Two Airport Extreme Questions

[HardwareFan]

Hi,
I have two questions regarding the potential purchase of an Airport Extreme:

1) Have there been any posts around here on when we might see a new version of the Airport Extreme? (I can't locate any). I'm wondering if I should wait a month or two before picking one up.

2) I have never actually handled a network built around an Extreme and I'm debating how many clients I want to hardwire in. I know I will hardwire in a NAS, an HTPC, and an XBOX360. I will perhaps also want to hardwire in a mac desktop and a time capsule. So my question(s) is: does the extreme need a gigaswitch to properly handle the traffic from the hardwired clients? and which switches generally seem to work best with apple's products? I will have pc's on the network wirelessly.

 

[FlatlinerG]

Hi,
I have two questions regarding the potential purchase of an Airport Extreme:

1) Have there been any posts around here on when we might see a new version of the Airport Extreme? (I can't locate any). I'm wondering if I should wait a month or two before picking one up.

2) I have never actually handled a network built around an Extreme and I'm debating how many clients I want to hardwire in. I know I will hardwire in a NAS, an HTPC, and an XBOX360. I will perhaps also want to hardwire in a mac desktop and a time capsule. So my question(s) is: does the extreme need a gigaswitch to properly handle the traffic from the hardwired clients? and which switches generally seem to work best with apple's products? I will have pc's on the network wirelessly.

1) Doubtful, no real need for hardware updates to the current Airport lineup.

2) If you might be picking up a Time Capsule anyway, why bother getting an Airport Extreme when the Time Capsule will do the same AND be it's own external hard drive?

 

[HardwareFan]

1) Doubtful, no real need for hardware updates to the current Airport lineup.

2) If you might be picking up a Time Capsule anyway, why bother getting an Airport Extreme when the Time Capsule will do the same AND be it's own external hard drive?

I have a 3rd gen Time capsule already - my understanding is that the latest Extreme has superior routing capabilities (better equipment inside). Is that not the case? This review http://www.anandtech.com/show/4577/...and-time-capsule-4th-gen-review-faster-wifi-/ is what I've seen on the topic.

 

[michelg1970]

Hi,
I have two questions regarding the potential purchase of an Airport Extreme:

1) Have there been any posts around here on when we might see a new version of the Airport Extreme? (I can't locate any). I'm wondering if I should wait a month or two before picking one up.

2) I have never actually handled a network built around an Extreme and I'm debating how many clients I want to hardwire in. I know I will hardwire in a NAS, an HTPC, and an XBOX360. I will perhaps also want to hardwire in a mac desktop and a time capsule. So my question(s) is: does the extreme need a gigaswitch to properly handle the traffic from the hardwired clients? and which switches generally seem to work best with apple's products? I will have pc's on the network wirelessly.

No need to hardwire a Time Capsule to your extreme: just plug in a USB hard disk in the USB port and the AE becomes a time machine. Works for me.

Any AE and TM have only four LAN connection of which one is reserved for WAN so basically you can only hard wire 3 machines into one AE. Any better brand gigabit switch will do. I use a net gear switch and have now 6 hardwired connections without any problems (for normal use). Don't expect all hardwires running at full load to give 1 Gb/s at the same time though!

 

[BreakGuy]

1) Have there been any posts around here on when we might see a new version of the Airport Extreme? (I can't locate any). I'm wondering if I should wait a month or two before picking one up.

802.11ac will be the next update to the AirPort line. When this happens is anyone's guess. Have a look into 802.11ac and see if you feel it's worth waiting for, if not, go for one now.

Question two has been sufficiently covered above.