Apple Airport Extreme And Time Capsule

"If yous want a router with 802.11n protocol that's friendly to both Mac and PCs the Aerodrome Extreme is a skilful selection."

Pros

• Sleek pattern; practiced wireless range and stability; integrated USB 2.0 port

Cons

• Hefty price; sluggish Aerodrome Disk speeds; but 3 ethernet ports

Summary

Apple's recently-released AirPort Extreme Base Station represents a thorough overhaul and re-packaging of the previous AirPort Extreme model. The new model is packed with enhanced features, a ameliorate set-up and direction interface and of form, college rated transfer speeds thanks to the new (and still incomplete) 802.11n protocol. Like near Apple products, the performance boost is existence highly promoted. Does the AirPort Extreme stand upwards to the hype too as other Apple products practise? Continue reading to find out.

Blueprint and Features

The Aerodrome Farthermost looks very similar to the upcoming AppleTV. Information technology'southward the same width and length as the Mac Mini desktop calculator (half dozen.5"x6.v"), though the Aerodrome Extreme it is only 1.25" thick. Surprisingly, the AirPort Extreme weighs a whopping 1.6 pounds without the power brick! Insufficiently, the average Belkin router weighs most .6 pounds.

The physical design is more sleek and minimalist than the previous, UFO-inspired AirPort Extreme. The shape is more professional person looking; slightly commonsensical and unassuming, but very chic. It is bright white, sports an extremely low-dissimilarity Apple logo on the superlative and looks naught like a typical wireless router.

The single status light on the front tells all the possible tales – green for "all ok", flashing amber for "oh oh" and so the flashing green & amber for serious bug.

The back side of the AirPort Extreme is laid out very clearly. The WAN port is clearly marked with a different icon than the three LAN ports. Having only 3 LAN ports is a fleck limiting, but one tin can always employ a hub or switch to aggrandize outbound connections. The AirPort Extreme has a security slot for Targus-like locks. I'd absolutely wait a $179 router to accept a security lock, if not an electrified proximity alarm. (To be fair, other 802.11n routers retail betwixt $99 and $199, so $179 isn't unwarranted.)

The Back of the AirPort Farthermost Stacked on a LaCie Hard Bulldoze

The newest, hottest feature on the back side of the Aerodrome Extreme is the USB 2.0 port. According to Apple, this USB 2.0 port can be used to hook up printers and USB 2.0 drives to your wireless network. It has already been discovered that using a USB 2.0 hub will let you to use more than than 1 device – several hard drives, several printers, or a combination of both. Performance stats will follow subsequently on in this review.

Apple Airport Extreme Stacked on a LaCie FireWire Difficult Drive

Finally, the last remaining port on the back of the Drome Farthermost is the power port. The AirPort Extreme is powered via a power brick that's approximately 25% the size of the base station itself. It's somewhat surprising that Apple tree didn't figure out a way to avert having to employ a power brick for a low-consumption device like this. But as far as power bricks are concerned, this i is quite nice looking and relatively unobtrusive. I too noticed that the power brick doesn't rut up as much as I expected information technology would.

Setup and Utilise

For those who've owned earlier versions of the AirPort Extreme, the setup and configuration procedure for the new AirPort Extreme will exist relatively uncomplicated. Those of you who have never used an AirPort Extreme base station, the automatic setup process is simple, but non as unproblematic and tinker-free as setting up a new Mac computer. Setup requires a fiddling thought and attention, simply not too much.

The primary setup actions are easy – pull the AirPort Farthermost from the packaging and remove the plastic wrap. Plug it in to an outlet. Run a LAN cable from your cable/DSL/T1 modem to the WAN port on the back of the AirPort Farthermost. That's it – the hardware is set up.

On your Mac, insert the AirPort Extreme installation CD. In one case the CD opens, click on the Airport setup icon. This begins the setup wizard with which yous will be able to name your network (SSID) and your base of operations station (in example you have more than one, or if you also employ an AirPort Express). You'll exist asked to indicate the type of internet connection you have. If you don't know this, your internet provider will be able to tell you. You'll take the option of setting up the Airdrome Extreme with or without encryption. Encryption is a very wise pick. A few moments afterwards, the AirPort Farthermost setup process will be complete. The base station will reboot and your connection should be alive. You may demand to re-connect to the base station using your wireless connection icon, but chances are your Mac will automatically brand friends with the Airport Farthermost.

There are a great number of ways you can manually configure the AirPort Farthermost to friction match your exact needs. To do this, open your Utilities folder, launch the AirPort Farthermost Utility app, select your base station, and so hit Control-L (or select the Base Station menu, then Transmission Setup). In that location are enough custom options to go on yous occupied for a while. If y'all royally screw something upward (unlikely), you can always do a difficult reset of the AirPort Extreme by way of the reset push on the back of the base station.

