AirPort: AirPort Utility 1.0, 802.11n manuals, Core Duo Extreme fix

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Comments

  • Reply 61 of 80
    dfilerdfiler Posts: 3,420member
    The era of home NAS is almost here... but you won't get there with the new AirPort.



    You can now buy a NAS, plug it into your router/switch, and be immediately up and running. Using Apple's product, that NAS would be less than one third as quick.



    I'll admit it is fine for people who don't need remote storage. However, the number of people that do need more storage is growing rapidly and plug-n-play storage is now quite cheap. Unless Apple adds gigabit to their router/node, it won't be suitable for these people.
  • Reply 62 of 80
    sunilramansunilraman Posts: 8,133member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Carniphage View Post


    In the UK the market is dominated by Wireless routers with built-in ADSL modems. The triple-whammy of half-speed 802.11n, no built-in ADSL modem and no gigabit wired ports really reduces the attractiveness of the product in the UK.



    C.



    Totally agree. 8)
  • Reply 63 of 80
    In response to:



    >I'm by no means a network engineer, but other than moving files around within your home network, why would one need gigibit?



    In the U.S. "broadband" speeds are pretty slow compared to a lot of places in the world, but for many of us the higher speeds are really desirable. Here in Tokyo I have NTT B-Flets "Hyper Family" fiber optic at home, with a maximum throughput of 1 gigabit/second up and download.



    doug
  • Reply 64 of 80
    aplnubaplnub Posts: 2,605member
    If what Sunil says is true about n at 5 GHz going up to 300 speeds, than that is on par with what I am getting with Gigabit wired right now. So you have just proven why Apple screwed up and only put 10/100 ports on their router that could possibly triple the speed wirelessly.



    Sunil, you are your best enemy. You still the man though!!
  • Reply 65 of 80
    I am glad I read this thread because I don't want to buy a router without 1 Gbit/sec local network ports because not all my computers are wireless, and I do have fiber optic at home.



    So my question is - what are some other recommended 802.11n Mac compatible router choices out there?



    Thanks,



    doug
  • Reply 66 of 80
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by douglerner View Post


    I am glad I read this thread because I don't want to buy a router without 1 Gbit/sec local network ports because not all my computers are wireless, and I do have fiber optic at home.



    So my question is - what are some other recommended 802.11n Mac compatible router choices out there?



    Thanks,



    doug



    I'd go for the Airport Extreme, but I'd also get a cheap gigabit switch for your wired LAN.
  • Reply 67 of 80
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by solipsism View Post


    I'd go for the Airport Extreme, but I'd also get a cheap gigabit switch for your wired LAN.



    What does the gigabit switch connect to - and why wouldn't it then be limited by the 100 mbit/sec port of the router itself?



    Thanks,



    doug
  • Reply 68 of 80
    aplnubaplnub Posts: 2,605member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by douglerner View Post


    What does the gigabit switch connect to - and why wouldn't it then be limited by the 100 mbit/sec port of the router itself?



    Thanks,



    doug



    IF you are in the USA and have DSL/Cable or less, then it doesn't matter on the connection to the internet.



    For instance. My DSL modem connects to my router. My router ties to my gigabit switch and then to my network. That way everything wired is on the gigabit switch(s). I wish my internet speeds would take advantage of gigabit but that is a pipe dream.
  • Reply 69 of 80
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by aplnub View Post


    IF you are in the USA and have DSL/Cable or less, then it doesn't matter on the connection to the internet.



    For instance. My DSL modem connects to my router. My router ties to my gigabit switch and then to my network. That way everything wired is on the gigabit switch(s). I wish my internet speeds would take advantage of gigabit but that is a pipe dream.



    But if the router's port to your local network is limited to 100 mb/s how does that help?



    Internet -- DSL -- Router --(100 mb/s)---gigabit switch---network



    If the router itself is limited to 100 mb/s how does slipping in a gigabit switch help?



    Thanks,



    doug
  • Reply 70 of 80
    jeffdmjeffdm Posts: 12,951member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by aplnub View Post


    IF you are in the USA and have DSL/Cable or less, then it doesn't matter on the connection to the internet.



    For instance. My DSL modem connects to my router. My router ties to my gigabit switch and then to my network. That way everything wired is on the gigabit switch(s). I wish my internet speeds would take advantage of gigabit but that is a pipe dream.



    It does limit the speed of the connection to the drive attached to the AE.



    Normally I'd suggest the Linksys WRT350N, specwise better than AE, but it's getting very poor reviews.
  • Reply 71 of 80
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by JeffDM View Post


    It does limit the speed of the connection to the drive attached to the AE.



    Normally I'd suggest the Linksys WRT350N, specwise better than AE, but it's getting very poor reviews.



    Do you have some links for those reviews of the WRT350N? I'm looking at getting one instead of the Airport Express.
  • Reply 72 of 80
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by JeffDM View Post


    It does limit the speed of the connection to the drive attached to the AE.



    Normally I'd suggest the Linksys WRT350N, specwise better than AE, but it's getting very poor reviews.



    The Linksys WRT350N doesn't support AFP at all from what I can tell or HFS+ formatted disks. The one big advantage the Apple AE has is support for AFP/HFS+ which at this point I'm presuming is full support unlike the many NAS solutions which support AFP but often fall at the last hurdle with permission issues or dumb fork handling.



    Sadly, with 100Mbit that big selling point is wasted for me.
  • Reply 73 of 80
    I now have one shiny new AEBS(n) which is hidden away from view in my basement.



    Important points.

    1) Telling the AEBS that I live in Ireland means that the 5Ghz n only option is available in the UK. Interestingly "Ireland' is the default setting.

