Airport Extreme Alternatives

[bayswater]

I have a Gen 2 Airport Extreme I bought because the wifi router supplied by my ISP did not consistently support Apple devices. I added a Gen 1 Airport Express because the Extreme could not reach the upper floors. At the time, all I used it for was internet access for a laptop. Since then, we've added two more laptops, two iPads, and two desktops to the network, all talking to each other and backing up over wifi. The bandwidth of this current set up is not up to requirements.

The new Airport extreme seems much more expensive than competing products. So I'm wondering if there are alternatives that support Macs properly, give better wifi reach (the whole house), can have USB backup drives attached to them, and would give me a big increase in bandwidth.

[cuttime]

In the last year and a half I've gone through several high-end routers and their replacements and had nothing but agony with Asus, Buffalo, and Linksys. Caveat-I live in a very WiFi congested area. I finally, in an act of desperation, threw money at the latest Airport Extreme, and it was like coming up for a breath of air after being held under water. I've read countless reviews of WiFi routers, and you will always find the "this sucks" and "the best ever" reviews, but if you crunch the numbers I think you'll find that the Airport is rated with more satisfaction than any other router out there. Apple frequently has them available as refurbs. Beware that the latest Airport only supports USB 2 for some very odd reason.

[bayswater]

In the last year and a half I've gone through several high-end routers and their replacements and had nothing but agony with Asus, Buffalo, and Linksys. Caveat-I live in a very WiFi congested area. I finally, in an act of desperation, I threw money at the latest Airport Extreme, and it was like coming up for a breath of air after being held under water. I've read countless reviews of WiFi routers, and you will always find the "this sucks" and "the best ever" reviews, but if you crunch the numbers I think you'll find that the Airport is rated with more satisfaction than any other router out there. Apple frequently has them available as refurbs.

That's pretty much how I ended up with the Extreme I have. Everything else was a PITA. I hoped things had improved.

Beware that the latest Airport only supports USB 2 for some very odd reason.

Well that's not good news. I only use the USB connections for printing and Time Machine so it's not a big issue, but still -- time for Apple to move on.

[mikehalloran]

I don't understand why USB 2 is an issue. Backup drives should be spinners and printers will be no faster with USB 3. My printers support Ethernet so I don't bother with USB.

If you have any devices that support 802.11ac, you will really like the latest Airport or Time Capsule. It really is faster than gigabyte Ethernet. My son-in-law worked on that so I heard about the two camps: the engineers wanting the tower for better performance vs the design teams who wanted the flat look retained. Engineering won.

As has been mentioned, the refurb store generally has them in stock. $129 for the AirPort Extreme, $179 for the 2T Time Capsule and $279 for the 3T.
http://www.apple.com/shop/browse/home/s ... ccessories

My company finally dropped my need for a dedicated router for certain equipment. Being able to throw that damned thing away and put everything through the Apple made my life a lot easier. I now use an 8 port switch as the front end to expand my number of ports. Most of my devices do not support 802.11ac so Ethernet is faster for those.

[Phil O]

I now use an 8 port switch as the front end to expand my number of ports.

Which one do you use, Mike? Having good luck with it?

Phil

[mikehalloran]

I have a DLink gigabyte switch. It's three years old now and has been trouble free. It replaced an earlier 10/100 switch.

It used to be that you had a choice between a hub or a switch. The hub has poor performance by comparison but the switch was more expensive.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_switch

Nowadays, switches are inexpensive and you don't see hubs offered for sale anymore.

I think that any of the major names should be good. There are super-cheap no-names out there but I make a living with my gear so I'm not going with the unknown to save $25. Now that I can get a Linksys 16 port for $85 (less than I paid for the 8 three years ago), no reason to go generic without a warranty.

Unlike a router, these nothing to configure. In fact, I would avoid a combination router/switch for that reason.

The features to look for are gigabyte Ethernet, auto-sensing of port configuration (no more need for crossover cables) and, of course, enough ports to do the job. These are all standard features.

When I moved into this house eleven years ago, I bought a few hundred feet of CAT-5A and paid a kid from my church $100 to crawl under my house and run the cable to every room. 8 rooms, 8 ports, right? Well, I put a G4 back in service, there's my old WinXT laptop plus 2 printers...I should have bought a 16 port and am planning to get one soon. I'll see if I can get $15 for the 8 port on Craigslist.

As 802.11ac becomes a standard, that network will become obsolete but that will be a few years down the road.

[mikehalloran]

Back to the OP.

With the Apple routers, you use Airport Utility to configure instead of loggin in via a browser and hoping that it will support the version of Firefox you are using — after you get past the warnings that only an ancient version of Explorer is supported. No thanks.

In addition, you have access to free phone support from Apple. Check the New Hardware box when making the callback request.

Unlike the flat versions, the wireless/switch/router is identical between the AirPort Extreme and time Capsule towers. The circuit board has no connector for the HD cables so you can't just drop a drive into the AirPort Extreme II.

Unlike the flat Time Capsules, upgrading the internal drives is a major PIA. You need nimble fingers to handle the delicate cables and connectors (not for me) plus knowledge of which drives will work — the shape is a little different on compatible hard drives. There are techs who know and, when the 3-year AppleCare is up next year (I bought it with my wife's MBAir) I will pay someone to throw an 8T HD into it.

[bayswater]

As has been mentioned, the refurb store generally has them in stock. $129 for the AirPort Extreme, $179 for the 2T Time Capsule and $279 for the 3T.
http://www.apple.com/shop/browse/home/s ... ccessories

I guess that's the least painful route. I looked at Dlink and Linksys and the prices for equivalent functions are not a lot lower. And the price difference between the Extreme and the Time Capsule, is not much different from the price of a 2T drive. Presumably, read and write to a Time Capsule will be fast than an Extreme with an attached USB 2 drive.

[crescentoon55]

There are some very good wireless routers for under 100.00 now... check out this article in the NYTimes... http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/08/techn ... outer.html
My airport extreme was more than 3 years old and I purchased the TP Link... it has worked flawlessly.

[bayswater]

I saw that one, and it certainly looks good for the price. But it requires drivers they provide for printing (and the file server?), compared with the extreme which uses OS X for these functions. So you depend on a third party for updates and future support, something that ha cost me a lot of money in the past. In fact it's how I ended up with the Extreme II. I had a 2wire router that stopped working somewhere around Lion.

[Phil O]

...When I moved into this house eleven years ago, I bought a few hundred feet of CAT-5A and paid a kid from my church $100 to crawl under my house and run the cable to every room. 8 rooms, 8 ports, right? Well, I put a G4 back in service, there's my old WinXT laptop plus 2 printers...I should have bought a 16 port and am planning to get one soon...

I'm planning on doing something similar at my house. I've already run 2 lines to the attic (for my second floor). When we did some renovations I installed a PVC pipe chase from basement to attic. Best idea I ever had. Thank you for the info, and your time. I'm sure I speak for all cornies when I say your posts here are greatly appreciated.

Phil

[HCMarkus]

I, too, have enjoyed my recently purchased TP link (Archer C7, as reviewed by The Wirecutter), but doubt it will do what you need your router to do Bays.

[bayswater]

but doubt it will do what you need your router to do Bays.

Thanks. I'm going to start by moving my Extreme to a central location to see if I can dispense with the Express being used as a repeater, and get the corresponding speed increase. If that doesn't work, I'll probably get a refurb Extreme 5.