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New Airport Extreme? Worth It? ...turns out Oh Yes!
- Thread starter MacGuru100
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Someone mentioned this same issue in another thread and they were able to get it working by doing a reboot of the Macbook.
Man if some of you are seeing faster internet speeds on the new AE/TC, that really just means your old setup was poor/old/far away/mis-configured. More than likely the later 2.
I will say that the new TC compared to the 2011 TC does have better range on both the 2.4 and 5GHZ bands. Before I "upgraded" I could never get a solid connection from either my porch or driveway on either band. Now I can. So for me it was worth it.
I am now thinking about picking up a new AE and using it as a bridge from my "man-cave". In theory they could bridge AC.
I will say that the new TC compared to the 2011 TC does have better range on both the 2.4 and 5GHZ bands. Before I "upgraded" I could never get a solid connection from either my porch or driveway on either band. Now I can. So for me it was worth it.
I am now thinking about picking up a new AE and using it as a bridge from my "man-cave". In theory they could bridge AC.
Link - http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wire.../32158-apple-airport-extreme-80211ac-reviewed
Compared to other AC routers with that same broadcomm chip, the 6th Gen Airport Extreme gets mediocre speeds (close to the bottom of the list).
However, they did commend it for being the only truly omnidirectional router, meaning it's signal is equaly strong in all directions.
I was dissapointed that they didn't compare it to the 5th gen version in respect to 802.11n performance, or their current best 802.11n router. With so few AC-enabled devices out there, N is likely more important to buyers than AC is at this point. It addresses the question upgrading now versus upgrading when one owns more AC-enabled devices. If there is no improvement in N performance, there is no compelling reason to upgrade right now.
Well, I found a new problem with mine today that is a deal breaker and I'm going to have to return it.
I got my 6th generation AE right before I went on vacation and observed that I was having some connection issues to my company VPN with my T420 Thinkpad (which my company provides so that's what I have to use)... I didn't think anything of it, but was having other issues with the AE that I spent some time trying to diagnose while I was on "vacation".
Returning from vacation this week I observed that I am having lots of issues with VPN access, and I can't seem to sort them out. Plugged in 3 year old Netgear 3700 router and all the problems are gone.
Sadly the AE is going to need at least a few FW updates before I can even consider it. I will say that the tech support folks were extremely helpful in trying to help me debug stuff and if I hadn't hit this most recent roadblock I might have stuck it out. Sadly if I want to stay employed I need the ability to reliably work from home, and I cannot wait to see how long it takes Apple to fix the issues with their new router.
I got my 6th generation AE right before I went on vacation and observed that I was having some connection issues to my company VPN with my T420 Thinkpad (which my company provides so that's what I have to use)... I didn't think anything of it, but was having other issues with the AE that I spent some time trying to diagnose while I was on "vacation".
Returning from vacation this week I observed that I am having lots of issues with VPN access, and I can't seem to sort them out. Plugged in 3 year old Netgear 3700 router and all the problems are gone.
Sadly the AE is going to need at least a few FW updates before I can even consider it. I will say that the tech support folks were extremely helpful in trying to help me debug stuff and if I hadn't hit this most recent roadblock I might have stuck it out. Sadly if I want to stay employed I need the ability to reliably work from home, and I cannot wait to see how long it takes Apple to fix the issues with their new router.
Well, it's a regular Router, Ethernet Switch, Wi-Fi access point.
The Ehernet and Wi-Fi (802.11xx) standards are independent from operating systems. Connecting over a wire should present even less problems because Ethernet is Ethernet. Apple hasn't (re)invented anything on the hardware side there.
I have read this thread with interest, a few points:
1) The thread starters tattoo's. They scare me. I am frightened of people with them and I also notice they will try and show them off at all possible opportunities. However the thread starter seems like a genuinely easy going and funny guy so I now feel conflicted and confused :/
2) That JacobBoehme guy came into the thread and basically laid the smackdown on everyone, it was complete ownage done in a very gentleman like way. It was incredible. Will read again.
3) I really want an Airport Extreme, but I have spent stupid amounts of cash lately and my current router is perfectly fine and very fast. Am I ill?
1) The thread starters tattoo's. They scare me. I am frightened of people with them and I also notice they will try and show them off at all possible opportunities. However the thread starter seems like a genuinely easy going and funny guy so I now feel conflicted and confused :/
2) That JacobBoehme guy came into the thread and basically laid the smackdown on everyone, it was complete ownage done in a very gentleman like way. It was incredible. Will read again.
3) I really want an Airport Extreme, but I have spent stupid amounts of cash lately and my current router is perfectly fine and very fast. Am I ill?
Are you sure this Windows Airport utility is compatible with the new AE? I see the release date is June 2012, and the new AE sys reqs state Lion or iOS 5 (which is a shame IMHO, because older OSX releases should support it, and it would be desirable to be configurable from Linux too)
The lack of browser for configuration was just one of the reasons I returned my AE on Wednesday and replaced it with an Asus RT66 router.
In addition to some disconnection problems with the Wi-Fi on my 6th generation AE I had a more serious problem of it not allowing an IPSEC VPN tunnel to be established from my company laptop to my corporate offices. Since it has no logs or other diagnostic data it was impossible to figure out just what the problem is.
In other news, for a power user like me, the Asus is a dream. All of the shortcomings of the AE have been resolved by going to it.
In addition to some disconnection problems with the Wi-Fi on my 6th generation AE I had a more serious problem of it not allowing an IPSEC VPN tunnel to be established from my company laptop to my corporate offices. Since it has no logs or other diagnostic data it was impossible to figure out just what the problem is.
In other news, for a power user like me, the Asus is a dream. All of the shortcomings of the AE have been resolved by going to it.
Just got one. All these positive comments made me go to the store. I'm happy with the purchase, but, however, I didn't experience better range than with my several years old Sitecom WIFI-N. With such old router, wifi coverage ended at the kitchen door in my (long) home. With the new AirPort Extreme, wifi ends at the same spot. I'm surprised by this. Not even a few feet more. The range is the same as this old Sitecom router. I wished to avoid extenders by using the new AE, but it seems I'll still need an extender.
Otherwise, a great purchase and happy with it.
Otherwise, a great purchase and happy with it.
I agree it is strange not being able to use a browser to configure the router but its working well for me. I am able to connect to IPSEC and SSL VPNs without a problem. If they didn't work then the AE would have to go back.
Yeah, it was bizarre. Using a Juniper SSL client the AE seemed to be doing something that was preventing the connection from coming up. Swapped back my old WNDR3700 Netgear and of course it worked fine. Returned the AE and got the Asus and it also was fine. Probably just teething problems but considering the premium pricing you would think that they would have this stuff sorted at the time the product goes to the market.
There is a newer Asus 68 router coming out in a few months. I will either upgrade to that for AC wireless or give the AE another shot since by then they might have sorted some of the bugs out. The Asus I already have can be re-sold for close to what I paid for it.
I have been using the newest gen time capsule since june (upgraded from the previous gen airport extreme) and it has been completely flawless so far.
