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.
Try "rescanning"(cmd-r) when updating one device in Airport-Utility. Then the other devices are selectable and as a consequence you're able to change settings or update.
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Those Apple products were getting outdated and performance wise didn't rate ask that good.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.
@jbdragon - I just ran 2 CAT 6 to each room in my place. - 2 : Living room, was fortunate to be able to run it along side an HVAC return from the first floor to the attic). - 2 : Dining/Kitchen - 2 : Master Bedroom - 2 : Second Bedroom - 4 : Loft/Office
(12 Port) Patch pannel in the attic and then everything from there into switches in a closet. Like you said, that's how it's done; all my TV's are the same. Wi-fi is super convenient (obviously), but I'm in a town home; everyone has a wireless network of course! So I just leave mine, like you, for Phones/Tablets and anything else that doesn't have an RJ45 port.
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.
Yeah @AppleZulu - I'm thinking its the latter, but doesnt matter. Absolutely no value at all. Just noise. I've got an older generation Time Capsule and been planning a replacement/upgrade, so I've been weighing my options. The automatic backup can't be beat though, but I still like to weigh my options and BS posts like that don't help.
I Buy Airport Extremes because they're quite well made but I do need to regularly reboot mine which is a pain. I'd be surprised if they were phasing them out.
I have an Airport/Time Capsule device and I really like it. I've disabled the Airport feature and only use the Time Capsule to backup my MacBook Pro and Windows computers and to share files across all my devices.
I have an Extreme and an Express, they've worked flawless for years, easy to setup and apply firmware updates. If and when they fail, I won't be complaining that they're out of warranty.
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.
You can get that functionality with OSX Server; perhaps that's why they don't include VPN in the hardware? Then again, I don't know of any routers that provide a VPN. Routing tables would be nice; plenty of routers do provide that feature (including the Actiontec MI424 router that Frontier gave me for free when I signed up for FIOS). I'm not sure many of Apple's target users would care about this, however. Probably why they took out some of the more advanced functionality from the configuration utility (like SNMP and logging). Routing is another feature you could set up with OSX Server, but you would need to add another ethernet port.
BTW, for automatic backups I used to hang a USB drive off my Airport Extreme (which I find more reliable than a drive that will eventually fail being mounted inside of my router). However, I got a NAS a few years ago which supports Time Machine backups and now I have a more reliable option due to RAID 5 redundancy. It's also on a UPS to prevent corruption during a power failure.
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.
Sounds a lot like me! But here's what I can't understand. I have 3 AppleTV's all hard wired. Why are they not creating a wifi meshed network for our I devices. Seems like a mo brainier.
I had several wifi-n routers, but the extreme router is the best. Never any problems, good signal and one reboot per year or so.
I have had AirPort routers from day one. Never had one fail. Over time I have settled on Seagate back up drives. Western Digitals failed regularly, but Seagates go much longer. Wonder what drives they used in pre-Bolt TiVo's? Never had one fail and they are running constantly.
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.
You can get that functionality with OSX Server; perhaps that's why they don't include VPN in the hardware? Then again, I don't know of any routers that provide a VPN. Routing tables would be nice; plenty of routers do provide that feature (including the Actiontec MI424 router that Frontier gave me for free when I signed up for FIOS). I'm not sure many of Apple's target users would care about this, however. Probably why they took out some of the more advanced functionality from the configuration utility (like SNMP and logging). Routing is another feature you could set up with OSX Server, but you would need to add another ethernet port.
Apple's shrinking their target market by not including things like mass-setup and routing tables, since the base stations are easily good enough for business and school environments.
I agree that few routers include VPN capability, though ones with similar prices to Apple gear (Cisco etc) do. Even cheap TP-Link routers have a vast number of features like VPN and QOS. QOS can be easily implemented and with default settings works very well on a OpenWRT router I'm using as the main router. DSL chokes quickly when there's large uploads trying to go through the slow asymmetric connection, Facetime really struggles without QOS. Apple routers have for at least 8 years included IPv6 support, I'd argue back then static routes and QOS was much more important than v6.
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.
Sounds a lot like me! But here's what I can't understand. I have 3 AppleTV's all hard wired. Why are they not creating a wifi meshed network for our I devices. Seems like a mo brainier.
It would make a lot of sense, as would a lot of things Apple's technically capable of doing - but they won't usually for product cannibalism reasons.
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.
