Apple Airport Extreme Base Station Review
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http://live.pirillo.com/ – Since my Linksys router fried itself last week (with no clear explanation as to why), I decided to take this opportunity to see what all the fuss over Apple’s Airport Extreme Base Station was all about.
I took my $100 iPhone Rebate down to the Apple Store and purchased a unit – stopping short of also getting an Airport Express, since it currently doesn’t support the broadcast or extension of wireless N networks.
Setup was, indeed, exceedingly simple – although different from what I was expecting. I plugged one of my MacBook Pros into an open Ethernet port and jogged through Apple’s Airport Utility (after downloading the latest version). It told me that there was already new firmware available for the Airport base station – then proceeded to download and install it after prompting. That’s the way it should be with every router, IMHO – whether its config tool is browser-based or a binary.
I walked through the options and found just about everything I was looking for – including a nice (live) wireless signal meter for all connected clients. If I had attached an external drive via USB, it would have been quickly and easily discovered. Given the sour performance some people have reported with that configuration, I’m likely to stick with either NAS or networked drives on any one of my computers.
I like how you can assign a permanent DHCP address to any given client, too. Across the house, wireless N performance seems rather good.
What I couldn’t find, however, was a way to spoof the base station’s MAC address – which may be a requirement for me if Comcast Business forces me to go through a single MAC address. That’s a tremendous deal killer for some of us.
I was also a little baffled as to why there’s no easy way to download the latest version of the Airport Utility for Windows from the Web (instead, Windows users must install the tool directly from the CD first – which is rather asinine). Then again, since when has Apple been known to give a rip for Windows users (and vice versa).
No doubt about it: this is (by far) the most user friendly home networking router I’ve ever had the pleasure of using. If Comcast does what I expect it to do, I’ll likely have to relegate it to a bridge or a wireless extension device. If Verizon serviced my area with FIOS, life would be so much better…
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6 Comments
MyAppleMenu : Conversations In The Apple Community
October 3rd, 2007
at 6:31pm
Apple Airport Extreme Base Station Reviewby Chris Pirillo No doubt about it: this is (by far) the most user friendly home networking router I’ve ever had the pleasure of using.
jjprojects
October 2nd, 2007
at 4:25pm
I agree about it being user friendly Chris. I set one up over the weekend with 3 computers and 2 external HDs. I was expecting some teething problems, given that I had a few with my previous Linksys router.
It was quick and easy to set up, and it’s been smooth sailing so far. That’s the way I like.
Carlo Santoso
October 2nd, 2007
at 5:24pm
There’s no easy way to download the latest version of the Airport Utility for Mac either. Mac users also must install the tool directly from the CD first – which is rather asinine).
Constable Odo
October 2nd, 2007
at 8:47pm
I’ve been using one since they came out and have not had any problems using an attached USB drive (MiniStack v2/Seagate 400). I use BootCamp WinXP and Parallels 3.0 and the drive shows up without fail. I have the drive set with three partitions, so all the partitions pop up upon booting on my four Macs.
The only problem I’ve had with the Apple Extreme N Base station is there was this site I used to use (Sonakbi.com) that had streaming videos for WMP 10. It worked fine when I had my NetGear RangeMax MIMO, but after I installed the AEBSN I always got an error that the media can’t be found. I tried opening streaming ports and such, but I’ve yet to get the site to work properly. I think the NetGear’s PnP feature did the trick, but I’m not certain.
Other than that one problem the AEBSN is rock solid. I have mixed g/n wireless cards so most of the time I use it set for mixed. But occasionally I set it for n only and it can really do some fairly decent speed file copying from computer to computer.
Neil Anderson
October 2nd, 2007
at 9:12pm
Yep, mine works great too. And the Airport Express is very cool as well. :)
Eytan
October 3rd, 2007
at 1:43am
I have comcast, and never had a problem with Apple Routers. If they want a Mac address other than that of your cable modem, call them up and give them the one of your router – they will give you a signal on that, You don;t need to spoof the address of your laptop/desktop to the router.