New Airport Extreme Base: yay or nay?

[sikkinixx]

As I just gutted my old PC I now have a 300 GB USB external hard drive that I would like to hook up wirelessly so my MBP can access it anywhere around the house I happen to be working. I would also like to hook up my printer so I can printer without needing to hook it up to the USB (lazy maybe, but it just makes life easier)

I was thinkin of ditching my old Linksys Wireless G w/ SpeedBoost router and picking up the new Airport Extreme Base Station. My MBP is the new SR version so I have wireless N which would be nice for getting stuff off the external HDD. plus the USB for my printer.

Is it any good? worth the money? I know it is N and all but $200 cdn is a lot to spend on a router. Any bad experiences? It works with everything right? (PC's, Xbox, PS3, Wii, etc)?

 

[kalisphoenix]

I love mine. I'd recommend keeping the G router around for any G devices, though, and switching the AEBS to use the Wireless-A channels (5GHz) instead of the B/G channels (2.4GHz). You'll get a hella lot more speed and solidity out of the connection then, judging from my own personal experience.

 

[iW00t]

You do realise that you get heck of a lot less range with 5Ghz right?

What you can instead do is configure the AEBX to use a 2.4Ghz band while prohibiting non-N devices from connecting to it.

 

[Denali9]

Yes

You can get it, but keep in mind that you don't get that much more speed unless you always work closely to the router. Plugging an external drive through USB or Firewire is much better.

The problem is that 5GHz does not have a lot of range, I had to put N on 2.4GHz to get decent coverage and by doing so, I only get 130Mbs which is about only slighty more than twice the speed of G. It still makes a decent difference from G but not as much has advertised.

But as some were saying keep the old one if you have any other devices that require B/G access. I have a B/G network for my Wii and my work laptop and a dedicated N for my new SR MBP.

Regarldless, you most likely will not regret it and airdisk is good for backup.