Apple AirPort Extreme Dual-band Base Station MB763LL/A [OLD VERSION]
by Apple Computer
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List Price: Our Price: $99.00 You Save: $80.00 (45%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: CE See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
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for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Apple AirPort Extreme Dual-band Base Station MB763LL/A [OLD VERSION]
Customer Review: Awesome & Ridiculously Easy To Set Up
Summary: 5 Stars
It took me longer to clear the space on my desk for the router than it did to set it up. The Airport Utility imported my settings from the previous router and I was good to go. I mean it was 5 minutes or less -- no kidding! Everything works flawlessly including my desktop computer, iPod Touch, and three laptops connected wirelessly, as well as my Sony PSP 3 which is also wirelessly connected. My Vonnage also continues to work perfectly. We have a large two story house and haven't been able to find a single dead zone, and I did try to find one!
I started with a Linksys router which was fine but had very limited range so a couple of years ago I purchased a D-Link which got great range, but I could only send jobs to my printer IF my desktop computer was turned on (it's wired to the printer). Numerous calls to D-Link tech support were a waste of time.
A year ago I replaced the D-Link with a Netgear. The Netgear is a beautiful piece of equipment that gets great range and sends print jobs easily from anywhere in the house without having to have the desktop computer turned on. The problem is/was that I couldn't always get it to connect to the internet. I would have to restart my computer numerous times. I was averaging 45 to 60 minutes (combined times) a day trying to establish a connection and sometimes I just couldn't get on. In addition, I could not connect to my bank's online banking with the Netgear. Their tech support worked with me to try to overcome those problems, but nothing ever worked to resolve the issues. Interestingly enough the same Netgear router at my business office in another location works flawlessly: I get on every time and I can do my online banking via the Netgear at the office but not at home with the Netgear.
I was just tired of having to work so hard to establish an internet connection. Having tried Linksys, D-link and Netgear, I wasn't interested in spending more money to discover what problem yet another brand possessed. I have always had positive experiences with Apple products, so I thought 'why not.' I set aside the time to set it up and made the commitment to take it back to the Apple Store within 14 days if it didn't do everything I needed it to do. What a pleasure to plug it in and install the software, and have the rest be like waving a magic wand. The only problem I encountered was having to reinstall the printer hardware (ethernet connected). And yes, I can do my banking online from home again. I am very pleased, though not surprised. Apple does it yet again!
Customer Review: Stable, fast, user-friendly, brilliant.
Summary: 5 Stars
This product replaces a series of D-Link routers. While those worked, every one of them (most recent a MIMO Super-G model) was unstable and finicky. The latest would "forget" it's settings and have to be rebooted at least once a week, and sometimes even a couple of times a day. The last time, it even forgot how to access the web as a DHCP v. PPPoE connection, so a reboot alone did not help - we had to set up the whole thing again from scratch. D-Link support was not much help and never could explain the instability - we even tried surge suppressors and filtered power supplies.
Since we are a Mac household (24" iMac and two MacBooks), we bit the bullet to spend extra money for this Apple router. Best decision we could have made - who cares if it cost more if the product does everything you want and does it well?
The router arrived 48 hours after the order was placed. From the moment we opened the box to the time we were on the web, less than fifteen minutes. Most of that time was just moving Ethernet cables from the old box to the Apple. The setup utility at first transferred the old D-Link settings to the Airport, but that did not work. So we just started again from scratch, and about a minute later after a reboot, we were off to the races.
It has been about a week. No crashes, no reboots, one service suspension in order to download/install a firmware upgrade (all of 2 minutes). Faster than before, and the extra Guest network is a real plus. Stronger signal than before too - five bars all over the house when compared to two at best in the further reaches with the D-Link.
The USB 2.0 connection to our HP networked color laser worked perfectly - we found the printer and it was on the network in seconds via Bonjour. We'll probably get a hub and attach a network hard drive at some point, fully confident it will work like a charm.
We got what we paid for, and would do it again without a second of hesitation. Bulletproof. Highest recommendation.
