Airport Extreme 802.11N (5TH GEN)

The perfect wireless solution for home, school, and business, the Apple AirPort Extreme Base Station blankets your space with a blazing-fast, secure wireless network opening up a world of possibilities for home entertainment, backups, printing, and more. This 5th generation version of the AirPort Extreme operates in the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands simultaneously to ensure top performance for all your devices, and it provides a Guest Networking option for easy Internet sharing. It also enables you to share your entire wireless network with up to 50 users at the same time as well as turn a USB hard drive into a shared drive that's accessible wirelessly on your network and now over the Internet.

Simultaneous Wireless-N Dual-Band Support

The Apple Airport Extreme is based on the Wireless-N (IEEE 802.11n) specification and it uses multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) to transmit multiple data streams simultaneously--resulting in data transfer speeds up to five times those of 802.11g wireless networks while also providing up to twice the range. It's compatible with Mac computers, PCs, and wireless devices such as iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch that use 802.11a, 802.11b, or 802.11g technologies.

Additionally, some Wi-Fi devices use the 2.4 GHz wireless band (such as the iPhone, iPod touch, and other devices using 802.11b/g). And other devices can use both the 2.4 GHz spectrum as well as the higher speed 5 GHz spectrum--such as 802.11n-based Mac computers and Apple TV.

The Airport Extreme operates simultaneously on both bands, without you having to choose one spectrum over the other--enabling your Wi-Fi devices to receive optimal performance in speed and range. Plus, devices that can connect to the Airport Extreme on either band will automatically use the best available band.

See how the Airport Extreme delivers fast wireless networking to any home or small business.

Gigabit Ethernet

In addition to Wi-Fi networking, the AirPort Extreme Base Station includes three Gigabit Ethernet ports for fast wired connectivity with desktop computers, network drives, and more.

Airport Utility on the Mac.

Easy Setup

Launch AirPort Utility and you're just a few short steps away from creating the ultimate Wi-Fi environment. Mac users can access the AirPort Utility located in the Utilities folder in the Applications folder, while Windows users can access AirPort Utility by selecting Start > All Programs > AirPort.

Guest Networking Capabilities

Allow guests to use your Internet connection without sharing your password or giving them access to the rest of your network. Simply enable the guest networking feature using the AirPort Utility application and create a separate Wi-Fi network just for your friends. You can set up this guest network with a different password or with none at all. Your primary network--including your printer, attached drives, or other devices--remains secure.

Share both a hard drive and a printer using a USB hub (sold separately).

Sharing a Hard Drive

The AirPort Extreme can turn an external USB hard drive into a drive you can share with all the users on your network and access securely over the Internet. This feature--AirPort Disk--is a simple and convenient way to share files among everyone in your family, office, or class.

Just connect the external hard drive to the USB port on the back of your AirPort Extreme and all the documents, videos, photos, and other files on the drive instantly become available to anyone on the secure network--whether they use a Mac or a PC.

Wireless Printing

With its wireless printing capabilities, you can plug a printer into the AirPort Extreme, add it to the printer list on your Mac or PC, and start printing--all without a cable tethered to a computer. AirPort Extreme uses the Mac- and PC-compatible Bonjour networking technology to let everyone on the network take advantage of one centrally available printer.

If you want to share a hard drive as well as share a printer across a network, you can connect a USB hub to the AirPort Extreme and attach your devices to the hub. Share both a printer and a hard drive, multiple printers, multiple hard drives, or a combination.

Specifications

Wireless Protocols

IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n

Frequency Bands

2.4 GHz and 5 GHz simultaneously

Compatibility

Interoperable with Wi-Fi Certified 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g, or 802.11n enabled Mac computers, iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, and Windows-based PCs
NAT, DHCP, PPPoE, VPN Passthrough (IPSec, PPTP, and L2TP), DNS Proxy, SNMP, IPv6 (6to4 and manual tunnels)

Size and Weight

6.5 x 6.5 x 1.3 inches (LxWxH)
1.66 pounds

Interfaces

One Gigabit Ethernet WAN port for connecting a DSL or cable modem
Three Gigabit Ethernet LAN ports for connecting computers or network devices
USB 2.0 port for connecting a USB printer or USB external hard drive
802.11n wireless

Security

Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA/WPA2)
Wireless security (WEP) configurable for 40-bit and 128-bit encryption
MAC address filtering
NAT firewall
Support for RADIUS authentication
802.1X, PEAP, LEAP, TTLS, TLS, FAST
Time-based access control

What's in the Box

AirPort Extreme Base Station, power supply with cord, printed documentation

Owner Reviews, Ratings, Comments and Criticism
Just to be clear on this, I did try the Cisco E4200, which, according with people who knows about wireless networking, is the best wireless router out there but the range was not as good as the Airport Extreme. I have a town house and the router needs to be in the basement, the E4200 signal did reach the second floor, but with more than two devices connected to the router, the signal dropped so much that was unusable. With the Airport Extreme, no problems at all, the signal is fast enough with two or more devices connected. An additional perk is that with the E4200 you can use the USB port just for storage but not for a printer, but with the Airport Extreme, you can connect an USB Hub and have a printer an a external Hard Drive connected at the same time. This router is a keeper.