Reviews for AirPort Extreme Base Station

Works perfectly well with my ADSL modem which is a BT Homehub. Bought to replace the wireless function of the homehub and outperforms it in every way.

Paired with an Airport Express I now have total coverage in the house and garden.

Very easy to set up too.

408 of 444 people found this useful

Sublimely easy to set up, extended the wifi network at home and with 3 x 1 gb wired connections as well... easily connected to the existing network either though ethernet or by wifi..and it even has a guest internet access...
If you want a superb addition to your home network - this is it.

80 of 85 people found this useful

I was having wireless problems at the extremes of the house with my current Sky Router. This Airport Extreme is the perfect solution. I've easily created a separate wireless network for my Mac / iPad / Airport Express / Apple TV, and use the Sky Router through Bridge mode to connect to the internet. The kids' PCs upstairs are hardwired into the Sky Router anyway, and they all get along brilliantly.
Signal strength and range are outstanding, and I am at last able to stream movies from my iMac to AppleTV, and use my iPad to stream shared music from my iMac to the speakers in the sunroom over Airport Express.
I wasn't an Apple convert until about 12 months ago, but now there is no turning/looking back!
So, if you are looking for the best wireless network solution, this is it!!

69 of 74 people found this useful

This is more than EASY... I am not a geek in any matter, but I found this very easy. It took ME approximately 5 minutes from unwrapping to surfing the internet.

You have done it again, Apple!

69 of 74 people found this useful

Bought the AE after existing Router / Modem was not able to support the number of devices attached to it. Brilliant performance and very easy to setup.

66 of 71 people found this useful

Got this set up with a virgin media netgear dgn1000 router and its running seamlessly. I Have 2 apple tvs, 2 iphone 4's, 1 ipad 2, 1 ipod touch, 2 xbox's, 1 ps3, an airprint printer and a macbook pro, all connected no problem at all and a significant increase in signal and speed. Took a while to set up as had to change some settings in the netgear router (which i may add has shockingly bad wifi signal) but once it was done it worked fine with no problems. Still yet to add a hard drive to the AE but this was not the main reason for me investing in one. All in all an awesome product and im glad my wireless problems are now resolved. Thanks apple!!!

62 of 66 people found this useful

We originally had a BT Homehub 2.0, but this became unstable - constantly losing wireless speed or connection - so we tried the BT Homehub 3.0. This was better than version 2.0, but some days we had to restart the hub several times due to loss of wireless connection speed. I tested our connection with the exchange and a wired computer several times and that was fine; it was the wireless connection thereafter that was the problem! So, we finally bit the bullet and invested in this lovely piece of kit. Wish I had done it months ago!
Connection was a doddle - with 2 iMacs, an iPad, an iPhone and a HP wireless printer set up in under 10 minutes. Just turned the wireless off on our BT Homehub 3.0 via the web interface at bthomehub.home and connected the AEBS with an ethernet cable (make sure you have one to hand, as one is not included in the box with the AEBS - we had one with the BT hub, so were OK there). Configured AEBS on one iMac - Airport Utility led me through it a step at a time and it wasn't too technical - and then just needed to enter our new chosen password on the other four devices and they connected automatically. I was expecting some trouble with the wireless printer, but no, it worked first time!
Note, you do need some form of ADSL modem or router, wireless (disabled, of course, for no interference) or otherwise, for this AEBS to work with broadband. And a spare ethernet cable, as mentioned previously.
So far so good, with increased speed - we live out in the middle of nowhere, so it will never be lightning fast - and wireless downloads are 100% quicker. No lost connections as yet. By the way, the Apple manual supplied with this product gives clearer info than BT do, about what can cause interference with wireless signals within your home and that helped us with choosing a good site for the Homehub and AEBS to be sited for maximum coverage. Our house is a long, L-shaped barn conversion with thick stone walls and lots of rooms connected linearly, and this AEBS reaches all of the important areas, including the garden, and we have the option to extend to the last two end rooms with Airport Express if we feel the need in the future.
I know it's still early days, but I can't praise the difference already. My husband is not techie at all, but works all day on the internet, and it is nice not to have him pulling his hair out any more over the loss of connection or speed. Thank you, Apple, as always!!!

53 of 54 people found this useful

I deliberated about purchasing this for quite some time, as I’m not at all technically minded and didn’t have a clue whether it would help with our horrendously slow, flaky internet connection.
I just wish I’d bought it ages ago!
First, let me explain I live in an old granite house in a fairly remote area. Whenever I have any problems with our broadband service, telephone engineers pointedly tell me that I stay ‘too far from the exchange to get broadband’ - despite having had the service for years. In an attempt to at least have some kind of connection, an unusually helpful engineer capped the service at half a meg (don’t laugh!) and this did help.
Of late, the service was becoming more and more unstable. A request for a new hub fell on deaf ears and I was becoming ever more frustrated. I have a Gateway 2wire and have to emphasis I am not in any way technically minded.
I finally decided to purchase this to see if it would help.
Setting it up was as easy as taking out of the box! I simply plugged it into the 2wire via the ethernet cable that we already had - but please note, an ethernet cable is NOT supplied with the Airport Extreme.
The Airport Utility on my MacBook Pro then more or less took over and did all the work for me! Within minutes - and I do mean minutes - I had also connected an old PC that runs on Vista, both our HTC smartphones and a wireless printer. It was also an absolute doddle to connect my Kindle. All each device needed was to be updated with the new password and they all connected automatically.
Disconnecting the wireless ability on the 2wire was also easily achieved.
I even went out to the far end of the garden and still had a wifi connection despite the thick granite walls.
I know I am never going to have a good speed but this certainly seems to have fixed the other issues. All equipment can now be connected without knocking something else off AND I can actually manage to print stuff without having to lug a laptop through to the printer at the other end of the house to connect it with a USB cable.
I would heartily recommend this excellent piece of equipment to anyone with wifi issues.

48 of 53 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

I purchased this item with the primary intent to connect an existing external hard drive, which is connected to my iMac for Time Machine, and enable access to this drive across a network. Despite claiming the supported connection of a hard drive via the USB port. What isn't explained anywhere is the fact this expensive device won't support this functionality, i.e. you can have one or the other, not both. I've wasted my money and should have bought a separate NAS drive.

75 of 121 people found this useful