Airport Router Worth it?

My D-Link Wireless G router bit it today. Im considering the Apple wireless N router but 179 is steep! Is this thing worth it when I can get a D-link Wirles N for $100 less? Anyone with this sell me on it. By the way I have the 2.2Ghz Macbook pro...

 

D-Link and Linksys routers are fine in my opinion. No need to spend more for the Airport Extreme Base Station.

 

I believe the Airport also doesn't have gigabit ethernet if that's important to you. Personally, I think I'm going to go with the D-Link Xtreme Wireless N. btw how do you do a hyperlink in a forum post?

 

Copy the link you want to hyperlink to. Type a word, for example ASDF. Highlight the word you want linked, and click the icon Hyperlink (its an icon of the world) (in the same row as Bold, Italic, Underline icons) and a window will pop up. Paste the link and press okay. You've hyperlinked!

 

My router recently expired as well, a D-Link DI-624. I know it's outdated, but there seemed to be more dropouts/problems when I used it with a Mac rather than a PC. I was about to buy the Airport Express, then I watched a video on CNET: Make Your Laptop A Hotspot.

Long story short, I've been using an iMac to broadcast the wireless signal to a MacBook Pro instead, no router. Of course, you need two computers to do this, and they don't have to be Macs.

 

The only problem I have with that solution is that you lose a hardware firewall which is very important to security.

For the OP, I was in this situation last week and I went with the AirPort Extreme Base Station. While it is true, it is missing gigabit ethernet, I had no real need for that. As far as setup goes, it far surpasses any router out there; it's a breeze. The AirPort Utility is a very nice easy to use program, but what swayed me the most was being able to share a printer and hard drive easily to all my PCs and my Mac. One other plus, according to a few reviews I have read, the Extreme does not slow down as much in a mixed g/n environment.

Basically, unless you really need gigabit, I would go with the AirPort, and if you have the educational discount, it lowers the cost to $159, which puts it only about $30 than the D-Link Xtreme I was considering.

 

^agree completely, I have had my Airport Extreme for over 6 months now, got the educational discount, and it has bee wonderful since the day I got it.

it is great to be able to just store videos and that sort of thing on the Connected Airdisk (external HDD) wireless throughout the apartment, it can easily play back many different types of video without a problem, even playing back a HD Apple trailer saved on the HDD is not a problem.

 

Also, time machine is supposed to work with the Airdisk via Leopard as well...

Still, I wonder if Apple plans on updating the Airport Extreme anytime soon - it's due for one.

 

^yeah timemachine over the wireless network would be very nice.

it isn't really due for an update though, no company updates their routers that often, especially Apple, it is probably once a year-2years that they release a new router.

the way I see it is. whenever they due release a new one, I am guessing it will still be at (n) level at that time, if I think I need another router with gigabit ethernet and all that, (maybe it will have more USB ports or . . . why not a Solid State HDD or regular HDD built in? haha, completely unnecessary but talk about easy file sharing) I will get the new one and use the one I have now to extend the network.

if you are thinking about buying the Apple router now, there is no reason to wait.

 

I was also considering the D-link N Extreme. Ive always had good luck with D-link, and I happen to have a 30Mbs Fios connection..... But Im still torn on the apple... damn...damn...

 

Yeah, I definitely wouldn't go with the Airport Extreme. It is a good, stable router...However, it only has 3 ports, has no SPI firewall, and no web interface. For the price they charge for that router, you can do MUCH better (Linksys WRT350N/WRT150N or Asus WL-500W).

 

web interface is pure pure pure crap after you have used something as simple as Apple's supplied software, in fact if you own any Mac that was released after the Airport Extreme, the software is already built into OS X.

(this is a subjective opinion, now let me explain to why it may or may not be useful to someone)

Honestly, I don't really understand why people get torn when looking into these type of things, it either works for your situation or doesn't, or you might want to change the situation you have going to fit into this new situation because it is more efficient, more aesthetically pleasing, or whatever.

Sites like this are not and hopefully will never be about people's subjective opinion, it is about helping people further understand what is in fact available for them to use, not why they should use them, but what they can or can't do with them, leaving any subjective issues to the person alone.

 

But will other routers such as Belkin and Linksys be compatible with the mac?

 

Yup, sure will be, 100%
Apple didn't invent it's own new wireless network standard

 

Yes. However, new Macbooks and MBP's seem to have some issues with Broadcom Draft-N 1 standard wireless routers. (see my recent thread here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=147633).

Miraculously, a few days ago Apple released an Airport update patch and all of those problems have disappeared. As usual, way to go Apple for being on the ball! Other companies (Dell) would just tell people to suck it up (in garbled Indian-English).