You can get that functionality with OSX Server; perhaps that's why they don't include VPN in the hardware? Then again, I don't know of any routers that provide a VPN. Routing tables would be nice; plenty of routers do provide that feature (including the Actiontec MI424 router that Frontier gave me for free when I signed up for FIOS). I'm not sure many of Apple's target users would care about this, however. Probably why they took out some of the more advanced functionality from the configuration utility (like SNMP and logging). Routing is another feature you could set up with OSX Server, but you would need to add another ethernet port.
You don't know of any routers that provide VPN? How about most every other router on the market today.
I must be an anomaly. I own quite a few apartment units. We have high-speed, business-class Internet access going into the buildings and it's all Apple AE's in each unit, hidden, and hooked into UPS-backed power.
The reason why I use AE's is simple. After years of using DLink, NetGear, and Linksys and dealing every month with those pieces of trash constantly failing, rebooting, and being unstable just got to be too much. Total junk they were.
Apple AE's were more expensive, double the price but for about 8 years since making the switch, only one has failed - after 8 years of service, and all the other ones are still running, never requiring a reboot. They just work. I saved so much time in troubleshooting, and the quality of the devices are the best compared to the competition.
Now, from comments in this section... Apple AE's are not for tech-heads needing fancier stuff like built-in VPN, or advanced routing features. They are meant for the 99% of people that just want to connect their phones, and laptops, etc... to regular WiFi. Done.
I use a Sophos router for that exact reason, but I have AE's in my home as access points and a Time Capsule. They are the best - in my experience. Obviously, others had it differently but I will not go back to the cheaper junk. My time has value, more than what I would save going with the others.
Also... always plug your hardware into a UPS. Lots of problems disappear when you use one. Those plugging it directly into a wall socket is just asking for trouble.
The Airport Extreme is a rare wireless router for home use with a fan to keep it cool. What other wireless router has Mac support for sharing a USB connected drive (HDD or flash)? The Time Capsule is a natural wireless backup for MacBook/MacBook Air/MAcBook Pro users who do not backup because they can't be bothered be tethered to even a bus powered external HD. Sure it's expensive, but invaluable for wireless backup.
Apple could be adopting the new Wave 2 802.11ac standard, supporting the previously mentioned multi-user multiple input/multiple output and also 160Mhz channel bonding. They could really push the envelope and go for the 802.11ax preliminary standard. Should be publicly released in 2019, but Apple could put in circuitry that will support it, and with a firmware update, enable it when it's ready for prime time.
The Airport Extreme is a rare wireless router for home use with a fan to keep it cool. What other wireless router has Mac support for sharing a USB connected drive (HDD or flash)? The Time Capsule is a natural wireless backup for MacBook/MacBook Air/MAcBook Pro users who do not backup because they can't be bothered be tethered to even a bus powered external HD. Sure it's expensive, but invaluable for wireless backup.
Plenty (all?) have support for OS X nowadays. It only has a fan because it's got no natural convection, as Johnny won't allow ugly vents.
Apple could be adopting the new Wave 2 802.11ac standard, supporting the previously mentioned multi-user multiple input/multiple output and also 160Mhz channel bonding. They could really push the envelope and go for the 802.11ax preliminary standard. Should be publicly released in 2019, but Apple could put in circuitry that will support it, and with a firmware update, enable it when it's ready for prime time.
You really think Apple would do that when they could sell you another AEBS in 2019? It's unlikely they'd support a preliminary standard, especially since preliminary 802.11 standards mean there can be significant changes at the silicon level. No firmware update can fix that.
Apple could be adopting the new Wave 2 802.11ac standard, supporting the previously mentioned multi-user multiple input/multiple output and also 160Mhz channel bonding. They could really push the envelope and go for the 802.11ax preliminary standard. Should be publicly released in 2019, but Apple could put in circuitry that will support it, and with a firmware update, enable it when it's ready for prime time.
You really think Apple would do that when they could sell you another AEBS in 2019? It's unlikely they'd support a preliminary standard, especially since preliminary 802.11 standards mean there can be significant changes at the silicon level. No firmware update can fix that.
They have shipped wireless product before, before final standards have been adopted, but not this far in advance. No, 802.11ax is not likely, but wave 2 802.11ac is possible. And plenty of other wireless routers have no fans and no vents and burn out fairly quickly. And other NAS backup solutions only support Time Machine via a patch to unsupported solutions. The NAS combined with a wireless router is rather rare. I can't think of any other. Sure there are wireless routers with USB ports that should support a hard drive, but they don't tend to work as well with Macs as Apple's Airport Extreme. How many support adding wireless printing for Macs?
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.
