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212 of 220 humans found the following review helpful.
Network Moron Friendly
By S. Chadwick
Ah jeez, what may I say. I may do most anything with a computer, Apple or PC, but when I try to configure a network, gremlins keep any of it from working. When my Netgear “lost it is settings” spontaneously, they were kind sufficient at technical help to offer to repair it for me for 99 bucks. When I declined they offered up that I might go to their internetsite for support tips. But I had expended too galore hours when I original purchased that router, I was done. So I purchased this router and it is just like other reviewers have said: plug it in, stick in the disk, answer a few simple questions, and it’s done. THIS is how buyers LIKE computers to work. Bemoan the higher price tag if you want, but I will compensate a little extra for things that just do their dang occupation and don’t irritate me NEEDLESLY!
269 of 286 humans found the following review helpful.
Continues to be gold frequent for easy wireless
By M. J. Mccaffrey
This review is going to mention a number of products–because a wireless network is all when it comes to infrastructure and integration. I purchased the AirPort Extreme to pull a number of other gimmicks together, so I hope shoppers giving careful consideration to it will find this kind of review useful.
Since 2001 I have used the original AirPort (graphite), the AirPort Extreme (2003) with modem, and a host of Netgear and Linksys wireless routers to set up 802.11x networks at work and at home. The latter work well in their applications, and this review is not intended to knock any of them.
Apple M8209LL/A AirPort Base Station
Apple M8799LL/A AirPort Extreme Base Station with Modem and Antenna Port
But at home, I’m not a masochist. I want my networking system to work with my gear, and I don’t want to spend hours setting it up and more hours dealing with changes to my system.
When we substituted our home theater scheme after an instrumentation meltdown (thankfully insured), I wanted to add a Logitech Squeezebox to the receiver, streaming music from a ReadyNAS Duo. The problem was that the older AirPort Extreme was in our office at one end of the house, and didn’t have the range to reach the family room where the Squeezebox receiver is located.
Netgear ReadyNAS Duo 2-Bay (Diskless) Desktop Network Storage RND2000
Logitech Squeezebox Duet WiFi Internet Radio
My introductory thought was to add an AirPort Express as an extender–plug it in at a suitable halfway point and grant it to extend the network. This was only half the solution, because the most recent AirPort Express is an 802.11N-centric device, and it proved to be closely out of the question to set up a stable Wireless Distribution System (WDS) with the older AirPort Extreme.
Apple Airport Express
The solution turned out to be recognizing that, gradually, all of the wireless gadgets in our home now support at least 802.11G, and our computers all support 802.11N. On AirPort gimmicks that likewise aid 802.11N, it turns out that Apple has produced a much less sophisticated way to link AirPorts in an extended network.
The new AirPort Extreme arrived two days ago. Installation was classic Apple: open, remove plastic cling wrap, and plug in. Using AirPort Utility, I entered the new base station and network passwords, and necessitated to reset my cable modem to grant it to recognize the new MAC address it was feeding. (I must likewise note that AirPort Utility permitted me to view the settings of the OLD AirPort while I was setting up the NEW AirPort.) Installation took a grand total of 12 minutes, including slitting the packing tape on the shipping box.
The second step was setting up the AirPort Express. This involved setting a base station password, naming it, and then following the three step procedure in the Help menu for “Extending a Wireless Network.” The steps are: Click a checkbox in the AirPort Extreme’s settings to “Allow This Wireless Network To Be Extended,” choose a popup menu item in the AirPort Express’s settings to “Extend a wireless network”, and tell the AirPort Express which network it is extending along with password.
Once settings are saved, the network is extended. Using the 802.11N frequent still involves a little hit in networking speed, but because of the mainly increased throughput it’s not as huge a decrease as in earlier versions.
This kind of configuration would have involved multiple instances of altering IP addresses, network SSIDs, and finger-crossing with other routers. (Believe me, I’ve done it successfully, and I plan for a two-hour session, even with known configurations.)
