Customer Reviews and Ratings

Purchased my airport base station a few weeks ago and my initial reactions are as follows.
Set up was easy although some of the more advanced features like hiding your network etc took a bit more digging to find. The main reason I bought the extreme was to use the networked printer capability and to have a better range. Slightly disappointed with the range as it does not seem much better than the Netgear 834gt that it has replaced but the wireless connection so far seems very stable and reliable. However main disappointment is that the printer connection is just that - only a printer. As it happened my canon printer died so I took the opportunity to buy a new AirPrint compatible all-in-one HP 7150. However when this is plugged in to the airport extreme you can't use the scanner or the utility software tools which are not supported with the airport base station Therefore if you want to use an all-in-one printer it will have to remain plugged into your Mac. Finally it seems to gets fairly warm. Overall I am still please with it but it has not quite lived up to my initial expectations and I think it should be clearly stated that you can't use the usb port for an all-in-one printer.

32 of 39 people found this useful

Bought to give a decent wireless signal replacing that of the Virginmedia not super hub.

So good it became obvious that I was much better turning all the Superhub's features bar the cable modem off and use the Airport to manage our internet connection with.

Since I did this our connection has been faster and more reliable for both wired and wireless clients.

A great piece of kit that keeps running completely reliable, wish I had stumped up the cash ages ago instead of trying all the cheap ones first.

35 of 35 people found this useful

The overall design and performance of this router is good...

The only problem i can find in the performance is when both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands are running simultaneously, i found the 5GHz band took priority over the 2.4
leaving my 2.4 only devices struggling for any bandwidth....

The 5GHz will put out a great signal and the full 20MB broadband that i pay for... but the 2.4GHz will give me an unsatisfactory 6MB at the most....

not sure wether there is any way in the settings to boost performance that i have missed or if that mine is the only one having these problems. but i hope in future models/updates this gets looked at

Overall i am satisfied with my purchase

15 of 30 people found this useful

What can I say.
Apple. You did it again.
This was so easy to set up you didn't even know you were doing it.
We now have 3 wifi networks in our house.
Even or friends and family can access it with any security risk to me and my wife as we've given them access to the guest network.

Over the years I've bought in to the whole apple thing and enjoying it.
Well done apple. Keep it up.

20 of 22 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!!!

38 of 39 people found this useful

Have just set it up with my iPhone as easy as if I want to connect to a wifi network. very very easy.
attach a harddisc to it and Timemachine discover it instantly.
beware that when you set it up as a bridge then you have to connect to it with a cable if you want to reprogram it.

18 of 19 people found this useful

This is the best thing you can by for th Internet and your pc or mac

39 of 46 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!!

61 of 63 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!!!

58 of 62 people found this useful