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Can you determine if the new model makes a buzzing sound when you're running that 100 Mb/s speed test? The previous gen made a buzzing/sizzling sound when under heavy load, and if that problem has been eliminated it will spur me to upgrade to the new one.

I'll listen out for it next time I have a chance
 
Support for 802.11n beamforming is vendor specific.

So it is possible that “older” 802.11n devices (rMBP, MBA, ...) support beamforming.

btw, 802.11n had some optional beam forming (TxBF) in the specs, but it was specified too loose to be effective and compatible between vendors. Which might mean that Apple to Apple (Broadcom to Broadcom) there is beamforming. Especially possible with recent hardware, such as the retina MacBooks.

Thanks. That could well be a factor, then. For me it's the results that count - but nice to know that I may be taking advantage of the latest tech under the hood after all :)

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People always want the top of the line, fastest product even if they have no use for it. You're right, it's not going to increase browsing speeds for anyone. It will increase speeds of data transfer from computer to computer across the wireless network but thats about it.


I should add that my internet connection (Virgin Media in the UK) is bumping up to 130Mb/s this month, so it looks like I'll be set to see at least some of that over wifi. To be fair I probably won't notice much real-world benefit from that - although Safari might be s^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H
 
The Time Machine version would be faster, if they made it blue, put a light on the top and a sign that said, "Police box, free for public use..."
 
802.11ac supports up to ≈ 3 GBit/s with 4 antennas (≈ 867 MBit/s per antenna). That is equivalent to eSATA II or USB 3.0 with UASP-support (Ivy Bridge and newer Macs support the UASP).

OK....just a very quick trawl though the specs of three similar(ish) devices from other manufacturers...


R6300 WiFi Router
802.11ac Dual Band Gigabit

Two (2) USB 2.0 ports


Asus RT-AC66U:-
802.11ac: up to 1300Mbps
USB 2.0 x 2



D-Link Wireless AC1200:-
IEEE 802.11ac (draft)
USB 2.0

Do we notice any odd similarities...?

Gosh...no USB3.0
:eek:

I'm sure somewhere there exists a USB3 wi-fi router...can't be bothered to look any further right now.

Welcome to MacMoaners.com
 
No it isn't.

802.11ac is 1300Mbps

USB 2.0 is just 480Mbps (much less in reality)

Other manufactures are including USB 3.0 (5000Mbps) in their routers and charging less.

Well, you let us know when you get 1.3Gbps "in reality".
 
Time for a custom cable to go from the inside of the device to the external USB port. Or maybe just a bit of case modding with the dremel and use a standard usb 2.0 travel drive....
 
I've lost count of how many devices I've had that died because some $0.50 fan quit after a year or two. I can't believe that a router needs a fan. :(

I've maxed out all the ethernet jacks on my current AEBS. For me to buy this one, I'd still have to keep the old AEBS (or another router) around to give me all the ports I need.

Or you can pick up a switch with enough ports to suit your needs and connect that to the AEBS. It also makes future upgrades really simple.
 
No it isn't.

802.11ac is 1300Mbps

USB 2.0 is just 480Mbps (much less in reality)

Other manufactures are including USB 3.0 (5000Mbps) in their routers and charging less.

I believe the Time Capsule uses SATA which is faster so get one of those. And TV includes the Hard Drive too!
 
802.11ac supports up to ≈ 3 GBit/s with 4 antennas (≈ 867 MBit/s per antenna). That is equivalent to eSATA II or USB 3.0 with UASP-support (Ivy Bridge and newer Macs support the UASP).

Apple's base station has a theoretical limit of 1.3Gbps (not 3).

I mean I have to admit that under idealized conditions you might be able to get this to saturate a USB 2.0 connection. But that has to be a rare, unlikely situation. Real world wireless connections are much slower than the theoretical peak. USB is slower than the theoretical peak as well, but with wireless the difference is much greater. Errors, resends, physical blockages, interference, attenuation, and so forth.

I haven't gotten my hands on one of these so I guess I could be wrong. Maybe it comes a lot closer to its theoretical peak in real-world usage than anything I've seen before. But I'll believe it when I see it.

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You need a food dehydrator. You could have all the crunchy bananas you wanted, all day long.

That's an excellent point! And it beats spending my time on the internet arguing a losing point (see my other posts)!
 
OK....just a very quick trawl though the specs of three similar(ish) devices from other manufacturers...


R6300 WiFi Router
802.11ac Dual Band Gigabit

Two (2) USB 2.0 ports


Asus RT-AC66U:-
802.11ac: up to 1300Mbps
USB 2.0 x 2



D-Link Wireless AC1200:-
IEEE 802.11ac (draft)
USB 2.0

Do we notice any odd similarities...?