With the AirPort Extreme and Express, it just happened. My Squeezebox is now happily streaming music to the receiver, TiVo is receiving streamed programs from Netflix with (almost) no rebuffering–a huge improvement–and both my spouse and I are happily living in the 21st Century!
TiVo TCD652160 HD Digital Video Recorder
TiVo AG0100 Wireless G USB Network Adapter for TiVo Series 2 and Series 3 DVRs
As I said at the top, I don’t want to spend hours tearing detached and troubleshooting my network at home–home is for relaxing and enjoying time with friends and family. The AirPort Extreme is idealisti as one building block of that equation.
89 of 93 persons found the following review helpful.
Great Home Networking All-In-One Router, WiFi AP, NAS, & Print Server
By Recovering SWO
Purchased from a military exchange.
BOTTOM LINE UP FRONT:
REQUIRED:
Management Utility requires a downstream computer running a recent version of Windows or OSX.
NOT DESIGNED TO BE MANAGED FROM A LINUX CLIENT.
PROS:
-No integrated web server for modifying device settings (must use AirPort Utility)
-Manual Setup option includes all of the necessary tools to secure your network
-Integration of External Hard Drives thru integrated USB Port is SUPER easy (just plug it in)
-Supports USB Hubs for more drives/printer sharing (I haven’t tried this)
-Supports Full US 101 Keyboard Character Set in Passwords/Pass Phrases
-Works great in a “Double NAT” network environment
CONS:
-Only three integrated “downstream” ethernet ports
-Only one status light for system health
EXCRUCIATING DETAILS:
NETWORKING:
I purchased this router to better secure my mixed-platform network and support our family’s transition from WinXP to Mac. I ran the introductory setup from a “Wired” PC and went without delay to the Manual Setup. Transition of all of my network widgets from my older subnet to the new subnet was painless once I got over my own boneheaded mistakes. Throughput on the wireless side of my home network was increased significantly (as advertised) vs. my older Linksys Router. I’ve kept the older subnet to aid a good deal of WiFi gimmicks that can’t help the latest security protocols. Despite the Armageddon like proclamations when it comes to “Double NAT-ing” I’ve experienced utterly no difficultnesses with our internet enabled appliances accessing the internet.
AIR DISK:
For me this was for the most part painless, but there are some limitations worth noting. AEBS does not aid NTFS, notwithstanding this is a non-issue (keep reading to see why). AEBS supports FAT32 and HFS+ (FAT32 is grossly inadequate for progressed hard drive sizes and hard drive effigy archival).
PLEASE NOTE: If using an AirPort Extreme Base Station, even for a Windows environment, I commend that you get a disk preformatted for HFS+ (Mac OS Extended). This will give you all of the progressed storage capablenesses of a innovative file scheme and the AEBS comes with software that will translate the HFS+ disk into FAT32 for your Windows PCs. SOME LEGACY SOFTWARE (in my case Ghost v9) will self-impose a 4GB file size limitation (part of the FAT32 specification), but Windows itself will roll with it.
TIME MACHINE WITH AIR DISK (I no longer commend use of this undocumented feature):
There is a procedure for enabling an AirDisk for use with Time Machine. It’s a NON-SUPPORTED/UNDOCUMENTED FEATURE of the AEBS. The routine is very simple and requires no progressed cognition (just a normal capacity to follow instructions). I won’t list the routine here because this is a product review (“google” Time machine and AirPort Extreme). However, don’t call Apple for help with this as it’s not officially supported.
(UPDATE APR 2011) – This will work for a month or two, and then unexpectedly quit. Further examination conveyed a progressive build up of file scheme errors due to the way Time Machine interacts with target volumes (most likely the WHY behind Apple’s decision not to support this feature). As a result, I quit using the AirDisk with Time Machine workaround and I now use a FireWire drive connected to a Mac as our Time Machine target.
OVERALL:
I think this is a great product for any networking environs that includes Macs. This solution must likewise be considered in Mixed Mac and Windows environments. The features on this router are optimized for the OS X operating system, so those utilizing a Windows only surroundings ought to recompense close attention to the FAT32 limitations of the AirDisk feture.
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