In short, the setup process is pretty piece of cake. More inexperienced users may need to ask for assist, simply there's a expert run a risk everyone will be able to do it all on their ain.

Drome Utility Screen Shot, Summary Page

Aerodrome Utility Screen Shot, Password and Fourth dimension Settings

Airport Utility Screen Shot, Internet Settings Page

Peripherals

The first thing I did after setting upwards the base station was attach a printer. I set my HP printer via the USB port. It worked instantly, just as if I'd had information technology plugged direct into my laptop via USB. No difficulties at all. Lag time from hitting the "Print" button till printing began was the same as before.

I also have a network-enabled printer, so I fix it up on the base of operations station using one of the bachelor LAN ports. Setting upward a printer with a specific IP address takes a little more setup time, merely it's equally unproblematic. To employ a specific IP accost in an internal network, similar so many 192.168 networks, one must open up the AirPort Extreme Utility app, select the base of operations station, then hit Control-L (or select the Base Station card, and so Manual Setup), and use the Internet/DHCP settings to change the Airport Extreme from the standard ten.0 IP to 192.168.whatever.

Luckily, the setup interface for the Drome Extreme is awesome in simplicity and impeccably organized. Changing the IP address for the base station takes no more than than 20 seconds – less if you don't gawk at the pretty interface.

Wireless Range & Bespeak Force

Like most people, my wireless needs are pretty simple – my desk is 10 feet from my router. Range and signal are never an outcome. If I need to go to another room with my laptop, the additional distance from the base station is negligible. Signal force never loses more than one bar, even through 3-4 walls.

To test 802.11n range equally all-time every bit I could, I set upwardly my AirPort Extreme base station atop a tripod in the wide open outdoors and went for a stroll with my MacBook Pro.

I was amazed with the altitude I was able to cover without dropping whatever point strength. 150 feet – total betoken. 200 anxiety – full indicate. 250 feet – a momentary dip, then back to full betoken. 300 feet (I could barely see the AirPort Extreme by this point) – full point. Another twenty feet and the bespeak dropped to almost nothing. I looked up from my laptop and discovered that several people had crossed into my path, directly between the base of operations station and my laptop. I shooed them out of the way and the signal went back up to full force. I kept walking and found that my signal finally dropped to half force by the time I had passed 350 anxiety.

I could have gone farther than 350 anxiety, I'm sure, simply the route I was walking downwards began to curve and I lost sight of the Aerodrome Extreme base station.

In brusk, the distance tests for 802.11n is outstanding.

Speed Tests & AirPort Deejay Utility

Wireless information rates can be dramatically affected by structural and electronic variables in your immediate area. Users' results will typically vary to greater or lesser degrees, therefore don't take the post-obit examination results equally gospel. (To quote Apple's website, "Actual performance will vary based on range, connection charge per unit, site atmospheric condition, size of network, and other factors. Range will vary with site weather condition.")

Wired Benchmarks:

Prior to testing the 802.11n information transfer speeds betwixt two 802.11n enabled computers (MacBook 2GHz Core two Duo and MacBook Pro 2.33GHz Core two Duo) on a local network, I tested the wired connections betwixt the same computers for a frame of reference.

i. MacBook connected to MacBook Pro directly by a LAN cable, each with Gigabit ethernet. Boilerplate transfer speed of 650MB file = 20MB/s, with a meridian burst of 31MB/south.

2. MacBook connected to MacBook Pro past LAN cables via AirPort Farthermost, using the base station's 10/100BASE-T ports. Average transfer speed of 650MB file = 11MB/s.

Wireless Comparisons:

I performed several wireless speed tests with the new AirPort Farthermost. These tests included wireless 802.11g at two.4GHz, 802.11n at 2.4GHz and 802.11n at 5GHz. Each was tested with and without encryption.

Bonjour and FTP transfer of 50MB file:

1. 2.4GHz unencrypted 802.11g/n Avg.    1.7MB/s

2.two.4GHz encrypted 802.11g/north              Avg.    3.4MB/s

3. 2.4GHz unencrypted 802.11n                 Avg.    2.3MB/s

4.2.4GHz encrypted 802.11n                 Avg.    20KB/s (yes, 20KB/south)

five. 5GHz unencrypted 802.11n                    Avg.    half dozen.2MB/southward

vi.5GHz encrypted 802.11n                    Avg.    six.1MB/due south

7. Wired-only via Drome Extreme Avg.    11MB/s

8. Wired-simply with Gigabit LAN                  Avg.    20MB/southward

As yous can run into, the 802.11n protocol reached well-nigh

one-half the speeds of a wired 10/100BASE-T network

and a little less than

1/three the speed of a Gigabit connection

. For a wireless protocol, that'south pretty impressive! Unless you're doing heavy A/V work and need to movement gigabyte files across your network on a regular basis, this 802.11n protocol may be sufficient for about networking needs.

