AirPort Extreme Base Station

The sleek, easy-to-use AirPort Extreme Base Station with simultaneous dual-band support is the perfect wireless access point for home, school, or small business. It offers fast, 802.11n Wi-Fi access for Mac computers, PCs, and Wi-Fi devices such as iPhone, iPod touch, and Apple TV.

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1713 Questions + 1742 Answers

4.5 out of 5 stars

Based on 405 reviews

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Purchase Information

$179.00

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Features

The perfect wireless solution for home, school and small business.

Easy wireless networking.

Connect your DSL or cable modem to the AirPort Extreme Base Station, then quickly set it up with the easy-to-use AirPort Utility, which is available as download for both Mac OS X and Windows. In minutes, you and up to 50 others can use your Mac computers or PCs to surf the web, stream video, share photos and more — without wires.¹

Simultaneous dual-band Wi-Fi.

For maximum range and compatibility, AirPort Extreme works simultaneously on both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands, allowing all the devices on the network to use the most efficient band automatically. It uses the latest 802.11n wireless technology, so you can enjoy up to five times the Wi-Fi performance and up to twice the range of 802.11g wireless networks.²

Guest networking.

Set up a separate Wi-Fi network with a separate password for your visitors. Simply enable the guest networking feature, and your guests can use the Internet but can’t access other parts of your private network, such as your computers, printers and attached hard drives.

Print without wires.

Have several computers in your home or office but only one printer? No problem. Just connect a compatible printer to the USB port on the AirPort Extreme Base Station, and the printer instantly becomes available to all the computers (Mac and PC) on your wireless or wired network. (See system requirements.)

Share your hard drive.

You can share an external USB hard drive over your wireless and wired networks by simply connecting it to the USB port on your AirPort Extreme Base Station. This feature is perfect for sharing files and more. If you use Back to My Mac with OS X Lion or later, you can even access the files on the drive over the Internet.

Strong security and access controls.

Rest easy — AirPort Extreme takes strong measures to prevent unauthorised intrusion into your wireless network. It offers a built-in firewall and supports industry-standard encryption technologies including WPA/WPA2 and 128-bit WEP. Yet it’s still easy for authorised users to connect to the base station, thanks to its simple set-up utility and powerful access controls.

Works with iPad, iPhone, Apple TV and more.

AirPort Extreme works with Mac computers, PCs, iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, Apple TV and virtually all 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi wireless devices — all at the same time.

What's in the Box?

AirPort Extreme Base Station
Printed documentation
Power cord

System Requirements

For shared printing:

USB printer
Mac with Mac OS X v10.2.7 or later
PC with Windows XP (SP2) or Windows Vista; Bonjour for Windows included with AirPort Utility available as download via Software Update.

For shared hard drive:

Mac with Mac OS X v10.4.8 or later
PC with Windows XP (SP2) or Windows Vista; Bonjour for Windows included with AirPort Utility available as download via Software Update.

For wireless client access:

Any Wi-Fi-enabled device that uses the 802.11a/b/g/n specification

For set-up and administration:

Mac computer with Mac OS X v10.5.7 or later and Ethernet or wireless networking capability
PC with Windows XP (SP3) or Windows Vista (SP2) or Windows 7 (SP1) or later and Ethernet or wireless networking capability

Mac OS X v.10.4.8 or later
PC requires 802.11a/b/g/n

From an iOS device:

An iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with iOS 6 or later and the AirPort Utility app

Technical Specifications

Connections

Ethernet

Manufacturer

(1) Wireless Internet access requires a wireless-enabled computer, a base station or other access point, and Internet access; fees may apply. Some ISPs are not currently compatible with AirPort Extreme.
(2) Performance is based on a comparison with Apple’s 802.11g products.

What's in the Box?
System Requirements
Technical Specifications
Manufacturer

Ratings & Reviews

Based on 405 reviews

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Most Useful Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars

MUCH more powerful than the previous generation
- Written by David W from Miami
- Jun 26, 2011
The 5th generation AirPort Extreme Base Station is MUCH more powerful than the 4th generation model. My wireless speeds have more than doubled since swapping out for this new 5th generation model.

The FCC database results confirmed the 2x-3x power output increase, which easily explains the performance increase. Just Google "MD031LL/A" and links to their database results should appear.