I wanted the the same as well, I just read on this thread people putting router in their Closet. Wow. Because everyone I know tend to put router next to the TV in living room, connecting to TV / STB / Apple TV, Modem along with Time Capsule or NAS as well as their Gaming console. So it make sense to lump it into a one thing.
I am not so sure about DSL / Cable Modem, simply because the difference around the world in ways they Connect to the internet. You will have to support ADSL / ADSL2 / VDSL / VDSL2 / G.Fast / Cable DOCSIS 1.0 - 3.1， along with FTTH ONT. That is RJ45 / Coacial Cable / Fibre Slot all in the same product. Hardly something Apple's character would do. But if they do, then it will cover likely 95%+ of world wide Home Internet connection users. ( 5% of user using Satellite and 4G )
I've been hoping for awhile now that Apple would provide some sort of Home Server/Backup/Wifi center that would allow OSX and iOS devices to have local (not iCloud) backup and purchase/rent options via iTunes (iTV).
It would be great if this pull of Airport Extreme/Time Capsule is a prelude to that----but I actually think it is more likely the other reason cited in the article---new compliance regs.
Again. The same here. A local copy of iCloud Backup where All your Apple devices, iOS / Mac OSX or Tv OS etc. Are backed up to the Time Capsule. Along with cache Copy of iCloud Photos if possible. There would be a lot of other use case for Apple where you could use this as a Server, and your iDevices put to sleep. Also helping everyone who has very slow Internet Connection, and upload speed.
But in typical Apple fashion this likely wont happen. Apple will likely wait out until the world Internet speed improves, and they want everyone's devices connect directly to their Cloud, both strategic and security reason. ( God I hope i am wrong )
Apple could be adopting the new Wave 2 802.11ac standard, supporting the previously mentioned multi-user multiple input/multiple output and also 160Mhz channel bonding. They could really push the envelope and go for the 802.11ax preliminary standard. Should be publicly released in 2019, but Apple could put in circuitry that will support it, and with a firmware update, enable it when it's ready for prime time.
Back to Airport, a lot of people have different requirements. Hence you cant really have Best router. Apple's Router is definitely not the best range router. It is also not the fastest router around either. The software even hand capped the WAN speed to 300Mbps. Which means for those who have fast Internet connection speed you are limited by your router.
What the Airport is good then, is that it is one of the most reliable, and well tested router on the market. Those who have Router that are so powerful but failed due to heat problem etc will know. This is Closer to Enterprise Grade, along with the extreme ease of use that still beats most other brands. It doesn't have the most features set, its USB to HDD is still very slow, hence I dont recommand you to do Time Capsule with USB attached HDD. In recent years you could get a Ubnt and some ASUS router, Netgear has also upped their firmware quality as well.
It is EXTREMELY unlikely if not impossible to have 802.11ax now or in next 6 months. While the first draft was available in early 2016, there are still too many problem unsolved. And this wont be another ARM 64 where apple could surprise the market, where apple use their own SoC, your WiFi are expected to play well with many. Another point is Apple will likely introduce 802.11ax in their devices first before getting out AX Router.
There is actually quite a lot of similarity between LTE, LTE Pro and 802.11ax. Given how many wireless engineers Apple have hired over the years I wont be surprise if they have some major innovation coming soon.
I remember when my Time Capsule failed. I took it in, they said "out of warranty, so sorry". Not impressed and wouldn't buy one again. Bearing in mind this is a backup device for which they charge far more than the sum of its parts. Why pay more?
Love my Time Capsule. Is it over priced? Probably. Will it fail? Possibly. And yet... The sheer convenience of it wins hands down. It goes without saying that periodic back-ups of either the Time Capsule itself, or the connected Macs individually forms part of the back-up strategy. Just out of curiosity - when your TC failed was it the HD or the electronics / wifi within the unit. Apple uses standard HD's in the units so presumably they are as reliable as any other common backup drive out there. Did you try to remove the drive and put it in another enclosure (if that's even possible?)
There is only one kind of device that people should be buying, and that's a "PC" based NAS, as you can repair/replace those parts. eg FreeNAS Mini and such. Most "NAS" type devices weak point is the power supply. If the power supply dies, often the device becomes entirely useless. However you can pull the drives and stick them in another NAS as long as they weren't in a RAID array and the new NAS supports the same filesystem (eg ZFS.) Direct attach USB devices are worse, the power supply dies and controller boards tend to die frequently (I've had no less than 4 of these (USB 2.0 era) things die and still have 3 (USB 3 era) left.) Guess which drive has outlasted them all, the Apple Time Capsule.
