.
I bought the AEBS sim dual band as soon as it was introduced and our NEX got them instock = for the amount of time I've owned it I would have had 2 netgear and 1 linksys router die on me = the AEBS has been a solid product!
I too was skeptical about purchasing an "apple" router for 2x's what I used to buy other wireless products for but so far its lasting me much longer = maybe I've just had bad luck with netgear and linksys?...
FYI, I also back up via wireless & USB HDD via time machine for my two macs, my two win7 & two winXP machines with out any problems
I too was skeptical about purchasing an "apple" router for 2x's what I used to buy other wireless products for but so far its lasting me much longer = maybe I've just had bad luck with netgear and linksys?...
FYI, I also back up via wireless & USB HDD via time machine for my two macs, my two win7 & two winXP machines with out any problems
you haven't had one power outage/glick in the last 18 months living in Boston?
I have had various linksys and the AEBS. The AEBS has a few more features than some of the linksys I have used.
Interfaces, six of one, half dozen of the other.
Wireless throughput is better on my linksys.
The linksys wrt410 and the AEBS have been very transparent in my network but prefer the linksys for on line gaming.
I have a lan capable printer so printing is already as simple as it can be.
Price wise I feel the AEBS is about $50 over priced. both routers look very pretty sitting in my cellar.
Netgear is putting out some decent budget routers with good performance.
I don't think there are any other 3 stream routers available yet. This makes the AEBS the fastest wireless router with the right client.
Why not AirPort Express?
AirPort Extreme makes sense only if you need a wide range and over 10 simultaneous connections.
For a home network, I think the Express does the job quite well, + AirTunes which absolutely cool.
AirPort Extreme makes sense only if you need a wide range and over 10 simultaneous connections.
For a home network, I think the Express does the job quite well, + AirTunes which absolutely cool.
Agreed. I'm going for a refurb Linksys WRT610N and going to put DD-WRT on it. I'm looking for simultaneous dual band, Time Machine from the USB port and running a guest network. The AEBS can do all that as well but every site I've looked at that asked this question had answers all pointing to getting the WRT610 over the AEBS.
Most modems have a 4 port switch. Why would you need that on a wireless router that's going to be physically next to the modem in the first place? Am I missing something.
Note: I don't think using an APX as the backbone of your wireless network is a great idea as they tend to blow resistors and capacitors with a lot of use.
I hope I don't run into that issue as I'm running a 2wire modem/wireless router on Qwest DSL as well.
[EDIT] The 2Wire modem/wireless router actually states that you need to turn off DHCP if connecting another device that will handle assigning IP addresses. At least they tell you.
Comcast modems don't. So you are missing "something", a couple million users.
(No experience with other providers.)
Airport Express unit is also ONLY wireless N = it doesn't have the sim dual band built into it.
I think you mean only one band of wireless n. It supports a,b,g, and n wireless networks, but it'll resort to the lowest tech being used at a given time. The dual band allows two separate networks of different speeds. Just clarifying
In reality, AEBS is far from the fastest. Go here and have a look at the performance charts:
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/
I love mine and I have owned many other routers in the past. Like any apple product its not cheap but I believe in the old saying "you get what you pay for".