Gosh...no USB3.0
:eek:

I'm sure somewhere there exists a USB3 wi-fi router...can't be bothered to look any further right now.

Welcome to MacMoaners.com

Tee to fairway... nice
Fairway to green... excellent shot!

The Putt (bolded portion of your comment)... missed it by that much.

Pretty hard to lend any credence to your argument when you state you didn't even try to find a router with USB3.;)
 

Thanks. That could well be a factor, then. For me it's the results that count - but nice to know that I may be taking advantage of the latest tech under the hood after all :)

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I should add that my internet connection (Virgin Media in the UK) is bumping up to 130Mb/s this month, so it looks like I'll be set to see at least some of that over wifi. To be fair I probably won't notice much real-world benefit from that - although Safari might be s^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H

If you were getting that slow of speeds before then you had other issues. Most likely misconfigured. Properly configured the older Extremes could see speeds of 200MBit/sec but it did require some playing with of the settings as they didn't always auto switch in most cases. Stuff like NAT can slow things down when going at those speeds.

This is from working for Time Warner Cable and Comcast in their NOC and headend.
 
One USB 2.0 port? LOL @ Apple. They just couldn't resist gimping an otherwise great product.

So if someone want's to connect a printer and a few HDDs, they need to connect an ugly USB hub to Ive's masterpiece. And that superfast 802.11ac? Hey, I've got an idea! Let's limit the HDD access to about half the speed of the WiFi!

It's a sucker punch: Apple wants to offer HDD connectivity on the Extreme, but if they used USB 3.0 then nobody would bother paying for the Time Capsule which uses SATA.

This will be effective for fanbois, but most sane people will just look at the Extreme and then walk over to the PC section and pick up a cheaper Netgear router with more features.
 
It looks hideous on their website but I had the opportunity to play around with it today and have to say that is a real beauty. It will soon be replacing my existing time capsule. I like the fact that they improved the range a lot.
 
One USB 2.0 port? LOL @ Apple. They just couldn't resist gimping an otherwise great product.

So if someone want's to connect a printer and a few HDDs, they need to connect an ugly USB hub to Ive's masterpiece. And that superfast 802.11ac? Hey, I've got an idea! Let's limit the HDD access to about half the speed of the WiFi!

It's a sucker punch: Apple wants to offer HDD connectivity on the Extreme, but if they used USB 3.0 then nobody would bother paying for the Time Capsule which uses SATA.

This will be effective for fanbois, but most sane people will just look at the Extreme and then walk over to the PC section and pick up a cheaper Netgear router with more features.



wait.... people still have printers without lan/w-lan?

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It's actually alot smaller than i imagined..

ME177_AV4
 
OK....just a very quick trawl though the specs of three similar(ish) devices from other manufacturers...


Do we notice any odd similarities...?

Gosh...no USB3.0
:eek:

At this stage, I don't know why everybody isn't using USB 3.0 for every new device. 3.0 is way faster and more CPU efficient.
 
The focus is on wireless.

No USB 3.0 because USB 2.0 is faster than the bandwidth of a wireless connection anyway.

The profile is to provide better wireless range and performance.

And only three wired ports because that's a secondary, edge case for this device.

I don't understand the one USB port though. This thing should be a hub for your shared printer and time machine backup drives.

USB 2 has a bandwidth well below the 1gbps wireless connection. The thing is, I don't have anything that uses USB 3.

$100 extra for the 2TB Time Capsule version isn't that bad, but it seems like Apple is trying to prevent people from making their own "Time Capsule" by not putting a faster connection. Then again, they do give Macs great support for hosting Time Machine network shares.
 
wait.... people still have printers without lan/w-lan?

I've never seen an HP printer with lan/w-lan that actually works over the network without connecting to a Mac or AirPort with USB. It works sometimes or maybe just the first 10 times... And they're always a nightmare to set up.

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This will be effective for fanbois, but most sane people will just look at the Extreme and then walk over to the PC section and pick up a cheaper Netgear router with more features.

I just switched my router to an AirPort Extreme (the old one) mainly because the other routers require you to use a stupid, clunky web service to set them up (https://192.168.1.1). It's a pain if you're dealing with port forwardings to non-standard ports. And surprisingly, the range is a LOT better than the other router, which is actually newer than the AirPort. Besides, it's guaranteed to work well with Macs and iPhones when it comes to things like Bonjour and RADIUS, and you can extend its range if desired with an AirPort Express. Worth the extra $20.

Still, where is the audio port on it? Why doesn't this thing have AirPlay like the AirPort Express?
 
Now I want iFixit to strip down a Time Capsule and determine whether the HDD is user-upgradeable like on the previous TCs, at least this time it looks like you won't need a putty knife and a hair dryer to open the thing up!
 
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