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New Airport Express vs old Airport Extreme
- Thread starter Sangdushi
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Just picked up the new Express at Bluewater (UK) store along with an iPad smart case.
Love the new form factor of the device, seems to be doing ok so far.
Great signal, sitting about 12ft away from the device at present and getting 89% wifi on 2.4ghz and 86 on 5ghz.
Was going to post pics but they're pretty poor.
Love the new form factor of the device, seems to be doing ok so far.
Great signal, sitting about 12ft away from the device at present and getting 89% wifi on 2.4ghz and 86 on 5ghz.
Was going to post pics but they're pretty poor.
If its possible, can you move about 40ft away separated by two walls and see how the signal is?
I want to see if I can get signal in my room from the living room.
I got the Airport Extreme since it lets you attach a hard drive to it for reliable Time Machine backups. It basically gives you a Time Capsule, but with drives that can be swapped out or have more than one attached via USB hub. I was backing up to one of those WD My Book Live drives, but it was way too slow and unreliable. The Airport Extreme attached storage allows much faster access so the Time Machine backups are hardly noticeable..and no more of those error messages about having to start a new backup all over again.
I've been using a 2TB My Book Live drive for wireless TM backups and have not had any problems for over 3 months. It does take about 20 seconds to mount the TM partition when the drive is in sleep mode but its no slower than a time capsule I used to use.
Do you notice any lag on the Xbox this way? I've tried using my xbox over wifi before and it was slower but it was few years ago before N came out. I've wondered if using a AE using N to my Time Capsule and hooking the Xbox up to the AE would show any lag. Would save me running an ethernet cable across the apartment, lol.
I just replaced my Airport Express with the new one. I have it in my living room, connected to my stereo receiver so I can use Airtunes.
My old Airport was fine. It showed me as having around 140Mbps connection even when upstairs in my bedroom. This new airport has me connecting on the 5Ghz band at a rate of 280Mbps! I'm not sure how much difference this will make.
I initially planned on connecting my Mac Mini to the ethernet port, but if it is truly connecting and able to use the speeds the Airport claims (Mac Mini reported to be at a rate of 300Mbps it's about a meter away from the Airport), then that would be a large downgrade in speed to "only" 100Mbps.
I'll have to perform some tests.
My old Airport was fine. It showed me as having around 140Mbps connection even when upstairs in my bedroom. This new airport has me connecting on the 5Ghz band at a rate of 280Mbps! I'm not sure how much difference this will make.
I initially planned on connecting my Mac Mini to the ethernet port, but if it is truly connecting and able to use the speeds the Airport claims (Mac Mini reported to be at a rate of 300Mbps it's about a meter away from the Airport), then that would be a large downgrade in speed to "only" 100Mbps.
I'll have to perform some tests.
Those speeds are only going to matter if you are doing machine to machine transfers.
A few things are impairing my wifi connection at home.
1) The house where I live has all concrete walls due to building codes and threat of hurricanes, add this with the fact that my modem and router are in the office which is in a remote corner near the front of the house. The best bet would be to move the router to a more central location but that currently is not an option due to the location of an old desktop (might just get a 50ft ethernet)
2) My household has an apparent obsession with cordless phones, (not my choice) we must have ten or so in the house, to the best of my knowledge they all run on the 2.4gHZ band which, along with the microwave might be hindering my wireless speeds.
My internet speeds aren't bad. I get 100Mbps (speedtest.net rates me at just over 98) and I should be getting up to 1 Mb/s upload and up to 9 Mb/s download
I'd like to switch the the 5ghz band but I've read that the signal does not reach as far, and I need it to at least get as far as my airport express. I know that my AEBS runs simultaneous dual band signals but we have so many devices between smartphones, tablets, laptops, gaming systems and i'm not sure if they all can connect to the 5ghz band if I use it only.
I agree that the extra Ethernet port could connect two devices but right now I'm content with unplugging the cable from the Xbox to the Blu Ray, not a big issue, I plan to get an ethernet switch eventually however, much cheaper than a new APX.
A lot of factors but I'm just hoping my problems could be solved with a new APX, might just be wishful thinking though
So the Express limits the USB port to printers only, but the Extreme won't do Airplay. Trust Apple not to make either option entirely ideal... :/
It would be nice if the Express would allow USB drives. If the new revision added that functionality, I would upgrade my last gen Express.
Just read through this thread because I was curious to hear what other people thought about this new Express. Like some others, I wasn't even aware that the old Express could act as a standalone router. I have a recent-gen Extreme that I bought as a refurb thru CowBoom.
