The love and respect of Apple product owners for the manufacturer is endless, because this is the only company in the world that is trying to please the end customer. Ease of use, excellent design, modern technology and technical support. Naturally, a well-known brand, following the latest trends in the wireless technology market, came to the conclusion that the organization of secure local area networks should also be taken in hand. In the focus of this article, Apple Airport Extreme is a router that can create and maintain the full functionality of a wired and wireless network. Overview, description, specifications, settings and reviews will help the buyer make a choice in the market for such devices.
The wind of change
It should be noted that the designers and designers of Apple have always differed from competitors in their ability to think creatively and create unique products, following market trends. The Apple Airport Extreme router was no exception. On the market, the buyer can find several modifications of this device with the same name, but radically different from each other in appearance. It is a completely normal and natural phenomenon, as the manufacturer notes. The devices belong to different generations, and the differences between them are insignificant.
In this article, a potential buyer will be able to get acquainted with several options offered by the manufacturer in the domestic market. It is impossible to say that a router is better, because these are products of absolute quality, and their external difference, minor improvements and additional functionality are just small steps of the manufacturer that must be taken to follow the fashion.
Box with apples
Packing of Apple products has never stood out for its rich bundle: a router, a power supply (or a power cable, if we are talking about the Apple Airport Extreme Base Station), a warranty card and instructions - all the necessary set for a fully functional operation. The package does not include an RJ-45 interface cable for device configuration. As the owners of the router in their reviews, it is not needed, since the installation can be done wirelessly from any Apple device, after downloading the application from the Internet.
As it turned out, Mac OS has a special snap-in for configuring a router that even a child can handle, the main thing is to follow the instructions. But Windows users will have to tinker, because the manufacturer Apple did everything possible to show others the difficulty in working with the well-known operating system. In any case, an interface cable is indispensable.
External review
Traditional high-quality plastic uniquely distinguishes the router from the competitors in the market, and the white color of the case and the logo in the form of a bitten apple determine the device's belonging to the elite Apple products. The fifth generation modification is made in the form of a box measuring 16.5 x 16.5 centimeters. But the miracle of design idea of the sixth generation Apple Airport Extreme ME918RU / A is more like a tower (10x10 cm and 17 cm high). However, the appearance of both devices did not affect the available interfaces, except that the last device does not have a Kensington lock.
A power connector, a gigabit WAN port for connecting high-speed Internet, one USB port and four RG-45 interfaces for creating a wired local area network (regular managed switch). In the reviews of owners, you can often find negative about the USB port. Firstly, it is only one, although the dimensions of the device allow you to install several similar interfaces. The second problem lies in the technology itself - USB 2.0 is clearly a bit old for such a high-tech device, because the whole world has long switched to USB 3.0.
Specifications
The new Apple Airport Extreme can work in two ranges: at 2.4 GHz, the router can support speeds for the 802.11n standard up to 216 Mb / s, and at 5 GHz, with the same standard 802.11n, theoretically reaches a speed of 600 megabits per second . For owners of old devices that support Wi-Fi 802.11ac technology, it is possible to work at five gigahertz within 400 megabits per second.
Quite interestingly, the manufacturer did with antennas. Instead of standard directional devices, as was implemented at access points, the manufacturer placed antennas inside the case. This is not to say that the signal reception has become worse because of this, however, when compared with the professional segment, Wi-Fi coverage is several times less. Do not forget that the price of the device is also several times less than industrial copies.
What hides an expensive device?
Many potential buyers are concerned about the high cost of Apple Airport Extreme 802.11 n. It is clear that you have to pay for the brand and high technology of the manufacturer, but it is very interesting which components are installed inside the gadget. The manufacturer is not in a hurry to reveal secrets, so an ordinary screwdriver will help to get all the answers to the questions.
All chips in the router are marked by Marvell, including an integrated board and a processor operating at 1.2 GHz. The network card of the same manufacturer has an additional wiring for seven gigabit ports - apparently, for the next generation of devices. There is a one megabyte memory module and support for the AV-Bridging standard (transmission of streaming audio and video content in FullHD format). The integrated chip has a 128 MB RAM module and a 16 megabyte flash drive. Broadcom controller is responsible for the operation of network interfaces (installed in all Apple products, therefore 100% compatibility is provided by hardware). Miniature antennas in the form of rectangles look strange, but, as tests show, they cope with their task.
OS Compatibility
It is immediately clear that the manufacturer tried its best to “annoy” customers who do not adhere to the habit of having Apple products on hand. The router does not have support for the WEB interface. That says it all. Mac OS has a built-in configuration utility, owners of tablets and phones can download the program from the network, and everyone else needs to dance with a tambourine.
