AirPort Express Base Station with 802.11n and AirTunes
Customer Ratings
Based on 191 reviews
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AirPort Express Base Station with 802.11n and AirTunes
Could not get this to work at all, despite being a networking expert.
Written by SH from Gibraltar
12-May-2008
The constant flashing amber light. It refused to connect any of my wireless base stations. I only wanted to use it to stream audio wirelessly. If this is your goal, please take my advice and look elsewhere.
The documentation, apple website, and the numerous support sites all have incorrect information.
This is what happens:
1) you unpack it
2) you install utility (why doesnt it have a web based one like every other product?)
3) You configure it to connect to your wireless network.
4) it resets.
5) It is now a brick. The utility cant see it. If you connect it via cable, there is no life.
6) You try the documented hard reset: holding down reset button for 10 seconds. Still broken
7) You try doing a factory reset (holding down reset while plugging in power). This does nothing. The apple documentation says the green light will flash 4 times, but I have never seen a green light. This function simply doesnt work.
8) You spend about 2 hours surfing the web, finding literally thousands of people with the same problem, but NO SOLUTION.
9) before throwing it into the bin, you try holding down the reset button for 2 minutes. This kind of works, it seems anything longer than 30 seconds does a factory reset.
10) Great you think - problem solved.
11) GoTo step 3), and repeat until death.46 of 87 people found this useful
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AirPort Express Base Station with 802.11n and AirTunes
Straightforward and uncomplicated
Written by SD from Leicester
09-May-2008
I purchased a Belkin wireless modem/router a few weeks ago and was sadly disappointed as it wasn't very friendly with my Macs. It cost £79.99 too! I don't know why I didn't purchase the AirPort Express Base Station (with 802.11n & AirTunes) initially. It was extremely simple to set-up, I created a wireless network and was streaming music from iTunes to speakers in my bedroom whilst printing wirelessly in about 15 minutes, honestly. If you want to create a small wireless network for your home/business this is ideal. Very small and compact with almost identical looks as the power adaptor for the MacBooks. Another fantastic product from the genii (plural) at Apple.
50 of 65 people found this useful
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AirPort Express Base Station with 802.11n and AirTunes
Ideal Wireless Bridge
Written by CG from BIRMINGHAM
09-May-2008
I use the AE as a wireless bridge between my Netgear DG834N and the on-board internet radio of my Yamaha RX-V2700 (ethernet connection) - without buying the additional Extreme Base Station. On the Netgear, once you have entered the MAC address of the AE, and the MAC address of the device attached to the AE, into the 'Wireless Station Access List' - plus the MAC/IP address of the AE in the 'LAN/IP' pane - stable connection is assured (and you have joined an 'existing wireless network' on the AE). I made the same successful connection with my ethernet-enabled Xerox Phaser 6180DN printer.
44 of 53 people found this useful
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AirPort Express Base Station with 802.11n and AirTunes
Couldn't be easier!
Written by TI from LEEDS
03-May-2008
Took it out, plugged in my Xbox's ethernet cable and stereo's input cable, plugged in the Airport Express, loaded up Airport utility and told it to join existing network and away I was.
I read another review that said they couldn't get the xbox to work, mine is set to join existing network with allow ethernet clients and it works perfectly.
Another great product from Apple!45 of 66 people found this useful
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AirPort Express Base Station with 802.11n and AirTunes
AirPort Express-Air tunes
Written by DC from preston
02-May-2008
Just bought my AirPort Express to night from the Trafford Centre Manchester, I'm playing music on my Bose sound system in under 20 minutes.
My sole reason for buying this was for the Air Tunes feature, The sound quality is just what I expected from Apple, AWSOME
Set up was very easy, I only say this after having trouble setting up my time capsule last week. Once you get your head around the apple software, set up is child's play. (just plug it in and follow the instructions, I know this is difficult for some people!)
message for the people giving this a poor review READ THE INSTRUCTIONS!!!!!!!
Simply, If you have Itunes and a decent sound system,
YOU MUST BUY ONE OF THESE.
45 of 62 people found this useful
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AirPort Express Base Station with 802.11n and AirTunes
Setup not so easy, but...........
Written by MV from Nr. Monmouth
30-Apr-2008
Firstly, I have to say that I agree with the sentiments of many reviewers - this is not such an easy piece of kit to setup a WDS or extend a wireless network with. However....
I decided to replace my faithful Netgear WPN824 with an Extreme base station (no more than 5 minutes to setup and just as easy on XP/Vista machines as the Mac). After that, I thought it would be a piece of cake to add the Express to the network, but no. Like many reviewers, about 2 hours of frustrating flashing amber lights followed, with AirPort utility sometimes recognising it, sometimes not. Several resets required.
