Sell me on Airport Extreme...

[godslabrat]

It looks like I may need a new router soon. I'm looking at several options and, for the life of me, I can't figure out what I get for the premium price of the Airport Extreme. I don't mind paying the "Apple tax" on a computer or iPod, or even my iPhone, because I can easily see how those items benefit from Apple's design. OTOH, I fail to see what features the AE offers me that the others don't, and while I keep hearing "It's so easy to set up", I'm not sold on that since I deal with routers all day at work and could set one up in my sleep.

Now I do some research, and I find out that not only doesn't the AE outclass other routers, it has some design faults.

Is there anything to justify this router's price tag, or should I just write it off?

 

[thewolfro]

It looks like I may need a new router soon. I'm looking at several options and, for the life of me, I can't figure out what I get for the premium price of the Airport Extreme. I don't mind paying the "Apple tax" on a computer or iPod, or even my iPhone, because I can easily see how those items benefit from Apple's design. OTOH, I fail to see what features the AE offers me that the others don't, and while I keep hearing "It's so easy to set up", I'm not sold on that since I deal with routers all day at work and could set one up in my sleep.

Now I do some research, and I find out that not only doesn't the AE outclass other routers, it has some design faults.

Is there anything to justify this router's price tag, or should I just write it off?

Good question because some time ago i was also thinking if this device worths the money and I personally do not see much value into the AP Extreme either. I see the value in AP Express though because you can stream music through your apartment very easy and it is so small you cannot even notice it. Also for me it has been working fine for one year now.

 

[flopticalcube]

I never have had a problem with my AEBS. THe design "flaw" looks more like a tradeoff between near -field and far-field performance. I know that some routers have better performance than the AEBS in some situations and the AEBS is better in others so it may be a case of to each his own. THe 2 things I don't like about the AEBS is the need to reboot on every reconfig and the lack of QoS.

 

[miles01110]

The primary advantages to the AEBS are ease of setup and OS integration. For someone that doesn't know anything about networks, it's probably worth the extra cost. For someone that does, it's probably not.

 

[tunerX]

The only selling point I can think of is that it is pretty. Other than that I choose Cisco.

 

[TJM6]

I went with the Airport Extreme after realizing I needed something more robust than the router/modem combos that the telco's throw at you... it was between the AEBS and Netgear's WNDR3700. I did a lot of research between the two, and heard almost nothing but good stuff about this Netgear router. But in the end, I wanted something I knew would work with my Windows machines and Apple products, and went with the AEBS.

The 2Wire 'gateway' I used to have went haywire after AT&T pushed a buggy firmware update out to it, and my MacBook Pro (and probably my iPhone 3GS for some reason) sent it into continuous power cycles... that lead me weary of buying anything non-Apple as a router replacement. Although, that was most-likely just a bad router/edge case. In hindsight, I could have went with the WNDR3700. I mean, I hadn't heard anything negative about mixed Win/Mac home networks with it.

I'm no networking expert by any means, but setup is pretty simple all around. The only thing is, you have to install Airport software on you devices if you want admin control over your AEBS, no biggie. ...if not, you can easily connect to the network if it's broadcasting without ever installing/touching the Airport software.

I wrote a more in-depth review here.

 

[ZGXtreme]

A month ago I was proceeding with the purchase of my MBP to take advantage of the Back to School program. Coincidentally, my D-Link router decided to go on the fritz at the same time. I debated going another route, but since I was making an Apple purchase decided that I would add an Extreme to the basket.

I have found it to be 100% reliable and the setup could not have been any easier. Maintenance has also been non-existent. While I can configure a network, I'd much prefer embrace the "work smarter, not harder" concept. The Extreme fullfills that niche and then some. Setup was a breeze through the MBP and in what seemed like minutes I was back on the net. Since that time, never an issue.

While yes it is more expensive, I have found it to be a great purchase and would highly recommend it to anyone, more so if their use Macs and other Apple products within their home, office, etc. The ease of integration and the following reliability have been top notch and continue to be so.

 

[andymodem]

The Airport Extreme has been the most reliable router I have ever had. Currently use it with my 25/25mb FiOS.

BTW, I've used the WNDR3700, WRT610n, and the DIR-655.

 

[talmy]

The AEBS will wake a Snow Leopard computer when you try to access it. That feature alone makes it worth the premium to me. And it also solved some nasty operational problems I had with my Verizon-supplied Actiontec.

 

[danny_w]

The AEBS is very easy to configure without knowing the router's ip address, any HFS+ disk attached via usb is accessible on your Mac and can be used for Time Machine (but I have not been able to discover the disk from XBMC Live / Linux), and as the above poster said it will wake a Snow Leopard system from sleep. Beyond that I would say to look elsewhere. I have 2 AEBS units, and both require rebooting every few months when they lose connectivity or the attached usb disk decides to go missing. My next router will most likely not be an Apple product.

 

[creeman]

About six months ago I bought the netgear wndr3700. The thing is, my dl speeds were slower than that of my old linksys router. But, when reading online, I heard nothing but good things about the router. I ended up taking it back, and just thought it may be a faulty router. But, I never got another one and ended up going with the AEBS. I am happy with the purchase, but I would also like to try the Netgear again, just to see if my last one was just a faulty one.

 

[Julien]

Don't forget AirPort Utility is a very good software program and far superior to the browser based IP address pages on a Cisco.