Apple AirPort Extreme Dual-band Base Station MB763LL/A [OLD VERSION]

Hi All,

True to my gadget envy, I acquired one of these dual band extreme base stations to see if they held up to the hype. Sure enough, Apple has improved an old mediocre product with a new more powerful hardware engine and improved software abilities.

Features:
802.11 A/B/G/N DUAL Band radios at 2.4ghz and 5ghz simultaneously.
Gigabit Ethernet ports 1x Wan and 3x Lan.
Guest wireless network.
Disk sharing via USB connected drive.
Access to shared disk via MobileMe (apple mobile me subscribers on os x).

The box comes with the router, the power cord, software cd, and documentation....limited documentation.

Time to test.

Setup: Setup of an apple base station is unlike any other in that you cannot access the setup portal via your web browser. You must install the Apple Airport utility (both mac and windows) in order to set the router up. The software is built very well and provides the...Read more

Thanks to the easy setup through AirPort Utility, I was up and running within minutes. This router has rock-solid wireless connections and excellent range. Operation has been flawless, no signal drops like with some competing routers. Unlike the previous generation MB053LL/A which could only operate in one band at a time, Apple has added a 2nd radio to this new unit that allows for allows for simultaneous dual-band operation- It's like 2 routers in 1. This router allows you operate 5.0 Ghz-compatible devices on one network and 2.4 Ghz-compatible devices on the other, all from this one router. My wireless N-equipped aluminum MacBook connects to the 5.0 Ghz band and gets wireless local network speeds ranging from 200 mbps to 300 mbps. My other b/g devices connect to the slower 2.4 Ghz band. By default setup, there is one network name. When you connect to it, it will automatically join the band (2.4 Ghz or 5.0 Ghz) with the fastest connection speed that your wireless device...Read more

My fourth Apple AirPort router, my eighth overall. In general, you get better value for your dollar from other manufacturers. And for any network scenario I've dealt with, I've spent far, far more time debugging problems with the AirPort routers than I have for the others. That may seem counter-intuitive given Apple's reputation for simplicity, but in the network arena that's been my experience. Some of the areas where Apple falls short, in my view...

Security: AirPort Extremes always reply to an outside Ping. There's nothing you can do about it, so the black hats always know your network exists. Not a great idea. Every other router I've used had a more sophisticated firewall (AirPorts only have NAT), and kept more detailed logs.

Range: Don't believe the hype about twice the range (note that the fine print on the box says it offers twice the range - compared to *Apple's* previous G-band products). In practice the range is no better than my old G-band router...Read more