However, to cut a long and boring story short, it did work, and I could have made life easier for myself. Here is my advice:
- have your Mac, base station and remote/relay station all in the same room temporarily, for setup purposes, so there is no possibility of your computer failing to 'see' the new station
- go with the automatic options for setup - it will work. The manual setup option is challenging and will confuse unless you are quite familiar with setting up home networks
- use an Ethernet connection for the setup procedure - this seemed to avoid the 'stalling' effect when waiting for the Express to restart after updating.
It now works fine and has very effectively removed a dead spot in the house. Despite the initial difficulties, the system does work well and I will certainly look to buy a further Express in due course for the same reasons. Good luck!
63 of 83 people found this useful
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AirPort Express Base Station with 802.11n and AirTunes
very impressed, but 1 drawback.
Written by RB
27-Apr-2008
Bought this, installed the airport utility, plugged in the router to my modem and then into plug socket, my imac found the device no probs. Had my imac core 2 duo and powerbook G4 using it within 15-20mins. The only thing i'm a bit disappointed about is the compatibility with my Xbox 360, as there is none. So if you have an Xbox 360 and you want to connect it to Xbox live, don't buy this cos it won't connect. I spoke to a tech guy from the apple store i got it from and unfortunately wasn't any help cos he didn't know anything about the Xbox 360. I had a belkin, but i lost conection to it all the time but with this i haven't lost connection once.
16 of 19 people found this useful
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AirPort Express Base Station with 802.11n and AirTunes
As usual, flawless
Written by ML from Derby
25-Apr-2008
Another well designed and easy to use product from Apple. Simplicity itself to set up, and straight away able to connect to the internet, and play iTunes on my stereo, wirelessly. Not as cheap as other routers, but at least with Apple you know it will work out of the box.
25 of 40 people found this useful
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AirPort Express Base Station with 802.11n and AirTunes
Excellent
Written by DH from Warrington
21-Apr-2008
People are having problems staying connected to the internet while airtunes is playing, you need to join airport express to your existing network! simple as! apple is one of the most easiest and straight forward companies in the world, they don't intend to confuse you! but anyway excellent product printing and listening to music wirelessly in a matter of minutes it also looks great :P i guess apple has made an excellent product again !
22 of 31 people found this useful
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AirPort Express Base Station with 802.11n and AirTunes
What a waste of an afternoon…
Written by LK from Birmingham
20-Apr-2008
Full marks for package and product design (hence the 1 star), but let down by the simple fact that it’s a faulty product.
The ever-flashing amber light… was my entertainment for 2 hours. Started well with installing the software, the Mac found the new Airport instantly; setting it up was easy too, until the Airport was restarted to complete the process. The amber light just kept flashing, and Mac fails to find the Airport again! Process repeated many times with no luck. (the support from the booklet and online help was frankly useless) and I had to pay £65 for this?
Lucky I had a lovely girlfriend making me tea during this testing time.
Someone at the production line obviously can’t be bothered to test each of these Airports for faults or the engineer / programmer’s got better things to do then ironing out these (well known & common) problems, just look at other reviews.
Good luck if you still want one and be prepared to make a return trip to the apple store for another pot luck ‘working’ Airport.
27 of 50 people found this useful
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AirPort Express Base Station with 802.11n and AirTunes
Extremely worth buying
Written by SD from SOUTHAMPTON
20-Apr-2008
I bought this as I was sick of my old cheap £30 router which cut out randomly.
It is definitely worth buying for these reasons:
1) Size: Its the same size as a MacBook power brick, you don't have to hide it away like your old router as it looks fantastic
2) AirTunes: I didn't think I would use this, but it's great. I press one button and my iTunes music plays out of my speakers. Not only do I have wireless internet but I now have wireless sound.
3) Setup: As with most apple products it's very easy to setup and administrate. Most people know that routers are one of the hardest things to set up in your home, but not with this.
The one negative:
It has a USB port for connecting a printer, but it doesn't seem to work with a USB hard drive. If you need this, AirPort Extreme can do it, but it just seems a waste when the USB port is obviously capable of handling data.
