Reviews for AirPort Extreme Base Station

TLDR; works like a champ, you just can't get it to do what you want it to do.

The 5th generation of the Airport Extreme is probably one of the best if not the best wireless access points I've ever used on a semi-regular basis. Wireless clients negotiate connection establishment very quickly and maintain that connection despite long distances or interference between the access point and the client. The wireless connection outperforms any other router I've used at my home or work, it doesn't matter if you're going through walls or having to compete with a microwave; this thing blows anything Linksys has ever offered to the public as a consumer or prosumer product. Wired gigabit works as expected.

Then why the one star you ask? Well, because you simply cannot mange this piece of hardware like any decent nerd expects to manage their primary router or even just a wireless access point. The new airport utility only operates on a MAC(so yes you must have a MAC device of some kind to manage this thing) and the utility gets dumber with every generation. There are hacks to get the previous generation of the utility running on OSX 10.8 but the idea that Apple does really care about end users being able to manage the primary network safety device for most home networks irks me. Do they expect us to have a Cisco PIX or ASA between the wireless access point and our WAN connection? Was there an outcrying from an unbelievably large mass of Apple users that previous iterations of the utility were too confusing to use? And what happened to Windows support?

12 of 20 people found this useful

This is the best router in every way.
But after doing the newest firmware update my device is no longer functional. People are ranting about this on Apple forums. Apple will not fix it or acknowledge the problem. If your device is it off
warranty, you're on your own.
A lot of people are doing downgrade hack jobs taking it back to 6.1. The problem with that is after the downgrade you can never upgrade your device. Not too mention you can only do it from an iPad. Not interested in spending money on a device I'm not interested in in order too fix Apple's poor firmware update and poor customer support.

26 of 32 people found this useful

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

great router.. when it WORKS... Constantly dropping its internet connection. daily, and unreliable. Been to every forum and looked everywhere on google for a solution. no luck. apple needs to fix this. Im better off using a cheap router from walmart.

39 of 68 people found this useful

Have BT infinity 2 with HH3. In the bathroom kitchen and back bedroom very weak WIFI. had been thinking about a Netgear but opted for the Apple given the fact that most reviews are very good - plus if I wasn't happy with the product I was able to return to store with a full refund no questions asked.

Well my unit will certainly not go back to the store - great WIFI in the whole house and connection on the same par with HH3. Very easy set up (just google set up apple airport extreme with Bt infinity)

The only thing which put me off was there no SPI firewall just NAT. I know nothing about these things but the NAT should be OK - I guess if it was really important Apple would add.

Really pleased with the unit.

Lee

5 of 5 people found this useful

It's a decent unit, I am extremely disappointed in the range of it. My home isn't even that big and my desktop along with my modem are at one end of the house and my apple tv, iphones and laptop struggle to get a signal at the other end of the house. What's funny is that I can pick up my neighbor's antique 2Wire router FROM ACROSS THE STREET!! Yet I can't pick up a signal from my own router, with an open hallway from one end of the house to the other in a 1,500 sq ft home?!?! It's just not worth it. I feel I could have gotten one for less that $100 that would be better. Oh, and our iPhone 5's are no where near as reliable as our 4's and 4S's were. I guess the "edge" that helped Apple stand apart, died with Steve Jobs.

42 of 67 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 chose Aiport Extreme Base stations when looking to save money and bypass a $7000 WiFi installment quote. Originally was going to have 7 access points professionally installed. I chose 3 Airport Extremes after a push from a friend. I am using them in two 10,000 square foot restored hosiery mill buildings. They work wonders!! I can get away with 2 Airport Extremes but chose the 3rd in order to maintain speed and connectivity in my office space. A great money saving solution for me. They were a breeze to set up with my MacBook Pro and all of my PC co-workers seem to have no issues either.

Do keep in mind when trying to create the same network across multiple airports, you need to name them all the same.

31 of 43 people found this useful

I originally bought a Linksys N900 for my home wifi needs. That was a total disaster. So I returned the unit and picked up the Airport Extreme from Best Buy. Set up was very easy and only took about 5 min to do. It was so easy thanks to Apple taking all of the thinking out of it. I connected a USB external hard drive to it and I am able to access the drive from both PC and Mac computers. Such a great experience, I will never buy anything that doesn't come from Apple again. Great Product overall!

11 of 14 people found this useful