    2) Reported Speed in Net Info is 270Mb/s

    3) Negotiated Speed in Air Traffic Control varies - but is often 216Mbs

    4) I have a wired ethernet link between AEBS(n) and PC acting as a media server. The 100Mbs ethernet seems to be the limiting factor. I get speeds of around 8MBs - (Q. That's pretty typical for 100megabit ethernet right?)

    5) Lots of people are having problems with using the AEBS(n) to support g devices. XBox360s and Airport Express in particular. So setting up a dual band network gives me a best-of-both worlds solution.





    C.
  • Reply 74 of 80
    jeffdmjeffdm Posts: 12,951member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by israces View Post


    Do you have some links for those reviews of the WRT350N? I'm looking at getting one instead of the Airport Express.



    Just what I saw on the product pages at Newegg and Amazon.
  • Reply 75 of 80
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Carniphage View Post


    I now have one shiny new AEBS(n) which is hidden away from view in my basement.



    Have you got a spare USB 2.0 external drive?



    How about running a benchmark transferring across the network both wired and wireless ?
  • Reply 76 of 80
    sjksjk Posts: 603member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by JeffDM View Post


    Just what I saw on the product pages at Newegg and Amazon.



    The WRT350N is still a pre-order item at Amazon (US) with no reviews. Maybe you mean the three-star-rated WRT300N?
  • Reply 77 of 80
    xoolxool Posts: 2,460member
    I have a Mac Pro and MacBook Pro that both use my 802.11n AirPort Extreme. I have the base station configured to use 802.11n only, w/ only 5 GHz spectrum and in wide channel mode. I use my old UFO AirPort for 802.11g equipment and the rare 802.11b device.



    So far my tests have been minimal, and while the new 802.11n gear is much faster than the 802.11g stuff, I'm not getting nearly the performance I expected. My scp tests in the terminal showed a transfer rate of 3.4 MB/s, or 27 Mbit. In comparison when I use 802.11g I'd get about 300 KB/s. (I used a 1.6 GB file to allow the xfer rate to settle.)



    I live in an urban environment and can see many networks in addition to all the devices that I run in my apartment. This was also my out-of-box experience and I haven't yet located the equipment in its final, hopefully ideal location. However, I can't help but feel somewhat disappointed as I expected faster transfer speeds from the new gear. I did everything I could network wise to optimize the new network for speed. The new AirPort Utility reports my signal as -69 and noise as -92 dBm (for the Mac Pro across the room), so perhaps noise levels are to blame. It shows the machine's rate as 135. (Some 802.11g equipment reports similar levels - signal: -60, Noise: -92, Rate: 54.)



    Anyone else with the new gear have similar or different experiences?



    Anyhow, I'll report in after I tweak things some more.
  • Reply 78 of 80
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by aegisdesign View Post


    Have you got a spare USB 2.0 external drive?



    How about running a benchmark transferring across the network both wired and wireless ?



    Ok I have a LaCie D2 drive which does have a USB2 interface.

    I used the movie "Domino". Which in MP4 format is 988MB. (near as damnit a Gigabyte)



    Speeds are in MEGABYTES per second. Max speed read from Activity Monitor.

    All Wireless security was OFF for this test.



    Writing Via SMB

    MacPro --> 802.11n 5Ghz --> AEBS --> Ethernet100 -->PC 7.31MB/s (max 7.9)

    Reading Via SMB

    MacPro <-- 802.11n 5Ghz <-- AEBS <-- Ethernet100 <--PC 5.48MB/s (max 6.01)

    Writing AirDisk

    MacPro --> 802.11n 5Ghz --> AEBS --> USB2 --> LaCie D2 3.29MB/s (max 3.7)

    Reading from AirDisk.

    MacPro <-- 802.11n 5Ghz <-- AEBS <-- USB2 --> LaCie D2 4.11MB/s (max 4.8 )



    Speeds to the USB2 airdisk are significantly slower than reads and writes to a PC server connected via ethernet.

    The Writing Speed to the Airdisk was the slowest. And watching the connection speed in Activity Monitor showed a fluctuating data rate. All other transfers showed flat lines.

    Writing to airdisk always showed this behavior.



    I am not able to compare with wired speeds.



    C.
  • Reply 79 of 80
    xoolxool Posts: 2,460member
    So, I spent a good portion of Sunday moving the new AirPort around my apartment while checking the signal graph. The base station couldn't be more than 25 feet from my Mac Pro and I put it everywhere, including hanging it behind doors and placing it on a stack of empty boxes (Mac Pro!) in a closet. At its best location (hanging from the ceiling about 2 feet above my TV) I was able to get 300 Mbit connection (rate) from both machines and could scp around 5.3 MB/s.



    However, as this location wasn't practical and was somewhat an eye sore, I resorted to another location for now. How I long for speed! To really use the new base station effectively I'll need to rearrange some things.



    Other than my signal issues, the new base station is great and the new AirPort Utility software is fantastic! Love those connection graphs... I've missed them since the OS 9 days.
  • Reply 80 of 80
    Quote:

    AirPort Utility will be backwards compatible with Apple's previous generation AirPort Extreme and Express base stations. It will also add new features, such as the ability to monitor all connected clients on the AirPort wireless network -- an essential tool for businesses, schools, and other large wireless environments.



    I am not interested in the new Airport, but I would love the long-overdue ability to monitor all connected clients on my current Airport Extreme. But where can I get just the new Airport Utility? I searched around the Apple website, but it appears you have to buy the new base station to get the new Airport Utility.



    Thanks,
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