Apple Airport Extreme 802.11n Gigabit Router Review
In light of our Independence Day, I too wished to declare a sort of independence. Not from the iron fist rule of a world super power, or for any particular rights; however, my declaration was far more nerdy. I hereby declare myself free from the slower speed, range, and bandwidth of my very old Linksys router. Ladies and gentlemen, enter the Apple Airport Extreme.
So this is basically a brief review of my experiences with the Apple Airport Extreme router. As a piece of networking hardware, I was a bit skeptical to stray from the standards and reputation set forth by Cisco/Linksys. I used to strictly purchase Linksys networking hardware, and it’s a well known fact that Cisco is what an enterprise company’s networking dreams are made of. Their unison was highly anticipated by the computing community, and it didn’t disappoint.
I wanted to give Apple a try though. Their “Bonjour” networking technology, afterall, is famous in the networking world for its simplicity. Plus, the hardware could be connected to multiple hard drives and printers via a USB interface (USB hub required for more than one device). This, in turn, provided all the computers on the network wireless printing and remote storage.
Ease of Configuration: 5/5
- In a phrase, this was an absolute breeze. My network consists of computers running Mac OS X Leopard, Windows XP, Windows Server 2008, and Ubuntu Linux, so I needed a router which could seamlessly network all of them. Most modern day routers have this ability, but the Airport Extreme was absolutely amazing. The Airport Utility (provided as a CD with the hardware) can be installed on Windows and OS X and allows users to remotely configure the router.
- I attached a USB printer to the router, and in all honestly, it took me less than ten minutes to configure five computers (two Linux, two Windows, and one Mac OS X).
- Though the router boasts four gigabit ethernet ports, one of them is dedicated for the WAN (for example, a cable/DSL modem connection). This only leaves three ports available for connection directly to computers, whereas most other routers have at least four. I wish there could have been five gigabit ports (1 for WAN and 4 for LAN).
- In terms of wireless range, the Airport Extreme doesn’t provide anything special. I’ve read other reviews saying that it exceeds the range of the previous generation Airport hardware; however, it’s no greater than my 802.11a/b Linksys router.
- Considering that this router is a print server, an external storage repository, a gigabit router, and an 802.11n wireless broadcaster, $200 isn’t bad at all. Also considering that this is a piece of Apple hardware, it was worth the expense. =).
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Posted 3 years, 3 months ago
I don’t get this review – you say you use Linux and yet you praise the Airport utility for it’s ease of use.
How easy is it to use when there’s not a version for your OS?
There’s a good reason why the others use html configuration utities. You don’t need to install anything and they work across all platforms. This is just another case of Apple doing things their own way and assuming that you’re using only their products.
Posted 3 years, 3 months ago
At the time I wrote this review, I was using Linux on my notebook (as well as a test box) and accessed the router via the wireless interface. I had no need to configure the router from Linux as I had it directly connected to a Windows box. Also, I mentioned that the Airport Utility could only run on Windows and OS X. I agree with your comments regarding the benefits of HTML configuration pages as seen with Cisco, Netgear, etc.; however, the Apple loyalists out there will always succumb to Cupertino’s products, regardless of how ridiculous some of the “features” are. Thanks for your opinions though.