Reviews for AirPort Extreme Base Station

I've been using the airport extreme as a network router / Firewall in an office environment for over two years. It works flawlessly in every respect but one. If you intend to run FTP service, forget it. Service will be intermittent at best. The last update completely pooched FTP. Though FTP is an old protocol it is still very useful in the business world. If you need to run this service you'll need to set-up a second machine with a unique IP as a gateway server (ie no firewall / Airport Extreme)

59 of 59 people found this useful

My Linksys "G" router was over 7 years old and with so many wireless devices in our home, it was time for an upgrade to a "N" router. I researched for weeks and decided on the AirPort Extreme over the Linksys. Even though it only has 3 Ethernet ports, I am only using 1 due to the additional wireless speed.

The setup using my Mac Mini was almost effortless and only took about 5 minutes. With my previous LInksys "G" router, my wireless printer wasn't available on the home network, unless I hard wired it to the router. Now it works like it was designed to work for all of my devices, including iPhones, iPad, Mac Mini, Windows Vista and Windows XP.

The only issue that I experienced, that wasn't related to the AirPort Extreme, was that one of our Compaq Windows Vista laptops couldn't connect to the Internet. The message that kept displaying was "Local Only". The issue was related to the wireless card driver. HP released the driver update on their website, but Microsoft hadn't, so everytime I tried to look for the latest drivers, Microsoft said that I had the latest ones. After I updated the wireless card drivers with the latest version, everthing has been working fine.

42 of 43 people found this useful

It's a wireless router, what can you say? If it works, and it's seemless giving you no problems, then to me that's 5 stars. Here's why I give it 4 stars: No Web Interface. After working for years with other brand routers, I was shocked this had no interface. Lucky I actually have a Mac with the configuration utility installed, and the helpful rep at the Apple store pointed it out to me before I left the store. Why is that a big deal? I have a mixed environment, mostly Virtual Windows PCs or Virual Linux that I tunnel in and access remotely. My Mac is just the iTunes / iPhone / iPad environment, and isn't up all the time. : No QoS? No sure, maybe this product has an internal network shaping priority packets assigner, but it's not obvious, it looks like all the traffic has the same priority. Fortunately for me, my VoIP is directly on the Cablemodem, so I can't even say if a lack of QoS has an effect. : Expensive, at $179.99, the price is about $80 more than I would expect. But for that money has a really cool feature - I have a large house, and I'm able to configure a second base station to seemlessly provide more coverage. Throughput is great since I have them connected to eachother with Gigabit cables. The "old cheap way" was to use two separate wireless SSIDs, now with this Apple Extreme, the second unit seemlessly extends coverage without looking like you have two networks. : I wish the status was a little more helpful, but then again one glowing green light or blinking amber is a lot better than an array of flashing LEDs 24/7. : Reserving IP Addresses - here's where Apple's simplicity doesn't work. I had to actually use pen & paper to write down the Mac addresses before re-typing them in to reserve. Hello, the Airport, it's 2012. D-Link allows you already know the mac addresses of devices connected to it, the interface ought to have a right click, reserve it's IP, boom it's done, but know, I had to write down the hex addresses to re-type them in.

36 of 40 people found this useful

Replaced a 5 yr old Linksys N router with this one. I have been migrating away from M$ products and between my wife and I we have 2 iPhones, iPad2, 1 MBP, 2 Apple TV and 2 airport express. Within a few minutes I was up and running and everything connected easily. My only gripes are the 5 GHz doesn't make it to the 3rd floor of the house (router is on the 1st floor) with any regularity. Sometimes devices find it, sometimes they don't. Airport Express doesn't seem to really work as a repeater since my second floor signal is strong but 3 floor drops off quickly. I have an AE on the second and 3rd floors.

34 of 37 people found this useful

After about a month of dealing with Optimum Online and Linksys routers screwing up my internet and giving me nothing but a hard time, I decided to go out and buy this Airport Extreme. After reading the reviews for it, I can completely agree with those saying how easy and simple it is to set up.

If you're in the market for a cheap router, spend the extra $90 and save yourself a headache

29 of 29 people found this useful

I bought this last week (January 2012), so its the latest model. If you plan to use a USB hard drive, you must purchase a powered USB hub to go along with it. The four port hub I purchased was $30 from Staples. Reading the support forums, the USB port is underpowered for hard drives, resulting in the drive not working at all, or being flaky.

Other than this issue, it is a very solid and fast router which I would still recommend to anyone who has a house full of wireless devices to connect to the Internet. Would receive 5 stars if the powered USB hub were not a requirement for USB hard drives.

29 of 30 people found this useful

This router has been a solid performer with no problems (or restarts) for nearly a year. Sure, there are other routers with additional features or greater throughput, but for most people this does everything you need it to do and then some. Our household is primarily Apple computers, so it seemed like a good fit when updating from a terrible belkin router. Living near an apartment complex loaded with dozens of 2.4 routers, the 5Ghz band was the major selling point for me. I gave it 4 stars not because of it's functionality or reliability , but because the setup and configuration (via airport utility) are not on par with the user-centric approach Apple is known for. I had no problems setting up the router, but other vendors do offer easier setup and configuration, but there is definitely room for improvement...especially from Apple.

32 of 38 people found this useful

Works well, and easy to setup. I wish it had QoS, and maybe another port to connect to, but otherwise it's a great stable, router!

27 of 29 people found this useful

It's really fast and you really don't notice any other devices using the station in the connectivity, the option to open a guest network is simply great. The design is very "Apple-Like" and the price is fair. But I only gave 4 stars, because there is no modem in it, and I don't understand it. Where's the probleme to build a modem into the station? Maybe it'd push up the price a little bit, but I'd pay it. Now you have to buy a modem (which is not from Apple) and you need more space. That doesn't look very good and for me it's unusual.

35 of 47 people found this useful

I love the Airport Extreme! Except, it's missing one key thing: Support for USB 3.0 and also having more than just one usb port on the back. Three usb ports would be great. Otherwise, its the best router I have ever used. Got to admit, it puts Linksys and Trendnet to shame.

23 of 24 people found this useful