One of the nearly promising features of the AirPort Extreme is the USB two.0 port and the power to connect hard drives to information technology. This helps create NAS-like storage on the cheap. The fact that a USB hub can enable you to connect multiple hard drives is truly revolutionary.

I tested the Aerodrome Disk Utility to come across how easy it was to prepare and how the overall performance rated.

Setting up the Drome Deejay Utility was easy quick. The application asked if I wanted to allow free connection or if passwords access was preferred. I'm information-paranoid, so I chose the password option. I denied disk admission to guests. Bah, guests. Within 2 minutes, the 250GB USB ii.0 bulldoze I connected was attainable via my card bar and my desktop. I was pleased, until I began moving data to and from the bulldoze.

Mac to Airport Disk transfer of 50MB file and 100MB directory:

1. 2.4GHz unencrypted 802.11g/n Avg.    2.8MB/s upwards    3.8MB/southward down

2.2.4GHz encrypted 802.11g/n              Avg.    2.8MB/s up   3.7MB/southward downwards

three. 2.4GHz unencrypted 802.11n                 Avg.    2.6MB/southward upward    3.7MB/south downwardly

4.two.4GHz encrypted 802.11n                 Avg.    ii.2MB/south up   3.5MB/south downwards

5. 5GHz unencrypted 802.11n                    Avg.    2.7MB/south upwardly    3.5MB/s down

6.5GHz encrypted 802.11n                    Avg.    2.0MB/southward up   three.8MB/s downward

In near cases, encryption seemed to slow things down a little, but non much.

As a final exam, I did what many people will eventually exercise – I backed up an unabridged directory of documents, spreadsheets, PDFs and images to the Airdrome Deejay. The directory contained vi.17GB of information. The information transfer was started at 6:15am. Past 7:30am, simply 2.33GB of data had been moved over.

I was disappointed by the AirPort Disk stats, but I had to recognize that the data rates I was seeing were still technically 'decent'. I just expected a lot more, especially with 802.11n.

Every bit I mentioned above, varying weather condition in your immediate environs may significantly change your Drome Farthermost speeds.

Internet Connection Boost

1 thing I found especially impressive was the fact that my overall Internet speeds increased two-fold after installing the AirPort Farthermost. Previously, I was getting an average of 2,400kbps with my 6mbps Comcast connection (using Motorola's SB5120 modem and speakeasy.cyberspace'due south speed examination).

Afterwards I hooked upwards the AirPort Farthermost base of operations station and configured it for encrypted 802.11n running at 5GHz, my boilerplate speed tests ranked closer to 5,900kbps down and 350kbps upward! That's awesome! Even directly connected to the cablevision modem, speeds never leap over 6,100kbps, so to take 6mbps wireless is a real treat. On a solar day-to-solar day footing, this will exist much appreciated and nearly justifies the $179 price tag of the Aerodrome Extreme.

Determination

The new AirPort Extreme base station looks awesome and has a useful USB port for connecting printers and drives. Signal strength and wireless range are stellar. The overall results in computer-to-reckoner data transfer tests show that the 802.11n protocol, at least with this AirPort Farthermost, come shut to half the speeds of wired networks. That'due south an impressive feat. Major kudos to Apple for these positive points!

The AirPort Deejay performance was less impressive. I figured this would be i of the strongest points, but it was the weakest point of all.

Additionally, the 2x boost in boilerplate Internet speeds made me very happy. If this wireless router can enhance speeds for other Mac users, in that location will be a lot of satisfied folks beyond the nation.

If yous want a router with 802.11n protocol that's friendly to both Mac and PCs, is piece of cake to set upwards and maintain, and operates at nigh-wired speeds, the Airport Extreme is a great choice. If yous need flawless north speeds all the fourth dimension and you intend to use the Drome Disk USB two.0 drive for massive information transfers, the Aerodrome Extreme may exist a good choice, simply it'd be prudent to counterbalance other options before buying.

If y'all have an opportunity to examination the Drome Extreme prior to purchase (bring your new MacBook or MacBook Pro down to your local Apple tree store), I'd recommend doing so. Y'all'll get a feel for the real-earth performance and how valuable it can be to you lot.

Pros:

• Sleek blueprint
• Astonishing wireless distances & signal strength
• Potential boost of cable/DSL Net speeds
• 802.11n provides meliorate security & potential speeds
• USB 2.0 port for AirPort Disks & printers
• Works with both Macs and PCs

Cons:

• Hefty $179 cost tag
• Sluggish Aerodrome Deejay speeds on local wireless network
• Only iii ethernet ports
• Requires an 'Northward' compatible NIC card to faster speeds

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Source: https://www.digitaltrends.com/gadget-reviews/apple-airport-extreme-review/

Posted by: gonzaleztheast.blogspot.com

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