Apple Airport Extreme Router Review

My linksys WRT54GX started flaking out on me; the wireless connection started to drop enough for me to notice. At first I thought that maybe the card in my PC was to blame but after all PCs on our little network started doing it, I decided to replace the router. I personally can't stand it when equipment half-works... either fail 100% or work! I guess I'm a do or do not, there is no try type...

Linksys WRT54GX

I decided not to get a Linksys for a replacement. I'd only had the router for a year, it didn't even last long enough to become obsolete. In the technology world that is really saying something. It also didn't really work when WPA security was used.. certain sites (usually https) wouldn't work properly (e.g. hotmail). This meant that I was running an open network with the only security being MAC address filtering. Our whole house gets work done wirelessly, and I was starting to receive complaints (well one really-- from Jolie). It was one of the first really nice days this year that was actually on a weekend and she wanted to sit outside and be online. Since the router was flaking out, doing anything was getting pretty frustrating. So I decided to go that instant and pick up a new router. I only point this out because the immediacy of the situation preempted the normal amount of research that I like to do before purchasing a piece of equipment. It feels like this has been happening to me a lot lately!

D-Link DIR-655

I went to Best Buy and looked around in their router section. I found the D-Link DIR-655. It had a gigabit switch in it which was nice for attaching to my NAS for video editing. Everything is what you'd expect from a router. I plugged it in and was up and running in minutes using WPA security without issue. Things weren't 100% though. I use my NAS for all media storage but I was having trouble doing normal tasks. It seemed that if I were reading and writing to the same network share, things would freeze and ultimately disconnect. For example, if I were in iPhoto and trying to edit a photo, I couldn't even do something as simple as rotating a single image without the mount point connection dropping. I had no problems going one direction though.. if I were pushing a whole bunch of files to the NAS no problem.. copying back to the pc no problem either.. just a problem when doing something that was network chatty. If I plugged-in to the router none of these kinds of things happened; my problems only happened over the wireless connection. Now this kind of annoyance is why I ditched my Linksys in the first place.

Airport Extreme/Express

The D-Link router only lasted for a week before I couldn't stand its limitations. It was fine for surfing but didn't work very well for interacting with the NAS. I decided to get the airport extreme router from the local apple store. I also picked up an airport express to put upstairs for some extra umph. I am a pretty recent apple convert (it's been a year since I purchased my macbook pro) and I don't always default to apple equipment. At a minimum, I was hoping that the new equipment would help me prove that the D-Link was the issue. It did. I don't want to get all gushy about it, but the apple hardware is really nice and the admin utility (AirPort Utility) for the routers is very easy to use. I would even say that a completely non-technical person (with a basic understanding of course) could set up a home network without having to ask for help. Here's how I was able to extend the range of my wireless network.. notice that all routers in range are displayed on the left. The AirPort Express has been selected and the screen shows how easy it is to connect to any existing wireless network and extend its range. No more lame web applications for me on this front. (see photos below)

Conclusion

I have had zero problems with my new setup. So far, I've been able to do whatever I want wirelessly and have not experienced any of the issues that I had with the D-Link or Linksys routers. I should mention that the network at home is pretty heterogenous; we have two windows laptops, one apple laptop, one debian linux box, one Infrant NAS, one HP network printer, and a squeezebox network music player. All of the devices are working flawlessly. I also now have the added bonus of air tunes which allows me to connect the AirPort Express base station to my stereo and listen to iTunes over my stereo speakers. Apple is definitely winning me over.. let's just hope the equipment lasts!