Reviews for AirPort Express Base Station

My old Express is 7 years old and needs to be reset constantly so I replaced it with a new one because I love airplay for music from my iphone, ipad, and macbook. I don't like that this doesn't just plug into the wall like the old one. On top of that the cord that comes with it is to short. I'm also getting a lot of interference with the remotes for my wii and now need to figure out a new solution for where everything is located.

I found this device almost impossible to set up. I bought 2 and returned them as being defective until I finally managed to set one up. The instructions supplied are totally inadequate to explaIn what to do when the device refuses to initiate and the dreaded amber light flashes. I have an AirPort Extreme base station and another, earlier generation, Express (which set up no problem incidentally!), this Express was to be for streaming music / printer duties.

When the amber flashed I tried everything, disconnecting the firewall, re-setting - nothing worked, the device wasn't detected by Airport Utility. Eventually I Googled the problem and found a solution: connect the misbehaving device directly into my PC via the ethernet port and conduct the set-up via Airport Utility that way. Instant success! Why doesn't the documentation supply that advice?

Now that it's set up, the Express is working fine as a music streamer but it has caused a lot of needless anxiety. Another thing is that the manual refers you to apple.com for support which takes you to the US site which is of no use whatsoever to UK punters.

I hope my experience is of help to future buyers who may experience similar problems.

I love Apple, but this product puzzles me. Yes, it does work beautifully, and it's a snap to set up. That's huge. But the design is curious. The old Airport Express base station could be plugged into an outlet in a hallway or anywhere else. This one is more of a production, with a long cord, and a shape that demands to be put onto a tabletop or something. You just have to hope that in designing your home network, you can find good placement for your base stations in spots where there happen to be tables—oh, and then of course you have to look at the base station all the time, instead of the old kind, which sat down around ankle level, unobtrusive in the room, and worked just great.

One more thing. The base of the unit is tapered in such a way that after you've plugged in the power cord and the ethernet cable, it doesn't want to stand properly. It wants to tip. If the cords hang down off the tabletop, as cords are after all wont to do, they tend to pull at the back of the unit, leaving it looking as if it's popped a wheelie.

I really don't know what was wrong with the old one, but if they had to redesign it, I'm not sure why those chose this particular way of doing it.

Very disappointed to find out that, unlike the old model I also own, this one doe NOT charge iPhones iPods etc...
Grrrrr....

good product

Love the new features but don't like the fact that now you need another cord for power instead of just plugging it in to the wall.

The new model eliminates local storage. The dual band wifi is a nice improvement over the old model.

I think the new features are good but the power cord is really too troublesome especially when you need to pack it into the luggage, miss the old design with the built in power plug.