Before setting up an Apple Airport Extreme router , all Windows system owners need to go to the manufacturer’s official website, find the necessary application (AirPort Utility) and download it to their computer. After connecting the RJ-45 cable, setting up the router will not be a problem. Owners of the Linux operating system will also have to use the utility for Windows and the Wine emulator, as their manufacturer Apple simply does not recognize.
Access Point Setup
When the AirPort utility is first launched, the user is immediately prompted to configure Apple Airport Extreme. And the first tab relates directly to the control panel. It is recommended that you set a password-authorized login. The second tab is for the wireless interface. You must enter the visible name of the Wi-Fi network to others and set a security password. The following is the setting of the guest entrance - when it is necessary to provide the user with Internet access with a ban on access to local resources (actively used in cafes and small offices). The manufacturer did not fail with restricting access to the MAC address, for this a whole menu is provided in which, once having registered all active devices, you can block the connection for other unauthorized "guests", even if a person knows the Wi-Fi password.
Strange Internet Settings
Pretty primitive for the Apple Airport Extreme router WAN setup. Many Russian users will be confused by the lack of point-to-point PPTP tunnel connections and virtual private VPNs (they won’t work with Beeline provider for sure). The router supports only two connections: direct Ethernet connection and PPPoE.
However, the gadget can work both as a router and as an access point, which will please owners who purchase this device as a regular Wi-Fi network repeater . The built-in DHCP server allows you to assign a range of addresses to be distributed, and also has the function of limiting the time. There is a NAT address translator, but its use by ordinary users is in doubt.
Work with printer
Apple Airport Extreme Setup Instructions mention just one sentence about printer support in conjunction with a wireless gadget. The owner will not be able to find any other descriptions on the connection and operability of the printing device. In fact, the router has a regular print server, which is implemented on one of the Marvell controllers. You must connect the printer to an Apple access point using the USB 2.0 interface. The AirPort Utility application menu has a corresponding tab in which the printer is configured.
Definitely, the printer must be compatible with the equipment (in fact, this is a lottery, because there is no list of recommended products in any manufacturer’s specifications). Having discovered the printing device, the router will offer to show it as a wireless device to users. An additional menu gives permission for remote configuration, but IT experts recommend not to do this in their reviews - only one person should be responsible for the configuration, it’s more reliable.
External drives
Owners of the Apple Airport Extreme 802.11 ac router may also experience problems when working with external drives (flash drives and portable hard drives). Do not forget that the popular NTFS format is not recognized by the iOS manufacturer. Accordingly, before connecting, you need to format the drive partitions to the Apple HFS standard (it can also be in FAT32, but then there will be a file size limit of 4 GB). By the way, this format is supported by all Windows operating systems, starting with the seventh version and higher, so that the owner will not have any inconvenience in future use.
It is worth noting that the functionality using external drives on the router is decent - you can not only use the recorded content on Apple and Windows devices, but also view the contents on any TV that has a Wi-Fi module (DLNA technology implementation in person).
Problems and their solution
Users who before the purchase of the Apple Airport Extreme router had similar budget devices, in their reviews note that the device even without interruptions works with several gadgets: it does not hang, does not overheat and does not restart. So it should be, this indicates the quality components installed in the router.
Most users have a problem with the printing device, especially when it comes to printers manufactured before 2009. There are several solutions: try to find a similar driver for Mac OS on the Internet or extract a configuration file (with the extension “inf”) from the old driver for Windows XP. You can act like a real system administrator - give the system a similar printer from the existing lineup in the list of devices. In this case, it is unlikely to configure the device, but it will print 100%.
Owner reviews
Pretty interesting reviews on the Apple Airport Extreme router. They are more like recommendations that reveal the hidden capabilities of the device. The owners claim that it makes no sense to mount the gadget under the ceiling for better signal transmission - the excellent operation of directional antennas can deliver a powerful signal to the user through several major walls without any help. Often, users recommend instead of an external hard drive to connect NAS systems to the gadget that integrate perfectly with this router.
The novelty does not support working with torrents and does not know how to work with private virtual networks. It doesn’t matter - you can buy an inexpensive router in the secondary market and create a point-to-point serial connection, where the role of routing and downloading torrents will be given to an inexpensive device, and the rest of the load will be on the Apple router. There are many options, it would be the desire of the owner.
Finally
It is impossible to say that the Apple Airport Extreme gadget is a complete solution of the manufacturer, because, as long as there are questions from the owners about the device, there are unresolved problems. Apple must continually upgrade its devices through market research. However, if the question is about the operability and functionality of the router, compared with competitors in the market for network gadgets, then the answer is obvious - the Airport Extreme device is definitely a leader. The acquisition of this router will bring only positive emotions to all owners of mobile and computer equipment with the Apple logo.