Product Description

AirPort Extreme consists of two components: the AirPort Extreme Card and the AirPort Extreme Base Station. Together, they represent the future of wireless networking. You'll see how fast this technology really is when you use AirPort Extreme to network AirPort Extreme-enabled computers in your home or office. AirPort Extreme Base Station features a compatibility mode that automatically supports not just the AirPort Extreme Card (at data rates up to 54Mbps), but all 802.11b-compliant products (at data rates up to 11Mbps) - Mac or Windows - as its default setting. Previously, all AirPort Base Stations required a physical connection to the Internet. With wireless bridging, two or more AirPort Extreme Base Stations can be connected wirelessly, effectively increasing the range of your network. The AirPort Extreme Base Station also features an external antenna connector for extending your wireless connectivity beyond the 150-foot range of your built-in internal antennas (you can choose to connect either a directional or an omnidirectional antenna).

Product Details

• Brand: Apple
• Model: M8799LL/A
• Platform: Mac OS X
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: 1.26 pounds

Features

• Exchange files or play multiplayer games at data transfer rates of up to 54 Mbps
• Compatible with the industry-standard 802.11b wireless networking protocol
• Range of up to 50 feet at 54 Mbps and up to 150 feet at 11 Mbps
• Supports USB or Ethernet wireless printer sharing
• Includes built-in v.90 modem with an RJ-11 port and an external antenna port

Amazon.com Product Description
The AirPort Extreme Base Station with Modem and Antenna Port is compatible with the industry-standard 802.11b wireless networking protocol, which means all AirPort products, as well as Wi-Fi certified 802.11b wireless products. For higher performance you will need to have both the Airport Extreme Card and the AirPort Extreme Base Station. The range of AirPort Extreme is up to 50 feet at 54 Mbps and up to 150 feet at 11 Mbps. The Base Station can be used in conjunction with an Ethernet connection (such as with a cable modem, DSL modem, or Ethernet network) through the integrated Ethernet port, or with a telephone line through a modem.

The AirPort Extreme Base Station with Modem and Antenna Port also supports USB or Ethernet wireless printer sharing. Just plug in a compatible USB or Ethernet printer and with Mac OS X on your computer you can quickly and easily print. You can use the new USB port to attach a USB printer or use the 10/100BASE-T Ethernet LAN port to plug in an Ethernet printer directly into the base station.

With the new AirPort Extreme Base Station with Modem and Antenna Port, up to 50 users can work and play on the Internet simultaneously up to 150 feet away from an Ethernet connection or a phone line. The Base Station comes equipped with a built-in firewall to protect sensitive data on your computer and the ability to secure transmissions with support for 128-bit encryption.

The AirPort Extreme Base Station with Modem and Antenna Port lets you manage the range of your wireless network. An external antenna port is provided for you to attach an external antenna. There are two types of antennas available: an omni-directional and a directional, which extend the range of the AirPort Extreme base station. There is also a software feature that allows you on reduce the size of your wireless network, down to just a single room for extra privacy.

Customer Reviews

Cross-Platform bliss
Got this primarily so we could work anywhere in the house on our PC laptops. Granted, a Linksys wireless router would have been cheaper, but the Airport Extreme also serves as a wireless print server and that (plus the fact that our primary computer is a Mac) was what sealed the deal for us. Our cabling setup is:
Cable modem -> Linksys Wired 4-Port Router -> Airport Extreme -> Lexmark Optra E312L

Our laptops use Linksys Wireless-G cards and get good reception throughout the house. Our G4 and PS2 are hooked directly into the wired Linksys Router for their connectivity. The trick to using it with an existing router is to turn off the NAT addressing feature of the Airport Extreme so that it acts only as an Ethernet "bridge" to the wireless computers; the Linksys router assigns all the IP addresses for everything on the system including the PC laptops. The PCs can print wirelessly to the laser printer via the Airport and so can the Mac. Bonus!

Setup was very quick - about 15 minutes to get everything plugged in. The hard part was getting the security set up correctly (and yes, you'd better secure your wireless network) as the format for passwords was different on the Mac vs. PC platforms. Had to do some Web searches to find out how to make them speak the same language (hex). Has worked flawlessly since then. If I had to do it over, would buy it again in a heartbeat.

Apple has raised the bar, again.
I have to say that this is one of the best wireless routers that I have ever seen. It is an absolute breeze to set up. Just plug it in and open a simple setup utility and you can have it running in under five minutes. Despite its' ease of use, it is also full featured. It allows for WPA Enterprise security, which is the standard for wireless security at almost every major organization. It also comes with WPA Personal which is as secure but requires you to only enter a single password making setup extremely easy. Though it would be a very weak signal, it is possible to make a connection with the base station up to the stated 150 feet even with walls in the way. (It won't pass easily through steel or concrete, but wood/plaster walls don't interfere much) Besides the other great features such as a built in firewall and simple printer sharing, the base station has fast transfer speeds and allows for up to 50 users at a time. I would however recommend against using the "Interference Robustness" feature unless it is absolutely necessary due to a large amount of interference. While over short distances it will improve reception, it reduces the overall range by as much as two thirds. Overall, however, I haven't seen another product of this kind that comes even close to this station, especially at this price.

Excellet Wireless router but be careful
I've set-up more Wireless networks than I can remember over the last 3 years usually using Linksys router.

However I've heard nothing but good things about this router so I decided to buy one and If I didn't like It I would return it and get a Linksys, and so far this has been much better.

Set-up does not live up to the Apple standard of simplicity, the Linksys routers I've used took about 5 minutes to get up and running, this took me 3 hours because settings wouldn't save and the security settings caused the Wireless base to disappear from the Airport admin page however after I resolved those problems the Airport extreme base stations really started to shine.

The range alone was worth the extra money, without a doubt the best feature. The Linksys I tested at my home had only about half of the range. I live in a pretty big house and there isn't a single spot in my home where I'm not getting full bars I can actually get full bars in the middle of my street, that's pretty good. The cross compatible router works better on my Windows laptop than the Linksys range and speed wise.

Note to Apple, easier set-up and better admin software will back it much better.