Reviews for AirPort Extreme Base Station

I purchased this initially to utilise the network storage and printing features. I have now replaced my BT Homehub with the AP Extreme and have noticed a 40% speed increase on downloads, better Wi-Fi reception throughout the house and so far no need to reset. Also the Guest network and Access control features are great for restricting the kids internet usage.
The Airport utility made the setup a breeze too.

5 of 5 people found this useful

Firstly I work in IT (don’t judge me) but I am not a techy so I want something that basically just switches on and with the limited amount of effort get connected.

My Internet service provider is Virgin Media in the UK and I have the 30Mbps service. I have the Superhub (limited range etc) in modem mode as I wanted to extend the range with my own gear. I have previously run Netgear (still great products BTW) with a base unit and an extender which were fine but older units.

I had been considering Apple Airport products as everyone I speak to said they are very good and easy to set up but was struck on how expensive they seemed.

Well after buying an AirPort Extreme and an Express I don’t know why I had not done it sooner. This stuff is amazing. From connecting to the modem and setting up I was connected in 15 minutes with the Extreme as the base station and the Express as the extender. The Airport utility is very simple to use and there are even iOS versions.
Checking the Broadband speed anything from 28 to 31Mbps all of the time. We have 3 iPads, 2 iPhones, 1 Blackberry (yeah I know), a Windows 7 laptop, a Mac Mini and 2 Apple TV’s. All of them work seamlessly through the whole of the house and will even extend into the garden.

I did have an initial issue with the first Extreme I received and had to return it but the service I received from Apple was excellent. I generally but from Apple even though I can get it cheaper elsewhere.

If like me you are not sure about what to buy and don’t want to be bogged down by technical details on how to set things up then look no further than the Airport products.

25 of 31 people found this useful

I bought this to extend the range of my BT home hub 3. Very simple & easy to set up in less than five minutes. Works perfectly and has increased connection speeds to all my devices. I also got a standard Airport Express to connect my old Epson Laser to my wireless network and further extend my wifi downstairs. Another excellent Apple product that does exactly what is says it should.

12 of 19 people found this useful

Absolutely brilliant. Had replaced a Belkin 300Mbps router that was constantly crashing and failing to route traffic (note: never buy Belkin routers). It immediately increased the range of the network, increased further by the 5GHz band (for optimum performance change the name of the 5GHz network). It works fine with my ntl:250 modem. The setup was reasonably easy, but I still used Utility 5.6 to fine tune the router to my more advanced networking needs.
Far superior to many routers, the only brand that can really beat Apple is TP-LINK purely because they are so cheap. If you can afford it, the Extreme is brilliant and well worth the money.

16 of 19 people found this useful

Got the extreme working to replace BT Home hub 3 poor signal spot in house. Strength less than BT hub in same spot. Got an express to extend the network. Struggled so phoned apple support. Didn't fix anything same signal. So device moved about on advice from them. Suddenly the macs and iphone etc stopped recognising the network and also my airport utility kept crashing. Did everything again and again. So I have the same setup as before with better signal. Now have bought a repeater for £35, taking the two devices back tomorrow and with the £188 saved am going to spend on a weekend away to make up for the wasted one this device caused. Learnt my lesson "apples are not the only fruit." For an easy set up device it ain't.

11 of 31 people found this useful

This is an amazing product I used it to extend my network from bt hub as signal and speed was poor, but the AirPort Extreme made this all seem like it was a never existing problem and the wireless strength is good and it's fast

Highly recommended!!!!!

36 of 39 people found this useful

No complexity, just plug it. Fire up airport utility and a couple of clicks later you are up and running. No fuss or drama.

Adding an express to extend range even simpler. Plug it in. Airport utility came up with range extention as first option. Click ok, and all done. Took not even 5 mins.

19 of 21 people found this useful

We have BT Infinity broadband, but were getting little of the anticipated performance benefits, having only a fraction of the advertised speed and also constant dropouts (e.g. watching a program lasting an hour using Netflix would typically dropout 4 or 5 times). Our old MacBook would constantly need reconnecting.

We decided to 'bite the bullet' and buy Airport Extreme. What a difference! MacBook's speed increased 6 times! No dropouts! Apple TV works perfectly. My remote iMac now has a speedy and stable internet connection.

Drawbacks? Rather expensive - but at least for us- very good value. My one real gripe is the inadequate instructions. It took me a little while to set it up. Simple language that assumes no previous knowledge would have helped me set it up in seconds.

16 of 17 people found this useful

I bought this as I thought it would have better Wi-fi range than the BT Home hub 3.

It doesn't, it is (slightly) worse. Lots of other great features but the range is worse.

You cannot use it to extend an existing wi-fi network unless the first base station is also an Apple Airport, so it was no good for me. I am sure it is great for other people.

However the returns policy is excellent, they are sending someone to collect it at no charge for a full refund.

16 of 31 people found this useful

I bought this device as all my devices are now Apple products. Had read that range and speed increases when being used instead of other routers (usually ISP provided ones) and had hope for this. Set up within MINUTES (simply choose 'other option' and 'replace existing station'). Our download speeds have gone from ~4Mbps to >7Mbps!!! I could not recommend this product more!!! Will be purchasing the AirPort Express soon as I can only assume it is as good as teh Extreme!!!

42 of 51 people found this useful