So YES, it's worth the upgrade and you will easily see a speed/range increase, especially in other rooms of your house or apartment that don't have line of sight to the device. …More

1979 of 2173 people found this useful

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5.0 out of 5 stars

Couldn't Be Happier
- Written by Robert K from ELLENTON
- Jun 24, 2011
Excellent coverage. Use for all of my WI-FY gear including BluRay DVD Player, WII Game Set, iPhone, iPad2, and Printer. It outperforms two other units that it replaced. Good job Apple. …More

1138 of 1300 people found this useful

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5.0 out of 5 stars

Excellent product and easy setup!
- Written by RICH H from Newport Beach
- Jun 22, 2011
I've never found routers fun to set up but this one is different. It was a breeze to set up and has been rock solid for almost one year. Great product and superb support, if needed. …More

1086 of 1218 people found this useful

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Most Recent Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars

BEST....
- Written by eugen B from Laval
- May 17, 2013
This thing is amazing....
Easy to set up,great range and now,my iMac,apple TV and IPod touch+2 windows computers are connected and working flawlessly ...
Love it.
Great... …More

2 of 4 people found this useful

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1.0 out of 5 stars

I've had enough of the management and configuration limitations
- Written by Erik S from Austin
- May 14, 2013
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? …More

12 of 20 people found this useful

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2.0 out of 5 stars

22 months, and the Extreme just quit.
- Written by Richard O from Ponte Vedra Beach
- May 12, 2013
I know, I know, electronics are not perfect and all that. But after paying a lot for a router, and expecting it to last up to 5 years is not unreasonable. Mine did not. My first significant Apple product failure in 30+ years. Worked great while it worked. Easy setup. No troubles. Surprisingly poor quality and reliability for an Apple product. And, there was no recourse for me other than to purchase a new one. I was left out in the cold by Apple. Disappointing to say the least. …More

9 of 14 people found this useful

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Questions & Answers

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See all 1713 Questions

Most Interesting

Airport Express as an extender.
- Asked by Angela K from Clemmons
- Apr 28, 2010
8 Answers
Best Answer

All of the answers above provide correct information, however if you are looking for higher wireless speeds, I would recommend using a hardwire Ethernet connection and then extending the network that way. Wireless to wireless extension can lower streaming and download rates just as much as poor signal can. In my house, I use an Airport extreme from my modem on the second floor ad then an Airport Express to extend my network in an area that I have had poor reception. I have tried both with and without a wired Ethernet connection and I have noticed significant changes to my download speed. I always have signal and of course the apple family of products has yet to fail me, but I have noticed this interesting difference. …More
- Answered by Patrick C from Florham Park
- Jan 15, 2011
Will an AppleTV be able to access movies on a hard drive that plugged into and shared across the Airport Extreme?
- Asked by Don J from Wenatchee
- Mar 13, 2010
7 Answers
Best Answer

While the movies do have to be associated with an iTunes account, the movie files do not need to be on the same drive as the iTunes account. If you deselect "Copy movies to iTunes Media Folder when adding to library" located in Advanced in iTunes preferences before you add the movies to the library, the files will remain on the external drive and will not be added to the drive that runs iTunes. AppleTV will be able to play those movies through the iTunes account. …More
- Answered by Dede E from San Jose
- Jun 3, 2011
Is the connector on a Airport Express an RJ14 jack?
- Asked by Brian G from Seattle
- May 6, 2013
1 Answer

Recently Answered

can I use it to extend my current wireless network?
- Asked by Kenneth R from The Plains
- Dec 13, 2009
1 Answer
Answer

Yes, you can use the AirPort Extreme to extend your current wireless network. This can be done in one of three ways.

1. You can connect the AirPort Extreme to your existing router using an ethernet cable and have the wireless settings on the AirPort Extreme the same as your existing router.

2. You can 'extend' the AirPort Extreme from your existing router, this may not work with all other routers, but if your existing router is also and AirPort, it will.

3. You can 'join' the AirPort Extreme to your existing router, as far as I'm aware, this will also work.

Note that I've only ever used the first way here, so I'm not 100% sure how effective the other two are. …More
- Answered by Kristian M
- May 11, 2013
Will this work with the 17" 1.83 ghz imac? The other cheaper model does not.
- Asked by David O from Salinas
- Dec 8, 2009
1 Answer
warranty on this product?
- Asked by Alfredo D from Miami
- Feb 14, 2013
1 Answer