Apple AirPort Extreme Dual-band Base Station MB763LL/A [OLD VERSION]
by Apple Computer
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Apple AirPort Extreme Dual-band Base Station MB763LL/A [OLD VERSION]
Customer Review: Apple nails it with this dual band router - A/B/G/N - and Guest Access!
Summary: 5 Stars
Hi All,
True to my gadget envy, I acquired one of these dual band extreme base stations to see if they held up to the hype. Sure enough, Apple has improved an old mediocre product with a new more powerful hardware engine and improved software abilities.
Features:
802.11 A/B/G/N DUAL Band radios at 2.4ghz and 5ghz simultaneously.
Gigabit Ethernet ports 1x Wan and 3x Lan.
Guest wireless network.
Disk sharing via USB connected drive.
Access to shared disk via MobileMe (apple mobile me subscribers on os x).
The box comes with the router, the power cord, software cd, and documentation....limited documentation.
Time to test.
Setup: Setup of an apple base station is unlike any other in that you cannot access the setup portal via your web browser. You must install the Apple Airport utility (both mac and windows) in order to set the router up. The software is built very well and provides the typical ease of use known to MAC users. You simply walk through a setup wizard and define simple options for your internet connection, your wireless network, etc, etc. NOTE: When setting up your wireless networks you are able to hit the options button so that you can define a 5ghz network as well (example, main wireless network called wifi, the 5ghz is called wifi (5ghz)). Very easy to setup and get going. You are also able to easily define a SECURED (wpa/wpa2) guest wireless network....which simply means that if you have a visitor they can use wi-fi but not get to any of the computers on your home network. Very Secure....and a great feature to boot.
I was using the old Apple Base Station and kept switching between it and a d-link wireless n router.... I got one of these primarily due to dual band and guest access.
Yes, there are other routers out there that can do this for a bit of a lower cost...but the elegance of the Apple Airport Utility make this a router that can be setup without too much hassle. The software will also identify problems in the setup and have you correct them before it uploads them to the router. These abilities alone make this a router for the non-geeks to be able to setup a robust networking environment at home.
Wireless: As I mentioned before, I am comparing this to an older model apple base station that was single band and worked in the N range. Also compared this against a D-Link DIR-655 which is a 2.4ghz Wireless N router. The section on speed below will detail my wireless experience.
Speed: I have Comcast cable modem service which gives me about 15-25mbps down and 2mbps up....I live in an area where there are probably 5-10 subscribers...so my speed is generally GREAT and never experiences a slow down. The first thing I do when I play with a new router is do a speed test....the new base station is comparable to the others and gets the same exact download/upload speeds over ethernet. There is one exception....using the wireless on this unit yielded BETTER results then the older model and the d-link. Normally when doing a speed test over wireless I get about 12-15mbps and 2mbps up....with this router I was able to successfully hit the 20mbps mark and 2mbps UP. WIN WIN!!!! So I figured that this may be an anomaly and thus proceeded to test a download from Microsoft - a 3.4gb file - which normally downloads anywhere between 900kpbs and 1.2mbps. Surprise.....with the new base station I stayed at 1.3mbps and it did not hiccup even once. The same was true when downloading via a wireless connection, albeit the speed was 1.0mbps....faster then I have ever gotten before. WIN WIN again!
Disk Sharing - Not much to be said here...I attached a Western Digital USB hard drive 320gb and shared it. You simply go into the Airport Utility software and setup sharing of the hard drive and define which password should be used. You can either use the password for the router or setup a separate password to use with Disk Sharing. Speed is dependent upon wired or wireless. I tested while transferring 3 files...one was 2mb one was 100mb and one was a 2.5gb file. The two mb file of course went over before I could blink...the 100mb transferred over in about 3-4 minutes...the 2.5gb took about 15 minutes. The first transfer test was with ETHERNET connectivity. I did the same tests over wireless and found that the times doubled...naturally since wireless is a bit slower I expected that and had no issue with the times.
Mobile-Me - I have not tested the mobile me features just yet but will be testing them in the days ahead and post my results here.
So far I feel this router has hit perfection and will now find a permanent spot in my home...at least until something better hits.
Please do leave me comments with suggestions on the review and or any questions you may have.
Customer Review: Love my Airport Extreme and Airport Express Network! It just WORKS!
Summary: 5 Stars
I work with my wife and we own our own business (actually, she's the sole owner). We have about 5 employees and 24 consulting instructors. We provide consulting services in portfolio / project management, program management, and systems engineering, as well as training in all of the above as well. Our clients include Northrop Grumman, Joint Forces Command, the USCG, and many more. As a result, we rely heavily on our computers and our network.
My office is currently downstairs near the router, and hers is upstairs (our building is 4600 sq ft). We needed more range, so after researching what I thought was the best router, I bought a new D-Link Wireless N Gigabit Router DIR-655 - Wireless router + 4-port switch - EN, Fast EN, Gigabit EN, 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11n (draft), and Hawking HWREN1 Hi-Gain USB Wireless 300N Range Extender (White). Still didn't have great coverage, so I tried even replacing one of the 3 antennas on the back of the DLINK DIR 655 with the D-Link ANT24-0700 2.4 GHz Omni-Directional 7 dBi Indoor Antenna after a recommendation by an employee of the now defunct "Circuit City" store.