One thing I think hasn't been mentioned in this thread is that Apple's site states that the Express only has 100Mbps ethernet ports, whereas the Extreme has gigabit ports. That may be the deal-killer for me. But I may still be tempted to get one as a range extender / portable router.
One thing I think hasn't been mentioned in this thread is that Apple's site states that the Express only has 100Mbps ethernet ports, whereas the Extreme has gigabit ports. That may be the deal-killer for me. But I may still be tempted to get one as a range extender / portable router.
I'm having problems with the new Airport Express.
The firmware says it is 7.6.2. All my other Airport stuff is at 7.6.1. The new one doesn't want to play nicely with the old stuff (roaming network). Is there an update ? I can't find it anywhere.
Other experiences from people ?
The firmware says it is 7.6.2. All my other Airport stuff is at 7.6.1. The new one doesn't want to play nicely with the old stuff (roaming network). Is there an update ? I can't find it anywhere.
Other experiences from people ?
I've seen a few differences. For starters the option to just Join a network is no longer available. The only options are to Extend or Create a network. Also, I have a gen1 AppleTV that doesn't see the new Express for AirTunes. The ATV sees and plays to the original Express I have. All my Macs and iOS devices can AirPlay to the new Express though.
I would buy the extreme for all the additional features such as being able to hook up a USB drive and the extra ports for wired connections, not to mention it probably has better coverage.
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A few things are impairing my wifi connection at home.
1) The house where I live has all concrete walls due to building codes and threat of hurricanes, add this with the fact that my modem and router are in the office which is in a remote corner near the front of the house. The best bet would be to move the router to a more central location but that currently is not an option due to the location of an old desktop (might just get a 50ft ethernet)
2) My household has an apparent obsession with cordless phones, (not my choice) we must have ten or so in the house, to the best of my knowledge they all run on the 2.4gHZ band which, along with the microwave might be hindering my wireless speeds.
My internet speeds aren't bad. I get 100Mbps (speedtest.net rates me at just over 98) and I should be getting up to 1 Mb/s upload and up to 9 Mb/s download
I'd like to switch the the 5ghz band but I've read that the signal does not reach as far, and I need it to at least get as far as my airport express. I know that my AEBS runs simultaneous dual band signals but we have so many devices between smartphones, tablets, laptops, gaming systems and i'm not sure if they all can connect to the 5ghz band if I use it only.
I agree that the extra Ethernet port could connect two devices but right now I'm content with unplugging the cable from the Xbox to the Blu Ray, not a big issue, I plan to get an ethernet switch eventually however, much cheaper than a new APX.
A lot of factors but I'm just hoping my problems could be solved with a new APX, might just be wishful thinking though
with all those variables its really difficult to predict a priori. My advice is to try one and find out. I believe apple now gives 100% refunds if it doesn't work out.
Can somebody confirm this? I think that'll be a deal breaker for many.
Essentially this means you'll have to get an apple base station, since wds between devices from different manufacturers doesn't always play well.
Just picked one up today, I already have the latest gen Airport Extreme, so I'll be writing a review tomorrow. I will do my best to compare the transfer rates and range of both. Some things to note though are that the Ethernet ports on the express are only 10/100BASE-T and it has maximum users of 50. I'll let everyone know when the review is up, I can't wait to see the wireless comparisons!
Yeah, I mentioned this in a previous post in this thread. That's a bummer for me.
According to Apple's site, that's the same number for the AirPort Extreme:
http://www.apple.com/wifi/
Just to summarize, again, the differences between the Express and Extreme:
- Extreme has 3 gigabit ethernet ports, Express has just one 100Mbps port
- Extreme's USB port can support printers and USB hard drives, Express just printers
- Apple's site suggests that the Extreme can cover a wider range
- Express has built-in AirPlay audio support and an audio output jack
Because this Express is newer, though, I'm interested to see if it might have some other hidden advantages (e.g., better WiFi speed) than the Extreme. mabaty, please post back with what you find.
Doubt that you'll see better wifi speeds with ports only 10/100, it's a big bottleneck.
How "old" is the newest airport extreme? Is it possible that we will see a new one with airplay anytime soon?
I was just gonna by an extreme then the new express suddenly showed up, and I'm kinda stuck between the audio out on the express and the USB port on the extreme. I kinda want both :S
I was just gonna by an extreme then the new express suddenly showed up, and I'm kinda stuck between the audio out on the express and the USB port on the extreme. I kinda want both :S
Doubt that you'll see better wifi speeds with ports only 10/100, it's a big bottleneck.
I doubt the 10/100 is actually going to limit 'real world' throughput on your Wifi.
So you're saying ill notice no difference at all during a time machine backup if i would use the airport express as an wired extender instead of the extreme?