Customer Reviews

Apple AirPort Extreme Base Station MA073LL/A [OLD VERSION]

5 star:		(41)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

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.

I owned the previous model, and never had any problems with it, so I upgraded to this one. No dropped signals, a very solid WiFi network. Works with both my Wifi-N based Mac, as well as PC's.

However, this unit also allows you to share several hard drives. Unlike some network attached unit makers, the Apple product does NOT require you to format the hard drive to a special format. Just take existing hard drives and share them onto the network. You will have to move all of the files to a shared directory, but this allows you to not share the entire drive, if you desire.

Only one USB port is provided, but you can attach a hub and use multiple hard drives, as well as a printer. Network printing and hard drives are the way to go if you have several computers. This allows you to print anywhere and backup to one common location.

If you are upgrading to this product from the previous Apple router, make sure you remove your old airport utilities. They do not work with the new hardware.

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.

This Airport Extreme Base Stations ROCKS the house. I'm using it to connect wirelessly to a FW800 Dualie, G4 1.42 MacMini, a B&W Smurf and mainly my MacBook Pro C2D 2.33 using OSX and BootCamp WinXP. I couldn't configure the AEBS strictly for the MBP since I needed to connect with G wireless adapters. I also set up an AirPort Disk (some old FW/USB 2.0 external drive I had lying around). It was setup with two partitions. Works like a charm. I also have a SlingBox Pro running over ethernet and that works perfectly with the AEBS. Some guy named derek in the Sling Community forums figured out how to get it working on the AEBS and gave detailed instructions.

The RangeMax MIMO I was using with WPA2 was dropping connections every few hours although it put out a strong signal. I had to keep resetting the RangeMax which was very annoying. With the AEBS I get a strong signal and I haven't had any dropped connections. I'm using OSX.4 Server and my MacBook Pro sometimes couldn't connect to shared drives because they didn't always show up in the Network Window. My other machines saw the drives with their G wireless cards, but the Atheros chipset didn't always see them. Very frustrating. Using the AEBS, they show up every time on the MacBook Pro.

I had to give my WPA2 password 13 characters in order to have it connect to WinXP in BootCamp. Still no drivers for the Atheros chipset in WinXP so it only connects at 54 MB/s,

Overall I'd say the Airport Extreme Base Station is excellent. It's compact, solid and has very nice configuration software. The only mildly annoying thing about it is when you make minor configuration changes, the AEBS has to restart and that takes a bit of time. And no external antennas or provisions for them. Still, it's worth it. I look for long usage with this product. Way to go Apple.

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.

If this is going to work for anybody it's going to be me, and it absolutely does. I live in an apartment and use two Macs, a desktop and a laptop. Previously I had tried out a Netgear wireless router which I dropped in the trash after it couldn't even keep a steady connection with the desktop that was hardwired into it. I'm not a militant Apple person but I figured if I had two Macs, an Apple router was the way to go, and I was correct. I can't speak for the ease of installation with a PC, but judging from the PC I use at work it might not be pretty. (Although to be fair, XP plug and play is better than it gets credit for in my experience.) With my two Macs at home, it was ridiculously simple. Plug it in, run the set up utility and you are in business. I have my desktop hardwired into it, and my laptop obviously wirelessly connected, and both connections are much more solid than I had hoped. I experience maybe one hiccup in the connection a week on the laptop and the desktop is flawless. (My Netgear router couldn't even maintain the desktop wired connection.) I wasn't expecting much from the USB port, I figured I would plug in my HP Laserjet and see what happened. To my surprise it worked immediately and I was able to easily print from both computers. Not only that, but I quickly tested the USB port with a thumbdrive and that worked easily as well. It's also worth mentioning that the setup utility is pretty easy and intuitive, especially when dealing with security which is useful when you live in an apartment building where everyone with a laptop is licking their chops to borrow your bandwidth.

So to summarize, I have this set up in my apartment with two Macs. The range is excellent, I have full signal wirelessly at all times, no problems with the wired connection and was easily able to network my printer and share files from a USB thumbdrive. My laptop internet connection is just as fast as the desktop that is wired and I have absolutely no complaints with this router. It's even nice to look at, although I wouldn't mind being able to turn off the status light completely. In my opinion it's worth the premium price to have a solid, no worry router.

UPDATE 4/7/2007- I decided to purchase an 80GB portable hard drive to share via my network with my two computers. I went ahead and bought a powered USB hub along with it in order to have both my printer and the drive shared. A word of warning, I had some trouble getting the hard drive set up. I hit the Apple forums and eventually was able to solve my problem and now everything works great, but according to my research it looks like I was hardly alone in having trouble. I'm not sure you can take any steps to avoid problems, so take it as you will, but now that everything is working it's great.

Please take note - this is not the current version of the AirPort extreme, it DOES NOT support Gigabit Ethernet. The current version is here Apple MB053LL/A AirPort Extreme Base Station (New).

Got mine about two weeks ago and all I can say is that it just works beautifully. Setup was a snap, no webpages or reading a manual to find out what the default IP address is, or anything like that. I configured this thing in 5 minutes literally (I'm a geek though) and have not touched it since then. I'm using all the features, cable router, wireless, sharing two disks and printing (using a small Belkin 4 port USB HUB) and all this functionality is just transparent on my Mac. Wireless signal quality is surprisingly good considering there are no antennas hanging out the device. Also, the disk sharing feature works quite fast over wireless, but you really feel the difference if you are wired though (I'm using G). It has a couple of minor drawbacks in my opinion, (1) lack of GigE, I don't care about it but can be a dealbreaker for some guys and (2) pricey if you just want a router. Although, if you think about all the features it makes sense to spend a few extra $.

I have had no problems using this base station and it works fabulously with my Mac Book Pro using 802.11N. The speed is great, no lost signal and the distance is fine for my home.

Amazingly, this product worked... right out of the box, and without me having to be a wireless networking guru! I am a very experienced computer user (have been building my own machines for over 10 years) and have now owned several different wireless routers. The key problem has always been getting all of the pieces of equipment to talk to each other. Well, this product worked right out of the box. I bought two of them, one for my base station and the other to plug my XBOX 360, Vonage adapter, and PS-2 into. Additionally, I have linked up a Sony laptop with a Netgear WPN511 PCMCIA card, my Nintendo Wii, and a MacBook pro to the network, all seemlessly with no issues! I will say that I set this system up on my Mac Pro desktop so I can't speak for the PC setup program. Finally, I shared out numerous drives and files between machines as well as a printer. All with no issues. I am using WPA2 security with a 45 character password with no issues. I highly recommend this product if you stream large files, or have other high bandwidth requirements.