Still didn't help. And to top it off, every time I lost power, the Hawking and the DIR655 wouldn't work together. Hawking tech support in India (nice people, by the way) told me it was because they got stuck on different IP addresses. So the last guy I spoke with set them both to be on a static IP address together, which, while that worked, it seemed to slow my network speed, although I never verified that. I spent MANY HOURS solving connectivity problems between the Hawking and the DIR 655. And it even got to the point where, when using my iPhone 3GS in the house, I would skip the Hawking network connection when I had a choice between that and directly connecting to the DIR 655 because the Hawking always seemed to slow or fail with my connection.
Anyhow, after seeing an article about Apple Time Capsule MB765LL/A 1TB, I decided that since I'm running a Windows machine I couldn't use the features of that (Time Machine), but I could try Apple's Apple MB763LL/A AirPort Extreme Dual-band Base Station because it had multiple advantages over the DIR655, such as having a "Guest Network" where we could allow our guests (sometimes employees) to use our network when visiting but not have access to our systems. It also has a USB port to plug in a hard drive, and we could share that for easy large file transfer, etc. And, I could easily extend the network by adding an Apple AirPort Express with Air Tunes (M9470LL/A) - all one has to do is when setting it up, check a box that says "Extend my network". IMAGINE THAT! DESIGNED TO WORK TOGETHER! No more IP address conflicts! WOW! I have been amazed ever since how easy my network has become! And, I'm getting much better range. And if you have a need to extend the network in a different direction, you can simply add another Airport Express.
The odd thing is, neither employees of Best Buy, Circuit City, etc., ever recommended considering an Apple solution. I wish they had.
So, what has all of this done for me? Well, for one, I love my iPhone 3GS, and now I also love my Airport Extreme Base Station / Airport Express combination, so much so, that I decided to switch my PC to an Apple MacBook Pro! About 6 days ago, I ordered a Apple 17 MacBook Pro Intel Core 2 Duo 2.8GHz, 4GBRAM, 500GB 7200RPM Hard Drive, NVIDIA GeForce". And, it will be here today! What about my customers that use MS Office products? Well, my new MacBook Pro comes with Office 2008 for Mac, and, it also comes with Windows Vista Ultimate so I can still run the same software as before.
Couldn't arrive at a better time too. Yesterday morning, my HP Pavilion DV6675US 15.4-inch Entertainment Laptop (Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T7250, 4 GB RAM, 250 Hard Drive, Vista Ultimate)laptop had a Blue Screen of Death......
So, bottom line - if you're needing more network range, and haven't invested too much in your current setup, I would highly suggest you consider the Airport Extreme / Airport Express combination instead. So much easier to set up, doesn't fail, better range, and for me, you save yourself a lot of time. And when you're in your own business, as the old saying goes, time is money.
Customer Review: A very good router.
Summary: 5 Stars
I purchased this router to replace an older Motorola DD-WRT based 802.11a,b,g router. It is being used as the router and wi-fi access point to my Motorola Surfboard cable modem in a mixed platform environment. It provides connectivity to several Mac OSX computers, Windows Vista & XP computers, 2 printers, network switches, Nintendo Wii and wireless internet hand-held devices. It is important to remember that any router is as good as the complexity of the network. In that regard the Apple Airport Extreme is quite good.
Main features: Well built with an excellent design that doesn't heat up too much. Supports dual-band wifi 802.11a,b.g and n. Has a separate guest network that will allow the user to configure it with a unique identifier and password that is different from the main network and prevents guests from accessing individual machines on the main network, but allows guests to connect to each other. It also supports a VPN. It supports the Apple Bonjour protocol for easy file sharing within your network.
Configuration & administration: Its best to configure this router from a Mac OSX machine since the Airport Utility is already on a Mac. For a Windows machine, configuration involves installing the utility, which is a drawback. However, setup and configuration is a snap and you can be up and running in minutes. It is by far one of the easiest routers to setup.
Wi-fi range: The 802.11n is solid in a 50ft radius. My router is in a closet and there is no problem. The a/b/g is also better than many, but signal is weak for hand-held internet devices like phones with wi-fi in the 50 ft range, but this would be true of any router. The Airport Extreme has a built in antenna in the case which provides sufficient gain.
Security: Although the Airport Extreme uses a NAT firewall, it is probably a modified NAT. However, it is compatible with many different operating systems and does not have compatibility issues. Linksys on its newer wifi routers is using an SPI firewall which may have some issues with Windows 7. I think the goal is to find sophisticated firewalls which don't drop or corrupt packets and at the same time do it for a reasonable consumer cost. Most other consumer wifi routers which are reliable are using DD-WRT firmware which is entirely open source and could be subject to a higher security risk. Apple's firmware for the Airport Extreme is closed, and although I'm all for open source, in this instance I'm glad. It also uses the latest WPA/WPA2 security. I think the only flaw here is that I don't know how it can allow you to setup a DMZ should you have the need, but for most consumer use it's not necessary.
