AIRPORT EXTREME SPECS UPDATE
AIRPORT EXTREME SPECS FULL
AIRPORT EXTREME SPECS SOFTWARE

There are just so many other consumer level 802.11n APs that either fall short or are incredibly frustrating and unreliable. I guess the reason that I personally use an Airport Extreme (in conjunction with another device for NAT) is that it's really one of a small number of 802.11n dual-band APs I've tried that actually works without locking up, becoming unstable periodically, dropping the session from overheating when being pushed to 100% for hours, or requiring a daily reboot.

AIRPORT EXTREME SPECS FULL

At $179.00, the Airport Extreme offers full 3x3:3 on both 2.4 and 5GHz, albeit the E4200 does have considerably more Tx power, which we'll investigate in a forthcoming article. That device runs for $179.99 and features similar functionality including a USB 2.0 port for sharing devices. Take for comparison the Linksys E4200, which is a 2x3:2 device on 2.4GHz, and 3x3:3 on 5GHz, and also Broadcom based. There’s a stigma that Apple gear is more expensive, and for the 3TB Time Capsule that may be the case, but the Airport Extreme is actually right near where it should be.

AIRPORT EXTREME SPECS UPDATE

As of this writing, the core functionality of the Airport line remains the same as it was before-sans any iCloud/iOS magic/local update caching. I waited patiently for Lion to launch and half expected things to turn on and render half of the review null instead that day came and went without much change at all. None of that exists right now, and it's looking like (for now) the rumor mill has some egg on its face.

AIRPORT EXTREME SPECS SOFTWARE

It’s another example of how having that complete hardware control can in fact result in some benefit-in this case, faster WiFi.īefore this update, there were so many rumors about both iOS based Airport products, that the Time Capsule would cache software updates locally, and that the whole thing would somehow tie into Apple's iCloud solution. Second, the combination of lots of Broadcom in Apple’s hardware lineup (from the iPhone, iPad, and MacBooks, to iMac and Mac Mini) with Broadcom in the access point likely allows for the use of frame bursting or some other packet aggregation technique that speeds things up in some scenarios. First, performance and range is definitely better thanks to more transmit power and the improved sensitivity afforded by newer generation chipsets. The result of the move from Marvell to Broadcom is twofold. What’s changed between both previous generations is simple-the Time Capsule gets an official 3TB option, and both the Time Capsule and Airport Extreme now have a much more powerful, modern, and better-performing BCM4331 based WiFi stack. I originally intended to have this posted with a hint of irony on WiFi day (8.02.11) but instead ended up spending that special day doing more testing and running even more instances of Iperf to make sure our numbers were solid. We’ve gone into extreme detail about the Time Capsule and Airport Extreme updates.

Airport extreme specs