So that's my experience with "external drives", now if you want to talk about how poor ethernet/wifi routers are.. They ALL suck. The WRT54G devices (based on linux) were probably the most reliable, at least compared to the WiFi routers built into the DOCSIS and xDSL modems. The ISP issued devices were always trash, however the DSL modems were the least-rubbish. So while Apple's Time Capsule/Airport Express devices have high build quality, the way the antenna's are design give it really low range.
Comments
- 2 : Living room, was fortunate to be able to run it along side an HVAC return from the first floor to the attic).
- 2 : Dining/Kitchen
- 2 : Master Bedroom
- 2 : Second Bedroom
- 4 : Loft/Office
(12 Port) Patch pannel in the attic and then everything from there into switches in a closet. Like you said, that's how it's done; all my TV's are the same. Wi-fi is super convenient (obviously), but I'm in a town home; everyone has a wireless network of course! So I just leave mine, like you, for Phones/Tablets and anything else that doesn't have an RJ45 port.
Yeah @AppleZulu - I'm thinking its the latter, but doesnt matter. Absolutely no value at all. Just noise. I've got an older generation Time Capsule and been planning a replacement/upgrade, so I've been weighing my options. The automatic backup can't be beat though, but I still like to weigh my options and BS posts like that don't help.
Hope Apple will not discontinue them...
I agree that few routers include VPN capability, though ones with similar prices to Apple gear (Cisco etc) do. Even cheap TP-Link routers have a vast number of features like VPN and QOS. QOS can be easily implemented and with default settings works very well on a OpenWRT router I'm using as the main router. DSL chokes quickly when there's large uploads trying to go through the slow asymmetric connection, Facetime really struggles without QOS. Apple routers have for at least 8 years included IPv6 support, I'd argue back then static routes and QOS was much more important than v6.
It would make a lot of sense, as would a lot of things Apple's technically capable of doing - but they won't usually for product cannibalism reasons.
I am not so sure about DSL / Cable Modem, simply because the difference around the world in ways they Connect to the internet. You will have to support ADSL / ADSL2 / VDSL / VDSL2 / G.Fast / Cable DOCSIS 1.0 - 3.1， along with FTTH ONT. That is RJ45 / Coacial Cable / Fibre Slot all in the same product. Hardly something Apple's character would do. But if they do, then it will cover likely 95%+ of world wide Home Internet connection users. ( 5% of user using Satellite and 4G )
Again. The same here. A local copy of iCloud Backup where All your Apple devices, iOS / Mac OSX or Tv OS etc. Are backed up to the Time Capsule. Along with cache Copy of iCloud Photos if possible. There would be a lot of other use case for Apple where you could use this as a Server, and your iDevices put to sleep. Also helping everyone who has very slow Internet Connection, and upload speed.
But in typical Apple fashion this likely wont happen. Apple will likely wait out until the world Internet speed improves, and they want everyone's devices connect directly to their Cloud, both strategic and security reason. ( God I hope i am wrong )
Back to Airport, a lot of people have different requirements. Hence you cant really have Best router. Apple's Router is definitely not the best range router. It is also not the fastest router around either. The software even hand capped the WAN speed to 300Mbps. Which means for those who have fast Internet connection speed you are limited by your router.
What the Airport is good then, is that it is one of the most reliable, and well tested router on the market. Those who have Router that are so powerful but failed due to heat problem etc will know. This is Closer to Enterprise Grade, along with the extreme ease of use that still beats most other brands. It doesn't have the most features set, its USB to HDD is still very slow, hence I dont recommand you to do Time Capsule with USB attached HDD. In recent years you could get a Ubnt and some ASUS router, Netgear has also upped their firmware quality as well.
It is EXTREMELY unlikely if not impossible to have 802.11ax now or in next 6 months. While the first draft was available in early 2016, there are still too many problem unsolved. And this wont be another ARM 64 where apple could surprise the market, where apple use their own SoC, your WiFi are expected to play well with many. Another point is Apple will likely introduce 802.11ax in their devices first before getting out AX Router.
There is actually quite a lot of similarity between LTE, LTE Pro and 802.11ax. Given how many wireless engineers Apple have hired over the years I wont be surprise if they have some major innovation coming soon.
So that's my experience with "external drives", now if you want to talk about how poor ethernet/wifi routers are.. They ALL suck. The WRT54G devices (based on linux) were probably the most reliable, at least compared to the WiFi routers built into the DOCSIS and xDSL modems. The ISP issued devices were always trash, however the DSL modems were the least-rubbish. So while Apple's Time Capsule/Airport Express devices have high build quality, the way the antenna's are design give it really low range.