New Airport Timecapsule question

[Serban]

I can't believe the tested it with a PC.

what? so their test of the new AE is irrelevant right? can't be so worse this AE

 

[opinio]

what? so their test of the new AE is irrelevant right? can't be so worse this AE

I didn't say it was irrelevant.

You just do not bench test an Apple product with a PC. It won't give you proper results. They are simply not designed for PCs, even though they generally work. It is like testing Windows 8 in boot camp on a Mac when it came out.

"Can't be worse this AE"... I won't comment other than to say if you don't want to buy one then don't.

 

[Serban]

thats the thing i want to buy a new AE with the new Haswell iMac and macbook pro but im hoping not to be worse than my 5 years old d-link 635

 

[Weaselboy]

thats the thing i want to buy a new AE with the new Haswell iMac and macbook pro but im hoping not to be worse than my 5 years old d-link 635

I don't see how them (SmallNetBuilder) testing with a PC matters much for your purposes. You are interested in better wifi performance. If you compare the tests and the new tower AE shows better wifi performance than the Dlink on a PC, it is a safe assumption a new iMac will have the same results.

There is nothing really special about Apple's wifi. They are using the same Atheros or Broadcom chipsets used in PCs.

 

[Serban]

so im safe to buy the new AE and using it wired with my family windows XP PC, and for wifi ac with upcoming imac and macbook pro haswell ?

 

[Weaselboy]

so im safe to buy the new AE and using it wired with my family windows XP PC, and for wifi ac with upcoming imac and macbook pro haswell ?

Sure... it will work just fine. It will even work with wifi on your Windows and other devices. Wifi and wifi AC are a standard, and will work among brands.

 

[Lankyman]

upcoming imac and macbook pro haswell ?

Why do so many computer buyers become hooked on the latest and greatest CPU? It's like this years latest model car which is so many percentage points faster than last years. For the average consumer neither will make much real world difference.

 

[malisa]

To talk about a standard adsl setup though...

If you have adsl (which is most likely), I think the best setup is to use the modem purely as a bridge and have the TC/AE (Time Capsule or AirPort Extreme, called AE for short here) running as the primary router. In this config the AE does everything. It is so much cleaner.

For that config, set up the modem/router (usually supplied by your ISP) to bridge mode and turn off the DHCP server in it. Also turn off the wifi as well. You can usually do this by accessing the internals of your modem through a webpage interface. I also turn of the firewall in the ISP modem as well because I like it to run purely as a bridge to the AE. I let the AE do everything.

From that point, you plug the AE into the ISP modem/router with a CAT6 cable plugged into the WAN on the AE and the Router (or modem) port on the ISP modem/router. I suggest CAT6 because the AE has a Gigabit WAN, although it shouldn't matter with adsl so CAT5 or 5E is fine. As I run fibre at 100MB/s I run complete Gigabit ethernet.

Then you set the AE settings in the internet tab to PPPoE and input your ISP user name and pass.

Make sure you also have the router mode in the Network Tab set to DHCP and NAT.

With the above setting the cheap ISP modem/router simply bridges the adsl internet to the AE. The AE takes care of all the rest including the PPPoE connection to your ISP.

More importantly the AE takes care of the DHCP work as well so it assigns IP addresses.

You can then do all port forwarding and static IP assigning etc in the AirPort App.

I ran this config for a few years when I had adsl and didn't have to touch the ISP modem router at all. Everything was done from the AirPort App.

The problem with running the AE purely as an extender to the ISP modem/Router is that the AE is really only a glorified gigabit AirPort express. It has DHCP serving,NAT, port forwarding, IP assignment and PPPoE all turned off. In that config the ISP router does all the DHCP work etc.

This last config mentioned in the above paragraph is common and easy as you just bring the AE home and plug it in via ethernet and get it to work in extension mode. But it is the shortcut method. My preferred method mentioned above for having the ISP modem in bridge and the AE do everything is a little more difficult to set up but once running it is cleaner as the AE does everything from the AirPort app in OSX.

Also on a final note, I refer to the modem/router as an ISP modem/router. I understand the router may only be a modem and it may also not be an ISP supplied one. Yes I understand that and are simply referring to the ISP modem/router as the most common option people have. In other words you may have a store bought modem only for example with a stand alone router etc. It easy to work it out.

Thank you for this extremely detailed post.

My set up has been (and currently is) using an ISP (cable company) provided modem/router. We've had iffy internet (and cable tv) service for the two years we've had them as our ISP. They recently swapped out the old modem/router for a newer one. It's a Netgear CG3000D-RG

I just purchased the new TC/AE. I was advised that I could/should take that Netgear back to the cable co and request just a modem. Reading the above post it sounds like I could just switch that to bridge mode and use it. (I've done some searching and found that what I would want is to turn NAT off using this: http://192.168.0.1/RgNatControl.asp (unchecking it)

Is there a benefit one way or another? I'm hesitant to rip into a (mostly) functioning network, so turning off the NAT and giving it a go would be simplest. But the person giving the advice said that the Netgears can be problematic in the first place and that my cable co will likely charge me less monthly (there's a 9.99 a mo charge which includes router lease) for just a modem.

Advice appreciated. Thanks.

 

[malisa]

Nevermind. I got anxious. Got a modem. Up and running.

 

[ColdCase]

Never-Mind