I have been using many wireless routers (Linksys, D-Link, SMC, Netgear, Siemens…) over the years, since the early days of 802.11b, but this is my first experience with an Apple router.

There is no need to comment on the manufacturing quality, design and packaging: in typical Apple fashion, they’re miles ahead of the competition. For instance, unlike all the other routers I ever used that came with a 110v only power supply, the Airport Extreme Base Station (AEBS for short) comes with a universal worldwide power supply equipped with a standard power cord.

Performancewise, it is exceptional. I have been putting it through its paces over the past few days and it’s barely breaking a sweat in situations where my previous routers (Linksys WRT54G and Netgear WGN824) would progressively get slower, or just plain crash and require a reboot. Coverage is excellent, better than my WGN824’s which was already quite impressive.

Apple has traditionally be doing things differently, and it shows here again: unlike most routers, which are managed by accessing a built-in web server, this router can only be configured using the “Airport Utility” configuration program. The bundled CD contains a Mac OS X and a Windows version of the utility (I can already hear groans from the Linux geeks). The utility is extremely simple to use, although I haven’t tried to use the more advanced features such as setting up another router like the Airport Express as a range extender.

One problem you might run into is the lack of support for “legacy” devices: although the AEBS offers a compatibility mode with WEP devices called “WEP (Transitional)” which lets WEP and WPA coexist, this mode imposes restrictions on the keys that may not work for you (for instance you won’t be able to reuse an existing 40-bit WEP key). The problem is that WEP-40 and WEP-128 are not compatible with the 802.11n standard, so you have to choose between speed or full backwards compatibility. Also, you should know that WEP-40 and WEP-128 are not very secure: there are utilities out there that can crack these keys easily.

Note that 802.11n gives a significant speed boost to the AppleTV and laptops equipped with compatible cards (such as Apple’s Core 2 Duo laptops with the 802.11n enabler installed — you can find the enabler on the AEBS CD). Unless you own one of these machines, there is no harm in switching to a non-802.11n radio mode. How? Just hold the command key (or control on Windows) while clicking on the “Radio Mode” popup in the Wireless tab of the AEBS configuration utility. Extra, non-n modes appear in the list, and once one is selected the WEP-40 and WEP-128 modes become available under Security. If you select WEP-40 or WEP-128 security, you can enter a hex key by prefixing it with a dollar sign.

The AEBS also comes with a versatile USB port, which can be used to attach hard disks and/or a printer (USB hubs are supported). Unlike other base stations or NAS boxes, the AEBS does not require that you reformat the disk; all you have to do is plug it in and voilà! Instant NAS, all your files show up on the network. Some very basic access control features are provided. I plugged in the external USB drive I use to backup my MacBook, and now I can do automated backups without having to worry about remembering to plug in the drive: it just works wirelessly. The AEBS also lets you share a USB printer.

In conclusion, this router is a fantastic performer. Although it’s one of the most expensive 802.11n routers out there, its feature set, build quality, performance and top-notch customer support more than make up for the price difference. I recommend it highly.
Rating: 5 / 5

Just got the new Airport Extreme “n” version. We were replacing a really old Airport Base Station we’ve had in the home office since 2001.

First here is a list of items that connect wirelessly throughout our home:

iBook 500mz, w/standard Airport card

iMac Core 2 Duo 24″, w/Airport Extreme card

Nintendo Wii

Tivo, Series 2

Tivo, Series 2 Humax DVD

HP Officejet 7410

The switchover went fairly smoothly – plugged in the Airport Extreme, switch the Ethernet cables from the Linksys Router (we has DSL coming in), then went about configuring it. Only took a couple of minutes. Then went to the Macs and selected new network, and was was connected!

The Wii was the same, very easy to just select the new network.

The Tivo caused a bit of a problem, both connected via Linksys WUSB11 Wireless-B USB Network Adapter, and even though I set up the AE to be B & G compatible, Tivo would not accept it. In the end I purch 2 Tivo “G” Network Adapters ($100 for both) and then configured Tivo.

Here is a rundown of assumed speed increases, please note no benchmark testing was performed-this is just my perceptions!

iBook-nada, same as before

iMac-faster (finally the Airport Exteme card could take advantage of “G” network

Wii-no idea! Don’t know internal specs

Tivo-Big increase in transfering programs between Tivos-actually makes it worthwhile, and a general increase in getting updates etc.

The negative of course, is we are not taking advantage of the “n” network because no one supports it!! We gained because we went from “B” to “G”. I will probably rant went we need to replace all the network adapters and airport cards when the hardware becomes available for “n”.

One final benefit we will be using, is the option to add a NAS USB Hard Drive (AirDisk), we are looking at the NewerTech miniStack, as it has the same footprint and will hopefully stack below the AE.
Rating: 5 / 5

This is a great wireless router. One of the most interesting features, and the one that confirmed my decision to buy, is the USB port for connecting hard drives(driveS as in up to 7 at a time) and printers. 802.11n is so much faster than g, and the increase in range is very nice. Another thing I’m quite fond of with this unit is the new AirPort Utility. Web interfaces for configuring routers have always annoyed me, so this actual application is great. I think my only gripe, and the reason I deducted a star, is that Apple didn’t put gigabit ethernet ports on the back. It makes absolutely no sense, as every current Mac has gigabit ethernet built-in.

The USB port on this device hosts hard drives and printers. Do be warned though, it is somewhat finicky about which types of drives will work properly. I have no problems with a Western Digital MyBook drive, but a generic enclosure I have doesn’t work very well.

I have found the range of 802.11n to be very much better than that of g. Where I had trouble keeping up a signal with the old g station, this n station has a full signal. Also, the ability to change the router to the 5GHz band is quite welcome. Several of my neighbors have wireless routers installed which causes a lot of interference on the 2.4GHz band, so changing to 5GHz has helped a lot. The speed is also nice, but I don’t really rely on wireless for huge file transfers so it hasn’t provided a big advantage for me.

The AirPort utility is great. When the base station starts up it scans the configuration for (what Apple considers to be) errors and reports them. It will throw an error if you don’t set a password, which is an incredibly good thing. So many people set up wireless stations and leave them wide open because they don’t know any better. This one actually tells you that you’re doing something wrong until you fix it. The light on the front flashes orange until you fix any errors, at which point it will turn green. The utility also features a search field, so if you’re daunted by all the options you can just search for what you need.

Now my gripe. The three ethernet ports on the back are only 100Mbit. Why in the world would they do this? As I said above every current mac has GigE, so this makes no sense at all. The point of upgrading the router to n standard is to have the fastest possible technology, and having wireless devices on n and wired on 100Mbit is ridiculous. GigE wired and n wireless would mix wonderfully. I have my N router connected to a GigE switch to combat this shortcoming, but it’s still unacceptable.

That said,

My fear at this point is: that Apple will introduce a version with GigE in the next few months. That would totally suck for everyone who has bought one of these already.

My hope at this point is: that the ethernet chipset on this devices is actually GigE, and the limitation to 100Mbit was due to a software instability that is being worked out behind the scenes at Apple HQ, and there will be a firmware update. This delusion, and that’s all it is, helped me get over the GigE thing and decide to buy one.

And all things considered, I’m still really happy with my purchase of this device.
Rating: 4 / 5