I should already know -- do you use BOTH 5GHz AND 2.4GHz?

[stevech]

Apple (Inc.) and agnostic don't go in the same sentence, or book.

 

[sfx2000]

Apple (Inc.) and agnostic don't go in the same sentence, or book.

Hey, we're both curmudgeons eh? We can sit on our rocking chairs on the porch and argue this to the end of days...

Out of all the Apple stuff Steve Jobs' factories in China spit out, the Airports are one of those devices that don't require a Mac or iDevice to work properly...

 

[L&LD]

The AE was easily surpassed by the Netgear 3700 which in turn was humiliated by the RT-N66U with RMerlin firmware (two years ago?).

I gave the AE to an undeserving soul (lol...) and donated the NG3700 to a NP organization.

The RT-N66U is still going strong but comparing it to my customers RT-AC68U's, it is time to retire it a long time ago.

 

[sfx2000]

The AE was easily surpassed by the Netgear 3700 which in turn was humiliated by the RT-N66U with RMerlin firmware (two years ago?).

I gave the AE to an undeserving soul (lol...) and donated the NG3700 to a NP organization.

The RT-N66U is still going strong but comparing it to my customers RT-AC68U's, it is time to retire it a long time ago.

Proof? Show the numbers... the AP Extreme AC in my testing against the WRT1900acV1 was very close in 5GHz, and slightly slower in 2.4GHz - instrumented testing in a lab environment against an Agilent reference bench tester...

In a field environment, when myself along with a team of fellow telecom and vendor engineers doing a research study on single frequency architecture - consumer grade devices such as the R7000, RT-AC68U, WRT1900acV1, and Airport Extreme AC were all very close, and they all exceeded enterprise level AC1200 class devices from Aruba and Cisco.. (and a Ruckus device, for what that is worth).

 

[sfx2000]

The AE was easily surpassed by the Netgear 3700 which in turn was humiliated by the RT-N66U with RMerlin firmware (two years ago?).

And by the way - I do call bu**((it - the Netgear 3700 is an N600 device, no way can it even compare to any AC1750/AC1900 class device - no way, no how...

Again, show the numbers, dude...

 

[L&LD]

And by the way - I do call bu**((it - the Netgear 3700 is an N600 device, no way can it even compare to any AC1750/AC1900 class device - no way, no how...

Again, show the numbers, dude...

Lol... you're confused by the timeline.

I'm not comparing them to the AC class devices. This was two years ago or more.

What I am stating is that the AE (current model back then, apple's model naming is beyond stupid) was far inferior in real world use (mine) than the other routers mentioned.

Today, many customers that had an AE have told me how bad it was vs. almost anything else they bought (just like my previous experience). They run hot, slow and 'configuring' them with other network equipment is an exercise in frustration.

 

[sfx2000]

Lol... you're confused by the timeline.

I'm not comparing them to the AC class devices. This was two years ago or more.

What I am stating is that the AE (current model back then, apple's model naming is beyond stupid) was far inferior in real world use (mine) than the other routers mentioned.

You stated it - I quoted and called you on it... and in the context of this thread.. it's misleading to all...

just saying...

 

[sfx2000]

Just in case...

The AE was easily surpassed by the Netgear 3700 which in turn was humiliated by the RT-N66U with RMerlin firmware (two years ago?).

I gave the AE to an undeserving soul (lol...) and donated the NG3700 to a NP organization.

The RT-N66U is still going strong but comparing it to my customers RT-AC68U's, it is time to retire it a long time ago.

Yep, you said it.. about 40 minutes ago as of this post...

 

[sfx2000]

What I am stating is that the AE (current model back then, apple's model naming is beyond stupid) was far inferior in real world use (mine) than the other routers mentioned.

Today, many customers that had an AE have told me how bad it was vs. almost anything else they bought (just like my previous experience). They run hot, slow and 'configuring' them with other network equipment is an exercise in frustration.

How bad? Seriously man - Asus has a whole sub-forum here where people bitch about how their gear performs - stability, heat, you name it...

Configuration - simply put, it doesn't have a built in web-server, and that's a plus - so one has to download a utility - but when managing multiple Airports - it's from one app, and one can see the relationships across all of them - it's not Cisco or Aruba level, but in a pro-sumer/small biz environment, that ain't bad - pretty easy to use as well...

No water in your argument man, seriously...

 

[L&LD]

sfx2000, you're really grasping at straws to make a point here.

I've made my points. And your not understanding the posts I've made in no way invalidates my experience with that hardware. Nor does it mislead others who are following the thread here (assuming they're reading and comprehending properly too).