I love it!13 of 17 people found this useful
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AirPort Express Base Station with 802.11n and AirTunes
8 hours attempting installation, 2 hours fruitless tech support. Junk
Written by DC from Cambridge
18-Apr-2008
I run a fast PC desktop and a MacBook Air. Airport Extreme loaded straight out of the box; it's fast, stable, superb. All I wanted from Express was the ability to stream iTunes to my stereo - what could be simpler? Airport Express was detected by Airport Utility but absolutely would not join allow itself to be configured nor join the network. It's little yellow light does nothing but flash on and off and it's sulky, silent strop repeatedly caused Airport Utility to fail and required the repeated resetting of the previously reliable Airport Extreme basestation. Hot reset/Cold reset/Reinstall Airport Utility. The instruction booklet is really inadequete so Tech support spend two hours on it before they advise that I take the unit back to the Apple Store for 'tests' A cursory Google brought up lists of Express network integration 'issues' on Mac forums, this really isn't good enough. 10 hours of my time so far and life's just too short. This is utterly inexcusable.
11 of 24 people found this useful
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AirPort Express Base Station with 802.11n and AirTunes
Best Ever!
Written by TR
17-Apr-2008
This was the best router I have ever bought. The APE was also very easy to setup. Defiantly reccomended to anyone.. Even if they have MAC or PC.
2 of 6 people found this useful
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AirPort Express Base Station with 802.11n and AirTunes
not so woeful
Written by SH from WORTHING
14-Apr-2008
just a comment on the previous post, you can actually stream itunes music to your stereo and surf the net at the same time, you have to join this to your existing wireless network not create an additional one.
22 of 28 people found this useful
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AirPort Express Base Station with 802.11n and AirTunes
Arguably the easiest way to network your house.
Written by SM from Middleton on sea
13-Apr-2008
I've got two of these plus and airport extreme and I'm about to add a third. I have found them a doddle to set up and within minutes, you can extend the range of your network and add useful features like streaming audio and network printing. I have a mixture of macs and pc/laptops and all work perfectly and are able to print wirelessly to the Express in the office. Sound quality from the audio out is excellent and the integration with iTunes very simple. Can't really think of a negative.
11 of 14 people found this useful
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AirPort Express Base Station with 802.11n and AirTunes
Woeful
Written by AH from BASINGSTOKE
10-Apr-2008
Firstly I'd argue with the premise that you can create a wireless network. This aludes to the fact that it has far reaching functionality. It really doesn't. Great for Airtunes using remote speakers - but why not simply connect your iPod to your stereo in the first place, all you need is a standard phono lead! You can't surf the net when Airtunes is selected as Airtunes creates a different network address. Secondly, yes you can link a couple of macs up no probs. but you'll capture the data if the're wireless enabled anyway. Couldn't get my windows laptops to print wirelessly either. Bonjour was a joke in that respect. Tech support we're as much use as a chocolate teapot as well. Very dissappointed- sent it back for refund. I was actually trying to give it no stars it was that bad but you had to submit one at least and I am doing so under protest.
22 of 72 people found this useful
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AirPort Express Base Station with 802.11n and AirTunes
Quick and easy
Written by DH from London
10-Apr-2008
Managed to set up the Airport Express in a matter of minutes. I didn't have to use the cd, just the AirPort utility on my Mac. Printer, speakers and internet connection were up and running in no time. Definitely a good purchase.
16 of 19 people found this useful
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AirPort Express Base Station with 802.11n and AirTunes
2 out of 3 dont work
Written by DW from BRIDPORT
09-Apr-2008
Great idea, but ive had 3 and only one works.
I cant recommend a product that only works after trying 3 new units.
Also, the sound quality isnt very good - even using B&W speakers and Rotel amp - there is a background hiss.
Having to travel 40 minutes in each direction to get an exchange has only compounded my frustration.
20 of 34 people found this useful
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AirPort Express Base Station with 802.11n and AirTunes
Easy to set-up & very fast!
Written by RN from ASHTEAD
06-Apr-2008
I've just added an AirPort Express to my existing WiFi network to offer a fast link to my MacBook Air via 802.11n
It took less than 10 minutes to set up, including making it a bridge to my existing network and picking up my ISP's IP addresses (normally quite complex).
It then worked straight away! The speed of download to the Air is as quick as via a cable!
A great piece of kit and the set-up software is first-class.18 of 21 people found this useful
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AirPort Express Base Station with 802.11n and AirTunes
disappointing
Written by SH from BRISTOL
06-Apr-2008
After struggling with the initial setup i called applecare who were very helpful.It took 3 hours with the help of a lovely apple lady on the phone to get it working. I bought this apple product as an upgrade from an old netgear wireless router thinking it would be as user friendly as all the other apple products i've used.The most disappointing thing besides the setup problems was that it's range is by far inferior to the old netgear.The range is less than half the range of the old netgear which meant connectivity didn't extend far beyond the room it's setup in.Additionally the reception seems to fluctuate in strength while stationary. We have reverted back to the old netgear router. What a disappointment.
11 of 22 people found this useful
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