Time Capsule/Airport Extreme good for me?

[willcapellaro]

Couple questions but I'll stick to the main point: I am thinking of buying a Time Capsule or Airport Extreme. I like the printing and backing up features of these devices but the real seller would be whether I will see any improved performance on wifi-connected devices. So I'll list my situation and would appreciate anybody helping me know how I can determine if that will be the case. Will probably upgrade to rMBP this year and want future phones and ipads to be future-proofed as well. Would like help decoding what my system can tell me and any buying advice.

Here's the current device situation:
Chicago Comcast cable modem (no cable TV) --> connected to the Comcast-supplied Netgear Rangemax WNR 3500 v2. I can't find easy specs for that.

Devices that use wifi:
• My 2010 MBP (usually ethernet)
• Wife's 2013 iMac (usually ethernet, but some Airplay mirroring)
• PS3, PSVita
• iphone 4S, iphone 4, iPad 1 (we do Airplay fairly often to ATV with these)
• Apple TV current gen

Here's a typical readout of my option-click of the wifi network.
PHY Mode: 801.11n
BSSID: (bunch of hex)
Channel: 6 (2.4 GHz)
Security: WPA2 Personal
RSSI: -50
Transmit Rate: 130
MCS Index: 15

And some speed tests...
MBP 2010 Speedtest on Ethernet:
Ping: 9ms
Download Speed: 23.99 Mbps
Upload Speed: 4.18 Mbps

MBP 2010 Speedtest on Wifi
Ping: 22 ms
Download: 5.0 Mbps
Upload: 4.0 Mbps

Thanks in advance, this stuff is greek to me.

 

[mfram]

You've got a mix of devices there. Some support 802.11g, some support the newer 802.11n. But putting them all on the same WiFi network, you are forced into the least-common denominator of 802.11g.

The good thing about the TC or the AEBS is that they will be able to create two networks. You can put the devices that support 802.11n on an N-only network and they will get faster WiFi speeds. The older 802.11g devices will stay on the slower network.

However, no matter what you buy now you will not be "future-proofed". In about another year, we should be seeing new devices based on a new, faster 802.11 protocol (probably 802.11ac). But only new devices will support that new protocol. You'd need a new base station later to support the newer devices.