New Airport Extreme and Time Capsule juggle two networks simultaneously

Apple's new Airport Extreme actually brings some fun stuff to the staid wireless router market, while a similarly refreshed Time Capsule does the same for NAS land. The power comes from its new dual-band WiFi radios, allowing them to work in 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands simultaneously, support up to 50 users simultaneously and even set up separate limited-access networks for guests. That $179 pricetag on the Airport Extreme doesn't get any easier to swallow, and neither do the $299 or $499 tags on the Time Capsule (500GB or 1TB, respectively) but at least you'll have the hippest and whitest 802.11n access point in your dorm.

[NikAmi Posted Mar 3rd 2009 10:06AM]

Wow...I bought my Wireless N router last summer for $70. Maybe I should glue a piece of fruit to it so it'll appreciate by $100.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 3rd 2009 10:26AM]

Damn I owned my AirPort Extreme for about 25 days. Today I called Apple and they let me return the old one and gave me a full refund. As soon as the local Apple Store opens up, I am grabbing the new one! I love Apple's customer service!

[leroygreen Posted Apr 6th 2009 9:59PM]

That's actually pretty impressive. Apple always seems like it has the "we'll give you what we want and you'll like it" attitude, so I'm glad to hear their customer service is good. What's the cut-off for a return like that though--30 days?

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 3rd 2009 10:26AM]

D-Link DIR-655/855 ftw. And, they come in white too!

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 3rd 2009 10:33AM]

DO NOT BUY AN APPLE base station... i was stupid enought to buy the last gen one and it is by far the worse peice of crap i've EVER used...

buyer beware.

[Beanie Posted Mar 3rd 2009 10:40AM]

I actually think the Airport Extreme was at one time the only router that would do a separate 5ghz N network. I remember reading an ArsTechnica rundown of 802.11n routers. You also have to keep in mind that the Airport also has NAS capability or you can use it as a printer port. That ups the price significantly. The airport extreme has also been rated very highly in actual throughput speeds, where, some.. *cough* linksys *cough*, have real problems maintaining their touted speeds on a wireless LAN. Just my two cents. I have an AE and i have it set up as a 5 ghz N network to prevent interference, while my trusty newly-Tomato'd (Got tired of DD-WRT) WRT54G v. 2 handles Bandwidth monitoring and 2.4 gz B/G devices. A pretty nice setup.

[Evan Posted Mar 3rd 2009 10:45AM]

Think i'd rather stick to my current router...http://www.cdwg.com/shop/products/default.aspx?EDC=1270327

[NikAmi Posted Mar 3rd 2009 11:14AM]

nice try...thats an access point that requires a dedicated manager. you don't have that.

[Bobbles Posted Mar 3rd 2009 12:16PM]

the new models also support accessing your "AirDisk" via MobileMe without a computer connected to it.

[NERV Posted Mar 3rd 2009 12:26PM]

These r awesome! I have 2 of them right now, one running an n network, one running a bg network. They r super easy to setup and use. I'll b picking up one of these and use the other two for something else

[jsmrekar Posted Mar 3rd 2009 7:32PM]

I have a time capsule, but you sound like a tool. no offense though.

[mannyvel Posted Mar 3rd 2009 12:39PM]

Note: the AEBS is 802.11a/b/g/n and can run in the 5ghz band as well, but the old model didn't allow you to run in both 5 and 2.4 at the same time (a problem if you had a mixed n/g network).

All you whiners can complain, but try and find something that supports 5ghz wide channels plus can do rudimentary print and disk sharing for $179. And it's fast.

The only real problem with it is you need to restart it if you change a NAT port map. That's aggravating.

[Doorey Posted Mar 3rd 2009 1:50PM]

Apple should change their name to "Fail" :D

[grahamj Posted Mar 3rd 2009 8:27PM]

Wireless N and gigabit are all well and good but the Airport Extreme I got last year could only push a few MB/sec to the connected hard drive so I got rid of it. I wonder if the new one has a faster processor.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 4th 2009 3:12AM]

WOW welcome to 2009 Apple everyone else has had routers that do this for years..... why do you guys act like this some "NEW" innovation? Because it has a catchy name???

[speculatrix Posted Mar 4th 2009 4:42PM]

netgear wndr3300 is quite cheap and does dual band. works fairly well, nothing special though.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 7th 2009 10:13PM]

I finally decided to insure my data with a backup device, so I chose Time Capsule. Unfortunately, it tool aver 3 hours on the phone with Apple to get it working. Then, my initial backup failed with a Time Machine error after two hours.

I don't think this product is ready for prime time

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 7th 2009 10:31PM]

Bob, Could you please elaborate on your statement

"the new models also support accessing your "AirDisk" via MobileMe without a computer connected to it."

I would like to understand what this capability entails.

Thanks

Richard

[MarsOnTheRocks Posted May 22nd 2009 4:42AM]

I think what he means is, that the the Airport Extreme and Time Capsule allow you to acces the harddrive in the Time Capsule and the harddrives (or USB sticks) that are connected to the Airport Extreme over the internet via Mobile Me. Correct me if I'm wrong, but that's what I can remember reading about it on the product page. Look here: http://www.apple.com/airportexpress og timecapsule I don't have time to look it up myself right now.