Apple AirPort Extreme Base Station (Gigabit) MB053LL/A

Customer Reviews

Average Customer Review




Good solid router, November 18, 2008
By Eye Forget
I've used this router for a few months now. 3 Macs, Airport Express via ethernet, Squeezebox via ethernet and a Netgear switch. All wifi devices are 802g. The house is tough on wireless due to layout and plaster walls sheathed in metal. It is a good router, albeit pricey.

Pros:

Build quality and design. Probably typically Apple: eventual replacement will be caused by technological obsolescence versus dying like all the other routers we've had.

Very easy to set-up. Let Apple's auto configure do the work and go back later in "Expert Mode" to make any changes you need.

Most stable router I've had (5 routers, 1st Apple). Consistent performance. Have yet to reboot.

Although MacStumbler signal strength on 802g has not improved from my old router, download speeds have improved considerably. This was noticed by all users in short order. Beyond me.


Cons:

I was hoping at a price close to twice my old routers, wifi would be stronger. Had to wire via ethernet an Airport Express to get whole house wifi.



AirPort Extreme , November 15, 2008
By John A. Rush (Coos Bay, OR)
I have had several different routers in the past this is the first that has compelled me to actually write a review. We used to have a saying in the Navy "Don't want to hear about the Labor pains, just want to see the Baby." I am certain that there is a more politically correct way to say it now, but the point is this baby delivers! Some other routers require constant resetting making VOIP phones or a home Wifi network impractical. This was a breeze to set up (and I am not a Tech Guru) and just like all other Apple gear it JUST WORKS as it should.



Apple Airport Extreme Base Station, October 30, 2008
By weibo
The item was shipped from Amazon. It arrived, plugged it in, followed instructions, and never got light to come on (green)indicating that is was operational. I called Amazon and Apple, was told had to take it to an Apple "genius" in an Apple Store to verify it was inoperative to get a new one. Had to make appointment to see "genius", no appts until following day. So my time, multiple phone calls, my gas money to get replacement. Amazon should have authorized return to them overnight and sent me one next day! Intolerable!

Also not intuitive how to set up a windows pc to operate through this router, especially getting a network printer to operate from windows pc. Had to download another program (Bonjour) from Apple to accomplish this......another phone call to Apple.

Operationally, once got a functional unit, and once all pcs and macs connected wirelessly, worked fine. Good reception all over my house, but not exceptional. My linksys with 802B had better coverage than this 802N unit.



Great router. If only it had lasted longer., October 28, 2008
By MCC (Westminster, Ca. USA)
I bought this router last October. I was very happy with the ease of setup and superior performance. Unfortunately after 10 months of trouble free operation I was assaulted by the telltale smell of burning electronics and no internet connection. The thing completely burned up. I really liked this router but I'm not sure that I want to spend another $180.00. I guess I'll have to think about it a little more.



A router that works as advertised, October 26, 2008
By R. Constantin (Kenner, LA)
Overall I'm satisfied with the router so far, but here is my detailed review:
My network setup is as follows:
Cable modem->Linux firewall/router->switch with 3 computers connected->USR wireless G router->another desktop, a Macbook and a Nokia E61i.
The first 3 computers have static IP addresses, along with the USR8054 router. For simplicity I set the wireless router to DHCP for the desktop, Macbook and the Nokia. This means a double NAT, but everything was working just fine, no connection problems whatsoever, no dropped signals!
However, I decided to use some backup drive for the Macbook which connects wireless, and a backup over a G connection takes a really long time. Here, the nightmare started:
I got a Belkin wireless N, it's a new product and it has a USB port for network storage. It's also advertised to work both with MAC and PC, so it seemed to be the perfect choice. After connecting everything, I was not able to make the Macbook recognize the storage, in Windows XP it was working fine, but the transfer to the USB drive was extremely slow, maybe as slow as the wireless connection if not slower...So, back it went, I got the Linksys WRT350. On the specs, it seemed OK, but no network storage port, which I decided to give up...I connected everything and it worked fine, it got a little hot, but I put it on some 1.5" spacers. Anyway, I thought this was the one, but my Nokia phone would not connect! The router was setup to be backwards compatible with B and G! When setting up to G only, the phone would see it and connect. So, no luck with the Linksys either!
Next was the DLink DIR 655, a router with great features, a lot of options, the most from all routers I tried. I setup everything, computers were running fine, but my Nokia didn't see the connection again! I setup the router on G only, and it worked, but again, this was supposed to be compatible with B and G!
I called Dlink, and they told me my phone is not compatible with the router! That's kind of dumb, as it works with G only.
I forgot to mention that I updated the firmware to the latest version on all routers.
So, very disappointed, I decided to get the Airport Extreme. I got a very good price from fonzhende1, brand new item, sealed! Recommended!!!
This took the longest time to configure, due to my network setup and due to the fact that it's the only router complaining about double NAT! I think it would still work, and there is a setting to make it stop complaining about network errors, but I went ahead trying to "make it happy". So, I had to set it up as a bridge, and I had to assign static IP addresses to the desktop, Macbook and Nokia, but all of them work just fine! The only drawback with the bridge setup is that I don't get Gigabit transfer between the desktop and Macbook, but I might change this in the future. The whole thing with the double NAT, is that all computers connected to that router would work at maximum speed (Gigabit) , while the rest would work at 100MB/sec.
Apple has some different settings, which I will not describe here, but the router has to be accessed through Airport application, not through browser like the other ones. Also, advanced features like guest access are missing.
I hooked up a USB drive and I was able to see it under both Mac and Windows, but I wasn't able to use Time Machine yet. It might be possible, but the drive needs to be formated apparently, and I didn't have time to give it a try. I might update the review in the future, about Time Machine setup, etc.
Overall, I am satisfied with the router, it does what it says, not like the other ones, which is really frustrating. I give it only 4 stars, because of missing advanced features.