I think Apple has done very well with the Airport Extreme and is priced very reasonably right now in comparison to what the competition is offering. Additionally, Apple's service support is better than D-Link and Linksys for those who may be having problems.
Comparable models:
D-Link Xtreme N Dual Band Gigabit Router
D-Link DIR-855 Xtreme N Duo Dual Band Draft 802.11n Media Router
Linksys WRT610N Simultaneous Dual-N Band Wireless Router
D-Link DGL-4500 Xtreme N Selectable Dual Band Draft 802.11n Gaming Router
Customer Review: Pleasantly Surprised!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
Just to give you some background info on my hardware expertise...I am only used to PCs and Windows. I have always owned Sony Vaio computers which I absolutely love and have used Linksys and Trendnet routers which I thought were pretty good. I thought that even though I had to unplug it and reboot quite often that that was normal for all routers. Even when I first setup the router, it still was a little tedious for me but it wasn't hard.
Last year, April 2008, I bought an iMac just to see what the whole Apple obsession was about. Granted, I have had this computer for over a year but I have never really had the opportunity to mess around on it. It seems that my learning curve is pretty steep. I don't know why, it just is. It's pretty much just been a pretty piece of hardware on my desk sitting beside my monitor. Well, I switched from cable to dsl earlier this year in April 2009. I had heard that dsl was slower but I didn't expect it to be that much slower than cable and, to my disappointment, it was but since I hate Cablevision, I wasn't going back.
Anyway, fast forward to the present. I made a conscious decision this month (August) to try and learn my iMAc and I need to get it hooked up to the Linksys router but somehow there was always a problem that no one could fix since the person at Verizon that helped me hookup the DSL to my Linksys changed my router to Bridge Mode and I could not, for whatever reason, hook up the Sony Vaio and the iMac to router at the same time because there would be an IP address conflict. So it has been one or the other but not both at the same time.
Well, I have been going over to the Apple store and coming on the Amazon site to hear what people were say about the Airport Extreme and I was curious and decided to cough up the money and make an investment. I purchased this on Friday, August 28, 2009 and I took it home, disconnected my Linksys. I put in the CD into my Sony Vaio and download the Airport utility software and I plugged in the Airport Extreme and voila! instant success!!
I thought that I was dreaming but then I continued to hook up my devices and they are all working and even though it is 5 days later, I am a very happy camper! Just so you know, I have hooked my Sony Vaio with the Cat 5 Cable, but my iMac, Nintendo DS Lite, Nintendo DSi, Wii and iPod Touch are all hooked up and working so much faster than when I had my Linksys. I cannot even believe the speed. My DSL is now just as fast as when I had cable.
I never thought it was the router but I have been proved wrong. Apple, this is a great product. I will keep you guys updated as the months go on!
If you have the money to spare, pick it up and you will not be disappointed.
Customer Review: Very pleased, but still some room for improvement
Summary: 5 Stars
This router replaced a Linksys Wireless G router that had been serving me very well, until the number neighbors using 2.4GHz WFi made streaming music across the house unreliable at times.
I needed to move into the 5GHz band and still support all the older laptops and printers that only had 2.4GHz radios in them. I wanted to place the music streamers all in the 5GHz band away from the interference, and the simplicity of a single-box solution to do all this appealed to me.
I am happy to say my objectives were all achieved and I am now supporting a mixed network of PCs, printers and a Macbook, plus some WiFi music streamers.
Setup was very simple, but I did run into a few minor issues:
1) I wanted to specify which devices would run at 5GHz (those streaming music, primarily) and leave everything else at 2.4GHz. This required using a different SSID for the 5GHz network, which was an option that was a little bit hard to find in the menus.
2) Since I was worried about network coverage at 5GHz I used the "allow this network to be extended option" and configured one Airport Express to extend the network rather than simply join it. This dramatically slowed down the throughput on the extended network, to the point where I had to switch it off and resort to simple star topology. Fortunately, coverage is still good enough to reach where I need it.
3) I really wish the Airport didn't have to restart every time you make a small update to the configuration. This disrupted connectivity for other users in the house, while I refined my final configuration choices (like turning off SNMP from the WAN port, for example).
A more significant limitation is that the throughput from the WAN to LAN ports seems quite limited compared to that between different LAN connections. I have only managed to get good, rather than great, download speed test results since installing this router, which is possibly due to sluggish NAT (network address translation), which has been reported on previous generations of Apple's Airport Extreme. If this is the case, I could fix it by using a wired router for NAT and DHCP and just use the Airport Extreme as a bridge from wired to wireless. However, that wouldn't be nearly so elegant as the one-Zen-looking-white-box-that-does-everything, now would it?
However, I am still giving 5 stars since this router has the distinction of being usable by nearly everyone, and while not 100% performance-oriented, it is 100% user-oriented, and it is a stable, finished product that just works. Bravo!