My next door neighbor has some Netgear stuff that outperforms the latest AE by miles. I can see his 5GHz network from 100 miles away, but I have to be within 2.3 inches of my AE to see my 5Ghz network. Let me re-emphasize that he's my next door neighbor, so interference from microwaves or cordless phones can be factored out, so please take that into consideration before defending the AE's putrid performance.
But, hey, my router's industrial design is much better than his.
100 miles (which we know isn't at all the case) vs. 2.3 inches?
it would really be helpful to provide (even near) actual range distances and even possibly the models.
My extremes and express APs all required firmware updates in the last few days. I doubt this is a refresh, and as the article says, probably a regulatory thing.
Betcha deep in Sir Jony's batcave is a developmental Time Capsule with a mondo SSD. I might pay a premium price for that.
I wonder if Apple would consider offering an integrated do-all home "hub." A device that combines ATV, Time Machine, Airport (with at least 4 Gigabit ports) AND a cable/DSL modem. Just plug into your home cable or phone line, login to your Apple ID, and you could be set with WiFi, streaming/apps, centralized server and backup. An external (Bluetooth?) mic/sensor array could provide Siri and/or gesture control.
It is not that difficult for the reasonably tech savvy to piece the parts together to get the features above. I've done most of it for my own place. But I don't even suggest to any of my non-tech friends or family that this would be a good solution for them, even if I had the time or inclination to set it up for them. However, if there were a single appliance that could easily do all this, I would be happy to sell the concept to anyone.
Most people put their routers in closets or other out of the way places.
I don't know what most people do, but if most people put their routers in closets, then they're a bunch of dummies, because that's about the worst possible spot to put a router.
I love my both TCs one current gen and one pervious one. Both are full but working flawlessly. Even I notice some issues on my other NAS drives but TC is what I heavily rely on and so far no disappointments. I wish if they could come up with some larger SSD options, but if they are going to discontinue the product, I would rather buy a couple of more 3TB ones since I already ran out of space.
My extremes and express APs all required firmware updates in the last few days. I doubt this is a refresh, and as the article says, probably a regulatory thing.
Betcha deep in Sir Jony's batcave is a developmental Time Capsule with a mondo SSD. I might pay a premium price for that.
No point. Spinning disks are still more cost effective for large backup drives.
I have a fourth-gen 802.11n model, works fine. I have an external disk hooked up to it for Time Machine backups. I think the only thing that'd be nice is a fourth LAN port, but other than that I'm happy with it.
My next door neighbor has some Netgear stuff that outperforms the latest AE by miles. I can see his 5GHz network from 100 miles away, but I have to be within 2.3 inches of my AE to see my 5Ghz network. Let me re-emphasize that he's my next door neighbor, so interference from microwaves or cordless phones can be factored out, so please take that into consideration before defending the AE's putrid performance.
But, hey, my router's industrial design is much better than his.
Just bought one last month (refurbished 2TB). I've been very happy with it. I use it as my primary base station, wired into my VZ router. Then I extend it with an 5th gen Airport Extreme. My WFI works all over my house and entire property now, even outside. Time Machine is very convenient. I'm thinking they are bailing on current offerings and going with an Echo-like product that incorporates the features of both existing ones.
Everyone's experience is different but I've yet to have an airport (express or extreme) die on me, unlike every wifi router or access point I've ever owned.
The oldest express must be 10 years old by now (could be older as I also bought some used ones on craigslist). The oldest extreme is probably six? And, with ethernet connecting most of the boxes, it's been a great way to set up a whole-house network with a single SSID plus music out of each of the express boxes.
What I do wish is that Apple would update the express to act as an "Apple Radio" or "Apple Audio" (like Apple TV). The Express is already internet connected, it has digital and analog output, knows how to connect to airplay, and can be controlled by the Remote App. So all it needs is to connect to the iTunes store and act as a host for music (rather than simply a conduit) to offload music processing from the phone. I'd love if this were built into the next generation of Expresses. And I'd also like if they finally add the audio outputs to the Extremes (it is strange that the Extremes don't have music out when Expresses have always had this). For more on this, see: http://q10a1.blogspot.com/2012/01/airport-express.html and http://q10a1.blogspot.com/2015/09/chromecast-audio.html
Of the theories, the FCC compliance part makes the most sense. Even if there were a refresh, they would still try to get rid of the old stock, rather than recalling them. It would also explain why they are still available elsewhere.
