Airport Extreme Router

Okay, so since I'm turning into a Apple fanboy ish guy I've figured out I have to replace my 8-10 year old Belkin router with something newer… I've looked into the Airport Extreme router, what I've really did like about it was the USB for external drives… What I've wonder at this point… Is it seriously that easy? Just plug and use your external drive over USB?

I have some guests from time to time, so what I've think is that I'm going to set up the Belkin as a Guest network, but then again, this thing has that build in, genius.

Why I want to replace my router in first place is because I'm moving out for summer and I' think it is time to give my Belkin a rest… Also, if I'm going into that Apple TV thing, I'm also pretty sure I've need something better then what I've got now.

Just another question… Is it possible to plug in 2 USB drives, by using a USB split thing? Like plug one get two outputs…?

 

Yes just plug the drives in and go...

 

Yup and I know the manual says you can split a USB printer & USB HDD via the single USB port so I bet you can split 2x USB HDD's.

I have a 2TB HDD hooked up into my AE and it's shared across both Windows and Macs in my apartment (not to mention my jailbroken devices for XBMC streaming). It's nice b/c the drive can be in either HFS or NTFS or whatever since the Airport does some voodoo and just lets both Windows/Mac read/write to it no matter the drive's formatting. There's a more technical term but yeah that's nice little feature.

In windows it just shows up automatically after you map it, and same with OS X. In my GF's MBA I have the 2TB partitioned into two drives and one of the drives is for Time Machine backups automatically over the network. Second partition for all my video files and backup docs.

Outside of the PnP external HDD, the router itself is VERY good, great signal, 99.9% uptime (I've restarted it maybe twice in the year I've owned mine). Airport utility is really easy to use as well and I'm sharing a printer on mine as well over the network even though my printer already has built in wireless. So if you have a wired USB printer, it can become networked via the Airport extreme. FYI. Expensive, but damn good router.

 

Interesting. If Apple can do this for network drives, I wish they would just pay MS whatever it wants and allow writing to NTFS drives natively within Mac OS.

I've not used the USB functionality of my AEBS, but as a router it's been fantastic. The only times I've ever needed to restart it are when I've had issues with my ISP (Comcraps). It's provided a smooth, stable connection throughout my house on both 2.4 and 5 GHz bands. Setup is a breeze, and like many things Apple, "It just works."

The only thing I would strongly recommend is that you not download and use Airport Utility 6.0. Though it is a simplified UI, Apple removed many of the advanced functions (not that there were that many but they were useful) you could configure.

 

I currently have an AirPort Extreme Router (upgraded from the 802.11g AirPort Express) and like it. I have had it for a while now and have yet to restart the unit other than during the initial setup period. I only use the 2.4GHz spectrum since all of my 802.11n devices are limited to that but I still have a strong connection throughout my apartment. I can even walk to the mailbox (a good 60 ft away) and pickup my network on my phone and have the full 30Mbps internet I am providing it.

I think a large portion of that comes down to the ISP and cable modem though. Back when I was on Time Warner with my AirPort Express and Motorola cable modem, everything was fine. I then moved back to my home state where Comcast was the only high speed provider in town (DSL was only up to 1.5Mbps while Comcast offered 5Mbps). I used the same cable modem and AirPort Express but I constantly had to restart it. I then moved somewhere else and DSL had caught up and surpassed Comcast (I was paying for 10Mbps). I didn't have to restart my DLS modem or AirPort Express once.

You might still need to restart the AirPort Extreme base station every once in a while if your ISP is picky. On Comcast, I had to routinely restart my AirPort Express about once every two weeks. I got into the habit of just restarting it and eventually put it on a smart timer that would kill the power at 2:00 AM on a Tuesday for 2 minutes and then turn back on.

 

same here, once you go with the AAEBS you never go back to another router, i bought 3x routers (a airport express, 2x4th gen and a 5th gen of the ebay), none of them have ever missed a beat, i sent 02 of them back home, and have been a cinch to even configure for my dad, he can extend the base stations to each other, make the printers go remote (although you do need the drivers and bonjour). however all in all works great.

one thing of note is the 5th gen does not have the range for the G, and 2.4GHZ N as the 4th gen did, however the 1103 killer and ? broadcom in the early 2011 MBP13 have amazing speeds on the 5th gen, frankly can't fault in them

PS the only other router in my own humble opinion would be something from the Netgear range (the 450,700,900 range) these are more fully featured than the extreme, and might be worth a look if you intend to use any of those features

PS i was never a apple fanboi, but honestly the iPhone 3gs and these routers really won me over, i for one have used linksys, asus and belkin...of which my belkin would have to be given the most-annoying-router-i ever-possessed title

 

I went through a new cheapo dlink or netgear or linksys about every year for many years... they just seem to die eventually. Since I got an Airport router about 2.5 years ago, I haven't had to do a thing... I haven't even looked at it, its been rock solid and working perfectly. I love it...

 

That is very nice to hear from so many people in such a short time! Thank you all!

I have to restart my Belkin once a second day I think… It sometimes refuses to let devices connect. Once restarted, I'm able to connected again… Odd. I really really did like aznguyen316's setup. And I think mine is going to be similar. The most amazing idea is the Time Machine backup. I think I'm going to go ahead and buy the Airport Extreme Router from Apple as soon as possible…

One last thing, I'm quite sure this will work flawless but, I'll be able to watch 1080p movies which is located on my drive over wireless, right?

I'm also still not been able to pick up the Magic mouse… I'm also hoping more goodies from Apple tonight… Only 10 minutes left!

 

Yup you can, granted you have wireless N on whatever it is you're streaming on to so there are no hiccups. I mostly have 720p stuff, but my JB ATV2 has no problems streaming those videos from the hard drive connected to my airport.

 

I was mostly thinking to steam from my MBP, but since apple yesterday announced new Apple TV, I think it is going to be both.

 

1080p technically shouldn't be a problem even on an 802.11G connected at ~36Mbps (since you rarely ever connect at the full 54Mbps unless you are right next to the router). You might use up the entire bandwidth with really high bitrate videos decently compressed ones would be fine.

I can tell you that I constantly stream 1080p videos (with an average video bitrate at around 20Mbps with standard 5.1 Dolby Digital/DTS audio) over my 802.11N 2.4gHz connection from my AirPort Extreme without issues. I could even go up to full Blu-ray specs if I wanted to over N but I don't see a need to.

 

I see. I have now figured out how to have same content on both of my computers at the same time… Now, I wonder how I can take some of it with me if I'm going to move with my MBP. Can I put them into RAID or something, so I get 2 identical drives?