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Airport Extreme Base Station?

2952 Views 10 Replies 10 Participants Last post by  madhatress, 
D
I've been looking around for a router for a while now, my last 2 d-links don't seem to like my macs, as soon as either one of them connects to it it restarts and everyone's disconnected until it reboots. So my question is, should I get a Airport Extreme Base Station? Is it worth it? None my of computers are 802.11n equipped, and 8 months a year only 2 macs are connected to the network as I live away from home for university.
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monokitty
Definitely get an AirPort Extreme (or Express). Third-party routers, regardless the brand or type, just don't compare to the reliability and ease-of-use of the Extreme base stations with Macs. (Personal experiences may vary.) I've had few issues with my AirPort Express, and the last time I had any issue with it at all was over a year ago.
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G
If none of your computers are 802.11N equipped, I would look into buying a used Express base station. I saw a couple on this forum not too long ago for sub-$100.

I personally haven't had any problems with my Linksys WRT54G router that I've had for close to 2 years now.
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Paddy
Well, I've been happy with mine for almost 2 years (I don't have the latest one, - mine's an 802.11g). I had a wired MacSense, which was great, then a couple of D-Links (terrible - the last one was returned to Circuit City and exchanged for a Linksys) The Linksys was great - for a while. Then it started dropping connections right and left and just generally being a nuisance. At that point I decided to spend the $$$ and get something that "just worked" - and it did. And I'm happy. :)

We've got various laptops and two desktops connected wirelessly all over the house, and my primary desktop (G5) is a wired connection. I did have to add an Express to boost the signal to the farthest reaches of the house when we moved back to Toronto - this house is different shape than our last house and the signal just didn't get to the farthest reaches of the basement from the other end of the first floor. But I also now have better signal strength throughout the house than I did in the last house as a result. The newest Airport Extreme might have better range, but I only have one Mac with 802.11n at the moment, so I'll wait a bit before I upgrade.
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Demosthenes X
I had a LinkSys, never liked it. Replaced it with a D-link recently, and have had no trouble getting my Mac or my dad's new Vista laptop running wirelessly. But if money had not been a consideration, I would have gone with the Airport Extreme.
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D
Well being a student makes the Airport Extreme Base Station a bit cheaper ($180), and not to mention that its only $150 in the refurbished section. Although that still makes it 3x the cost of most routers at computer stores, I think I'll go for it. I'm tired of having to keep my macs connected via ethernet cables to make sure everything works properly. I mean I don't mind having to use a ethernet cable the Mac mini since it's always in the same place, but it's another story with the MacBook, I hate being tied down with the ethernet.
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H
gizmo321 said:
I personally haven't had any problems with my Linksys WRT54G router that I've had for close to 2 years now.
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I had a v1.0 of the WRT54G(4 years old?), problem after problem after problem, it was just a pain, constantly turning off the wifi when doing file transfers, poor signal strength, and it finally died a few months ago (I used it as a signal repeater). I switched to a Belkin Pre-N, much better than it.

I was at Laval and picked up a EOL Airport Extreme (no gigabit, all the computers are wireless so no big deal) the software, especially on the mac side is awesome, this is by far the easiest way to set up a router.
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Paddy said:
...The Linksys was great - for a while. Then it started dropping connections right and left and just generally being a nuisance. At that point I decided to spend the $$$ and get something that "just worked" - and it did. And I'm happy. :)
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I had the same issues with Linksys too! :mad:

I then ended up getting a Buffalo Tech G router - mainly because it worked seamlessly with the Airport Express as a repeater.

I now have a Buffalo Tech dual band (A,B,N,G) router. I just installed it this past weekend. It's got two separate networks, one for A/N and the other for B/G. It's fast and it's got great range - so much that I don't need a repeater anymore!

These are also easy to setup; I'm a non-tech and set it up in a few minutes.
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C
If I had the money, I'd have bought a Airport Extreme N base station, but I didn't. I have a D-Link Wireless G (the cheapo one), that works pretty well when I am near it (speeds around 2.5 mbps), which is not as fast when I have it wired, but it was one fifth the cost of the Airport. Suffice it to say I am pretty happy with my D-Links...
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jicon
I have the WRT54G (v3 I believe...) which supported different firmware updates from others to create web servers, or FTP servers ON the actual device if ever needed. (V5 or later no longer supported this) Awesome router for boosting signal strength with custom built antennae, etc. Never really had an issue with it, and the software makes it quite flexible to use.

I've also got the new extreme basestation from Apple, and I've had trouble keeping configuration settings, it isn't as configurable as the Linksys, and only has three hardwired ports on the back (Originally only 100Mbit, but I see the newer model released the other week now supports gigabit). The USB HDD option is a step in the right direction (Though somewhat limited in use compared to a proper NAS device - slow speeds, and I'm unsure how Linux machines can connect).

The signal strength has never been an issue, and has some neat alert features. Airport Utility will actually fire up and report that there is a problem if your cable modem or LAN loses connectivity.
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madhatress
I got the extreme a few weeks ago, and I love it. I especially like the fact that you can attach a printer or a USB drive to it. I haven't tried a printer yet, but the USB drive works fine!

Oh, and I got mine from ebay. With shipping, it cost me about $130 CAN. :D
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