 

[thiggins]

L&LD, SFX. Enough. Thread has gone off topic

 

[azazel1024]

Airports are agnostic - nothing specifc that would preclude usage with Windows/Linux/Android/etc... there is a bit of value add for Macs, but generally they work well across the board.

Except you have to use the airport utility to configure them. If you are an apple user, no biggie. Windows, the app is cranky and outdated and a number of terms Apple uses are not straight forward or "typical". The hardware itself works pretty good though.

My personal suggestion would be an Archer C7 or C8. I don't have the former, I do have the later and like it a lot. Depends on what you are looking for. The extra performance of the C8 might well be worth it if coughing up a few bucks doesn't make you bat an eye.

I would not look at the Asus AC routers, only because of the very large jump in price for generally marginal benefits and in some cases lower wireless performance.

 

[stevech]

I own/use two ASUS WiFi routers. 11n. One is dual-band.
No 11ac needed here as the only WiFi clients are handhelds that surely don't need gobs of speed.

zero problems.
zero need to force a reboot.

 

[theramenman]

Have any of you owned a TP-Link router long term? Because it aint that great. Their support is abysmal (warranty is useless if you cant even get in touch with customer support and god help you if you try to actually get a replacement or repair) and their hardware tends to fail faster than anything else I have deployed (consumer side, their enterprise/small business stuff is pretty decent). Spend the few extra bucks and get something from asus, netgear, dlink or in all honesty, just get the Airport Extreme. Sure the windows utility can be a bit janky but once you set it up, its one of those routers that will rarely if ever fail on you or require a reset. Bash apple all you like but the damn things rock solid. And +1 to the T-Mobile AC1900 router. Find a local official T-Mobile store, they're pretty common in most metro areas and they sell the $200 asus router for $100 or $0 if you're their customer. Hard to beat at those price points, especially considering how simple it is to flash it into a regular Asus AC68u should you desire (took me about 40 minutes total) and run merlin on it.

 

[turnstyle]

Except you have to use the airport utility to configure them.

This gets at what I had meant, and I'll give an example from my own experience...

I have two old Airport Expresses that I use as AirPlay devices -- both are of the "older" Airport Express format -- of the two, one is the older version and one is the newer version.

Anyhow, I have to use Apple's Airport Utility to configure the devices -- BUT the Airport Utility available on the Mac will ONLY connect to the newer of the two Airports. So to connect to the older Airport, I have to run an Airport Utility on a Windows PC.

It's totally dumb, and it nudged me away from getting an Apple router for this purchase. (I also didn't like that the current Airport only has 3 LAN ports, and USB2.)

-Scott

 

[stevech]

Did Apple omit a web server interface in their WiFi router/bridge products because
a) every other vendor has one
b) omitting reduces Apple's costs by enabling a smaller / slower microprocessor? ( lower cost = higher profit)
c) they were too lazy to reinvent what others as in (a) have
d) Your insight here

 

[sfx2000]

Did Apple omit a web server interface in their WiFi router/bridge products because
a) every other vendor has one
b) omitting reduces Apple's costs by enabling a smaller / slower microprocessor? ( lower cost = higher profit)
c) they were too lazy to develop what others as in (a) have
d) Your opinion

Security mainly...

The CPU in the Airport Extreme AC is actually higher performance than the ones in the R7000/RT-AC68U series...

With regards to item (c), things better done with an App rather than a WebUI, because - Browsers, lol...

 

[turnstyle]

Security mainly...

The CPU in the Airport Extreme AC is actually higher performance than the ones in the R7000/RT-AC68U series...

With regards to item (c), things better done with an App rather than a WebUI, because - Browsers, lol...

Of course they could provide both a web interface AND an application interface -- it's not like either is a terribly complicated coding project.

Personally, I like using an app just fine -- but they EXCLUDED ACCESS to one of the AirPort models I actually use, and now I have to use a PC to manage it -- if they offered web interface in addition to the application, it wouldn't be a problem.

 

[stevech]

Security mainly...
With regards to item (c), things better done with an App rather than a WebUI, because - Browsers, lol...

can't agree with that... needing a special app that's version-fragile, to config the products!
I have that with my Netgear GS ethernet switch. It uses outdated standards for a GUI session.

 

[sfx2000]

Anyhow, I have to use Apple's Airport Utility to configure the devices -- BUT the Airport Utility available on the Mac will ONLY connect to the newer of the two Airports. So to connect to the older Airport, I have to run an Airport Utility on a Windows PC.

Yeah - Airport Utility 6 sunsetted a lot of the older Airport models, and this was a big bone of contention in the Mac community, as a lot of folks were (and are) using Airport Express G models as Airplay devices for audio - the Express G model had a fantastic DAC that did awesome audio...

There are ways to trick the installer for 5.6.1 on Mac to extract the older version on newer OSX... that restores things...