Atroz

HI,

My 100Mbit Wireless N Airport Extreme lost its' wireless today. The wired part is still running fine, but I can't get a signal out of it for wireless. Did a quick search on Apple's support forms and apparently they are still using a 'wireless card' in their base stations which have been known to fail.

It is just over 11 months old, so still under warranty I believe. I tried looking it up on their website and they couldn't locate the Serial number. I ordered it online and do have the receipt so I should be good.

Problem is, I REALLY don't want to go without my router for a while. So I got thinking about the new Time Capsule. Unfortunately Apple is not shipping them yet. They're still flagged as "February".

My warranty runs out in 3 weeks. Do I take a chance that Apple will ship, and I'll receive a 1TB Time Capsule before my warranty expires on March 7th? That way I won't be without a router. Afterwards I could look at using the repaired base station as an extension or perhaps just sell it off.

I also wonder if the Time Capsule is worth it? I've got an external drive already for backups but it's getting close to being full. Some day I'll have too much on the Mac's HD to fit on the backup. Still, it's $600 (w/taxes), which is quite a lot. I worry though that it's not real expandable and I could end up wanting to replace it later. All-in-One units like this tend to scare me.

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"Do the Right Thing. It will gratify some people and astound the rest." - Mark Twain

cap10subtext

They tend to scare me too. I really wanted a Time Capsule too but I just can't justify the $$. ESPECIALLY because it's gen 1 technology. Always a gamble. And yet I still want one... the thought of speedy wireless backups makes me want to void the warrantee of my macbook CD to cram an 'n' card in it.

Do you have another/spare computer with an airport you could share your internet connection through for a few days while you get the extreme fixed? It sounds like you could probably squeak it just under the wire unless TC gets delayed... After all you'd have between 11 and 7 days between when the TC may be released and when your extreme expires. If it takes 10 business days to ship from the 25th and you take the extreme in on the 7th, you'll be without a router for a weekend.

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Atroz

After writing the previous content, I realized that I had an Airport Express that was serving as a AirTunes distribution which I could re-purpose for now. I just went and dug it out and set it up as a bridge off the AEBS. So, that's gotten me back Wireless G for now. If I have to go without my AEBS for a while, I'll have to switch the extreme over to being a full firewall/router then run everything else in the house off Wifi since there's no extra Ethernet ports on the Express. Normally I have a mix with some Ethernet devices. The only thing that I'd really have to go without is my LAN attached printer (which I could switch to USB if I had to). Other devices would work with WIFI.

So, I guess the pressure is off on deciding on buying a Time Capsule for now. Still, be nice to have one some day.

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"Do the Right Thing. It will gratify some people and astound the rest." - Mark Twain