There may be a reason for pulling the products: today I got a notice on all three of my Apple WiFi devices of an update. I clicked the update and new firmware was installed on my old Airport extreme, Airport Extreme V6, and Airport Express. They can update the inventory they have for online shipment, but would have to recall product on store shelves to update. Just a guess, but it sure is a coincidence.
My next door neighbor has some Netgear stuff that outperforms the latest AE by miles. I can see his 5GHz network from 100 miles away, but I have to be within 2.3 inches of my AE to see my 5Ghz network. Let me re-emphasize that he's my next door neighbor, so interference from microwaves or cordless phones can be factored out, so please take that into consideration before defending the AE's putrid performance.
But, hey, my router's industrial design is much better than his.
Comments like this are laughable. As if it’s true and commonplace. Nonsense, utter nonsense.
My extremes and express APs all required firmware updates in the last few days. I doubt this is a refresh, and as the article says, probably a regulatory thing.
Betcha deep in Sir Jony's batcave is a developmental Time Capsule with a mondo SSD. I might pay a premium price for that.
No point. Spinning disks are still more cost effective for large backup drives.
Makes no sense. Most people put their routers in closets or other out of the way places. They frequently have a ton of cables coming off them plugged into connected devices. They also push out a large amount of radiation if you are very close to it. These are the opposite of the features an echo like device should have to be discrete, central, and attractive.
I don't know who most people are....
Well I fall into that category. My Free high end ASUS router I got from T-Mobile is in my small closet with the rest of my networking stuff like my 24 port managed router, my Netgear ReadyNAS 516, my cable modem, and so on. Even have a cool little dual fan setup, whisper quite above the door that's temp controlled. Fans go on and off at set temp points. Fresh air comes in from the 1" gap on the bottom of the door.
I do what I can to hide wires. My tv's mounted on the walls, there's no wires going down. My surround speakers in the back walls, no wires. I spent a couple days under my house running cat6 wires to wire my house up. Plus coax and ground wire and speaker wire.
The last thing I want is some box out in the open sitting there with wires coming all out of it. To me it's looks tacky. Also a wired network is far better then WiFi and should be used as much as possible. WiFi is what you use for portable things like iPhones and iPads. My network is very reliable and problem free. I can just plug a cable into a Jack on the wall. Once all the work is done, it's great. Also doing the work yourself, it's not that much money. Most everything you need you can get at monoprice.com.
Those Apple products were getting outdated and performance wise didn't rate ask that good. My be easier for some people to setup, but that's really all it has going for it. They're really in need of a refresh. As a echo type device, that's just dumb.
I've had time capsules fail, I've also had $1000 ready nas fail, I've had wd books fail, they all fail given time. But I'll stick with time capsules if they continue to update them
Never liked the Time Capsules nor Time Machine, for that matter, as the Capsules seemed prone to failure.
Why not just hang a drive off the USB port and use Carbon Copy Cloner? It's pretty robust and I can specify how often to back things up.
Why not? Because you have to intentionally think about it to "hang a drive off the USB port and use Carbon Copy Cloner." I'll do that as a second backup before doing an OS upgrade, yes. I also used to use a USB HD for time machine, but found that I'd go longer than I should between backups because of the intentionality required. Is that really hard to do? No, but you have to think about it and do it.
Backups are are much better when they're automatic and you don't have to think about them. This is why I bought a time capsule, which keeps the backups on multiple machines happening, and is also a better router than the one it replaced. It has also been perfectly reliable thus far.
My next door neighbor has some Netgear stuff that outperforms the latest AE by miles. I can see his 5GHz network from 100 miles away, but I have to be within 2.3 inches of my AE to see my 5Ghz network. Let me re-emphasize that he's my next door neighbor, so interference from microwaves or cordless phones can be factored out, so please take that into consideration before defending the AE's putrid performance.
But, hey, my router's industrial design is much better than his.
100 miles (which we know isn't at all the case) vs. 2.3 inches?
it would really be helpful to provide (even near) actual range distances and even possibly the models.
