Apple Airport Extreme 2013

Im wondering if anyone has experienced the new Apple Airport Extreme router? I used the previous generation for 2 years then switched to the D-link DIR 655 dual band N till now. But I feel the signal strength is not that good so Im thinking of buying the new Apple router. Is it worth $199 ?

 

The reason Apple can advertise those speeds is because it supports the "ac" standard. However, you need a 5 GHz receiver on your laptop that supports ac. The Intel 7260 is on example. If you do not have a ac receiver, you are going to use the n standard and are going to have a very expensive router that is may be a bit faster than your current one.

 

If you still have your old apple router you might as well get a powerline and create a 'roaming' network where you need the signal boost. Thats what I did, the apple router (i have previous gen) are good, I doubt AC will make a huge difference on range yet, maybe later it will.

 

It doesn't and it won't be any difference in terms of range. Range depends mostly on transmitter power (which is limited and doesn't increase with subsequent Wi-Fi standards) operating freqiency (lower frequency means higher range due to the fact that it deals better with penetrating through obstacles and therefore fades slower with distance).

While better routers with better power amps and so on might see some improvement in terms of range- as a rule of thumb with identical or similar transmitter power and the same frequency the transmitter is working range cannot be significantly improved.

 

so you're suggesting not to buy the AAE?

I quite like how you control the airport extreme entirely via wifi and software, no cable needed as some other routers.

 

Nope you can control all routers over wifi without any additional software just an internet browser AFTER the wifi is set up.
AAE does not have a web browser to control it which is a minus compared to other routers with web server/terminal server built in.

 

I agree- apart from web-GUI AAE doesn't have other important features like support for 40MHz channels on 2.4GHz or uPnP.
I wouldn't buy it.