Customer Review: High Quality Router
Summary: 5 Stars
Thanks to the easy setup through AirPort Utility, I was up and running within minutes. This router has rock-solid wireless connections and excellent range. Operation has been flawless, no signal drops like with some competing routers. Unlike the previous generation MB053LL/A which could only operate in one band at a time, Apple has added a 2nd radio to this new unit that allows for allows for simultaneous dual-band operation- It's like 2 routers in 1. This router allows you operate 5.0 Ghz-compatible devices on one network and 2.4 Ghz-compatible devices on the other, all from this one router. My wireless N-equipped aluminum MacBook connects to the 5.0 Ghz band and gets wireless local network speeds ranging from 200 mbps to 300 mbps. My other b/g devices connect to the slower 2.4 Ghz band. By default setup, there is one network name. When you connect to it, it will automatically join the band (2.4 Ghz or 5.0 Ghz) with the fastest connection speed that your wireless device supports. For example, a new wireless N-equipped MacBook will automatically connect via N to the 5.0 Ghz band. In addition, there is an option to assign a separate name to the 5.0 Ghz network which you can manually connect to if you so choose.
The Guest Network feature is a nice addition and certainly sets this router apart from the competition. It allows you to give Internet access only to visitors simply by setting up a separate guest network in AirPort Utility. When a user connects to the guest network, the router uses a built-in algorithm to automatically join them to the band (2.4 Ghz or 5.0 Ghz) with the fastest connection speed.
I connected a Brother HL-2140 laser printer to the usb port on the router and it worked perfectly, without having to install any print drivers.
I highly recommend this router.
Customer Review: Best router out there
Summary: 5 Stars
To date, I've used three wifi routers, the Apple Extreme Base Station being the most recent. My first was a Linksys, followed by an upper-end netgear model. After a week of use, I can attest that this router has given me the best user experience to date. No freeze-ups, easy as pie set up and it's stylish to boot. There are a lot of good technical type reviews for this product and--to be blunt--I'm not that kind of reviewer. With WiFi I care about pretty simple things. Is it easy to set up? It is--very. How powerful is it, can I go far from the base station? Walking around my building(not apartment) I can get a usable signal three stories up and over half a block away, which is a third greater than my next best router (the netgear). As for speed, it goes fast--I guess--as movies stream in HD without hesitation and surfing the web is unhindered by anything the router does. Finally I'm concerned if every thing I have, that is wireless, can hook up with it. To date, I've had two laptops and a desktop tapped in to this base station with no discernible interruption in service or speed. At the time two of the computers were steaming video and the other was simply on the web. My final note is about the build quality of this unit. It is an impressive, well-made, piece of hardware. I don't know what makes it so heavy, but it is one solid brick of tech. Really made the others seem like cheap toys. Should you be looking for a top quality WiFi router, you could do much worse than this terrific product. Any down-shots? Yes, somewhat pricey.Customer Review: Easy Setup, Fast Connection
Summary: 5 Stars
This was the 3rd router I have purchased, and my 1st Apple product. Let me say right off the bat it is the BEST! Right out of the box it just worked on my Windows Vista PC. Hardly any setup to do, which is good because the instructions/help documentation is somewhat sparse. The main PC and the router are upstairs and the wireless connection is very strong for my laptop downstairs. Has not dropped once. I can stream HD videos on YouTube with no problems. I use Linksys powerline adapters for my DVR and PS3 and there are no compatibility problems.
This was the only problem I had: Connecting to my job over the VPN using Microsoft's Remote Desktop. I setup a static IP and forwarded the port but I could never get RD to work. I even called Apple Support. They are very knowledgeable and helpful but they could not figure it out either. They verified that I setup it all up correctly though. So before taking the router back to the store, I tried it on my laptop and it worked. The difference is that my PC is Vista x64 and my laptop is Vista x32. On the box it says it is compatible with Vista but doesn't make a distinction between the 2 types. I'm glad I didn't have to take it back.
Overall I am happy with this purchase and I highly recommend this router.