Just saying...
It's hard to tell when posts like mtbnut's here are just annoying nonsense or trolling sponsored by competitors, but the end value is about the same.
I think the best thing about Apple routers is they're still updated years and years after introduction. That said, they lost a lot of features when they switched to the terrible Airport Utility 6, and if you have a decent number of Airports (I have 5) it takes ages to update, as you have to do it one by one. Plus as someone else mentioned, it's a bit stupid that the smallest of changes requires a full reboot. A HTML5 interface would be much better.
They could do with a few more useful features, like VPN and static routes. Considering they're priced like a commercial router, they could do with some commercial features, even if hidden behind an "advanced" section.
The Time Capsules seem a bit of a mixed bag, they're not particularly quick, (around 15mb/sec to the internal disk on my last generation n model) and reliability has been an issue for a lot of people. They do get very warm, even when the HDD isn't spinning, and they're very expensive for what you get.
No doubt this'll get downvoted because it's not all pro-Apple, and having a balanced argument isn't allowed here.
Comments
it would really be helpful to provide (even near) actual range distances and even possibly the models.
Just saying...
Betcha deep in Sir Jony's batcave is a developmental Time Capsule with a mondo SSD. I might pay a premium price for that.
It is not that difficult for the reasonably tech savvy to piece the parts together to get the features above. I've done most of it for my own place. But I don't even suggest to any of my non-tech friends or family that this would be a good solution for them, even if I had the time or inclination to set it up for them. However, if there were a single appliance that could easily do all this, I would be happy to sell the concept to anyone.
I have a fourth-gen 802.11n model, works fine. I have an external disk hooked up to it for Time Machine backups. I think the only thing that'd be nice is a fourth LAN port, but other than that I'm happy with it.
The oldest express must be 10 years old by now (could be older as I also bought some used ones on craigslist). The oldest extreme is probably six? And, with ethernet connecting most of the boxes, it's been a great way to set up a whole-house network with a single SSID plus music out of each of the express boxes.
What I do wish is that Apple would update the express to act as an "Apple Radio" or "Apple Audio" (like Apple TV). The Express is already internet connected, it has digital and analog output, knows how to connect to airplay, and can be controlled by the Remote App. So all it needs is to connect to the iTunes store and act as a host for music (rather than simply a conduit) to offload music processing from the phone. I'd love if this were built into the next generation of Expresses. And I'd also like if they finally add the audio outputs to the Extremes (it is strange that the Extremes don't have music out when Expresses have always had this). For more on this, see: http://q10a1.blogspot.com/2012/01/airport-express.html and http://q10a1.blogspot.com/2015/09/chromecast-audio.html
I do what I can to hide wires. My tv's mounted on the walls, there's no wires going down. My surround speakers in the back walls, no wires. I spent a couple days under my house running cat6 wires to wire my house up. Plus coax and ground wire and speaker wire.
The last thing I want is some box out in the open sitting there with wires coming all out of it. To me it's looks tacky. Also a wired network is far better then WiFi and should be used as much as possible. WiFi is what you use for portable things like iPhones and iPads. My network is very reliable and problem free. I can just plug a cable into a Jack on the wall. Once all the work is done, it's great. Also doing the work yourself, it's not that much money. Most everything you need you can get at monoprice.com.
Those Apple products were getting outdated and performance wise didn't rate ask that good. My be easier for some people to setup, but that's really all it has going for it. They're really in need of a refresh. As a echo type device, that's just dumb.
Backups are are much better when they're automatic and you don't have to think about them. This is why I bought a time capsule, which keeps the backups on multiple machines happening, and is also a better router than the one it replaced. It has also been perfectly reliable thus far.
They could do with a few more useful features, like VPN and static routes. Considering they're priced like a commercial router, they could do with some commercial features, even if hidden behind an "advanced" section.
The Time Capsules seem a bit of a mixed bag, they're not particularly quick, (around 15mb/sec to the internal disk on my last generation n model) and reliability has been an issue for a lot of people. They do get very warm, even when the HDD isn't spinning, and they're very expensive for what you get.
No doubt this'll get downvoted because it's not all pro-Apple, and having a balanced argument isn't allowed here.