Apple Airport Express MB321LL/A [NEWEST VERSION]
by Apple Computer
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List Price: Our Price: $98.87 You Save: $1.12 (1%) Availability: Usually ships in 1 to 2 months Category: CE See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Apple Airport Express MB321LL/A [NEWEST VERSION]
Customer Review: Apple Express
Summary: 5 Stars
I had some reservations about spending twice the amount for the Apple Express relative to other routers. I was also concerned about the number of issues that folks had with the set up on the network. After having it installed for two weeks now I thought that I would share my thoughts. I can happily say that I'm extremely please with The Apple Express. I had read a number of the reviews on Amazon and was very concerned about the ease of hook up. I tried to hook up a Linksys router several years ago without any success. I read the horror stories from fellow Mac users ultimately sent Express back to the vendor. When I first plugged the unit into the wall it took several minutes for the light to turn green. I believe the key is to wait until the light turns green before doing anything else. In this computer world waiting two minutes seems like a lifetime. The Airport radio device had been never used on my 5 year old desk top Mac. We have an Apple Mac OS X 10.4.11 and a Mac Book Pro in our network. I'll add a Windows lap top our the network this week. The key is to wait until the light turns green. Don't do anything else. I enable the radio and shut the Mac down and rebooted with the radio on. I did not have to install the software that came with the Express on either computer. The Mac rebooted and found the network. A few quick selections of network name and pass words got us into the network. The set up took about 10 minutes. If your a MAC user, this is the router to buy. Good range. No dropped internet connections. Fast, no noticeable change of speed while surfing. I still have the set up the printer on the network.Customer Review: Easy setup, flawless performance so far.
Summary: 5 Stars
So far I have added 3 Airport Express units to my home network: One serves a printer, one is connected to my home stereo, and one is connected to my home theater processor. I use Apple products only so didn't suffer any compatibility issues, and do have the latest 80211n wireless speed so streaming music to my home audio has been trouble free, even when there are other computers using the network.
I catch a lot of flak from friends who say it's silly to overpay for Apple products, and perhaps they're right. But it's important to me to be able to USE my computer, not muck about with a Windows based machine that locks up at the mere suggestion of a new network device. So far, after being an Apple user since the II+ and IIe, I've spent zero time troubleshooting their stuff. Zero. Because it works. I guess the trade off is you have to play on Apple's very tightly controlled playground, but I'm old enough and have enough experience wasting man hours on Windows rubbish to say: Fine. I'll play by your rules and pay a bit more for the privilege of having my stuff simply work.
All that rambling to say that this little device works just fine in a mac environment. Can't speak to whether or not it plays nice with Windows machines, but am not surprised to see people are having issues.
The streamed music sounds great, multi-room audio works, printing is instantaneous, and the Express is an unobtrusive little unit. Setup is terribly easy as always.
I recommend this device wholeheartedly for music streaming and wireless printing. In a mac environment!
Customer Review: Best for home use, basic needs, and reliability
Summary: 5 Stars
I have owned the previous b/g version of the Airport Express wireless router for many years, and even though it died about a year ago, I still vouch for its reliability. Compared to other low-cost routers that failed before its time due to shoddy construction, leaking capacitors, etc.
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PROS:
- Consistent connection
- AirPlay (formerly AirTunes) audio support
- No-fuss printer sharing
- Small size
- Adequate wireless range
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CONS:
- Wireless-only
- Hard to set up and manage; then again, almost all routers are hard to set up, and since I am tech wiz when it comes to things, it's hard to determine how hard for a normal user to set this up
- There is no web-based administration like other routers
- Lack of advanced features; this is definitely not a professional router
- AirPlay audio from videos can go out sync with the video; of course, this is probably a limitation of the originating iTunes or iOS device itself, so I recommend using this strictly for audio
- Bright green led; I had to tape this up since I use it in my bedroom
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MISC:
- If you use an analog cable instead of optical, you'll likely to get hum on your audio system.
OVERALL this is a good reliable router for basic uses with decent range, AirPlay support, and printer sharing. It's small and compact, which is very suitable for travel.
But if you needs are fairly advanced and need more control, I recommend getting a different router, particularly one with DD-WRT support.
Customer Review: Excellent Tool
Summary: 5 Stars
The Express base station is the baby brother to the bigger extreme base station. It can do many of the same things as the Extreme but is much more compact and hence an ideal repeater base station to extend the network inexpensively around the house. It supports WPA2 encryption, which is the only standard that hasn't yet been shown to be compromise-able in minutes.
The express base station is quite compact, with a built-in power supply, from which it can hang on the wall. Simply install a ethernet port nearby and you have a excellent wireless bridge. The express can stream audio from a Mac to an attached appliance via a 3.5mm headphone jack (analog audio as well as fiber digital). The express can act as a print server via its USB port but it will not mount USB hard drives like the extreme.
I have found the range of the express base station to be somewhat inferior to that of the extreme base station (IIRC, the express has only one antenna while the extreme has 3). Additionally, the express base station doesn't offer a Guest network option in addition to a secure one. Lastly, while the extreme base station has one WAN and three LAN port, the express base station only has one dual-purpose ethernet jack.
Some people like to travel with these base stations in order to allow them to quickly set up a wireless hotspot in a hotel room where there is no, or marginal, wireless coverage. The unit is small enough to fit into bags easily and the power supply prongs for the US version simply fold into the unit when they are not in use.
Customer Review: OMGLUVITLUVITLUVIT!
Summary: 5 Stars
Apple's AirPort express is truly awesome. Such a versatile little gizmo. I bought it for use as a means to obtaining whole-house audio, since I have neither the technical knowledge, carpentry skills, or time to wire my entire house for sound. I simply took an older stereo of mine, hooked up the speakers, plugged in the AirPort Express, set it up, and in LITERALLY MINUTES, I was streaming audio to the stereo. I set it up in my master bedroom, so now I can do chores in the house and hear my music everywhere (my system includes an AppleTV hooked up to a separate stereo/entertainment center with Bose speakers and my Apple computer and its Monsoon speakers & subwoofer). I would definitely recommend getting the Apple Airport Express Stereo Connection Kit w/Monster Cables--I'm using the optical stereo connection that comes with that and the sound is great. Plus, it includes an extension for the wall plug on the AirPort Express, so you don't have to limit yourself to having the AirPort plugged directly in the wall--you have a few feet to play with if your stereo (or printer or whatever you're hooking up to it) isn't right there. The only thing I would change is its size--it's certainly not huge, but there's always room for improvement; oh, and maybe also some way to stream video over your network--can't have it all! But in general, I love this product and I'm actually thinking of buying another one to hook up to ANOTHER stereo in my living room. You should definitely get this if you're considering it--it's well worth the investment.