Airport Extreme Base Station Model

Introducing the new AirPort Extreme Base Station. Blazingly fast and secure, the Wi-Fi base station offers the perfect solution for home, school, and business. It sets up in minutes on Mac computers or PCs, letting you easily surf the web, send email, exchange photos, and share a printer or hard drive. Featuring next-generation 802.11n wireless technology,(1) it offers up to five times the performance and twice the range of networks created with the earlier 802.11g standard.(2) (1)The AirPort Extreme Base Station is based on an IEEE 802.11n draft specification and is compatible with IEEE 802.11a, 802.11b, and 802.11g. (2)Actual performance will vary based on range, connection rate, site conditions, size of network, and other factors. Range will vary with site conditions.

Brand: Apple Model: MA073LL/A Original language: English Number of items: 1 Ethernet WAN port Wireless networking router based on the 802.11n draft standard Backward-compatible with 802.11a/b/g devices Up to 5 times faster and twice the range of previous AirPort Extreme Base Station USB port turns external hard drives, printers, and other devices into network resources

Apple has updated its highly rated wireless router with faster speed, twice the range, a lower price, and wrapped it all up in a whole new design. The new AirPort Extreme Base Station now has extra Ethernet ports for making wired computer connections and/or sharing network printers. It even has a USB slot, for connecting a USB printer, external hard drive, or other USB device. Also, it works with both Mac and Windows machines. 802.11n is faster, and with a longer range, than 802.11g About 802.11n AirPort Extreme Base Station is compatible with the 802.11n draft specification, the new, all-but-finalized (as of February, 2007) standard for wireless networking, or Wi-Fi. Apple says their 802.11n is up to five times faster than the currently ubiquitous 802.11g. It uses three discreet antennas that not only double its range over previous AirPort base stations, but allows up to 50 simultaneous connections. Unless you're an office manager, school principal or a cafe owner, you probably don't care about that much capacity. Still, it's nice to know you can, say, telecommute over the Internet while someone else in your household is streaming video without slowing each other down. Thankfully, AirPort Extreme is backward compatible with 802.11a/b/g devices. Apple does caution, however, that "speed and range will be less if an 802.11a/b/g product joins the network." And while setting up a Wi-Fi network in your home can often be a confusing, frustrating experience, consumers have learned that Apple is adept at painlessly guiding even novice users quickly through a set-up process. Apple promises that their wizard will have you up, running, and secure in the time it takes to brew a cup of coffee. It offers WPA/WPA2 and 128-bit WEP encryption, as well as a built-in firewall, which helps protect you from Internet intruders. Sharing Features One of the most interesting features of the new AirPort Extreme Base Station is its ability to turn almost any external USB hard drive into a network attached storage (NAS) device. Just plug the disk directly into the AirPort Extreme Base Station's USB port, and it will be accessible through the built-in file sharing capabilities of both Windows and OS X. The AirPort Disk Utility software helps you set up permissions and passwords, keeping the disk (or parts of it) inaccessible from others on your network. You can similarly turn a standard USB printer into a network printer. The AirPort Extreme Base Station only has one USB port, but you will be able to plug both of those devices and more in by using a separately sold USB hub. Like most wireless routers, AirPort Extreme Base Station lets you create a list of devices allowed to access your network. A new parental control feature in this router, though, lets you lock out specific devices, like a kid's computer, from connecting during certain hours of the day, such as after bed-time. What's in the Box Apple MA073LL/A AirPort Extreme Base Station, AirPort Utility for Mac and Windows, AirPort Disk Utility for Mac and Windows, 802.11n Enabler for Mac, Bonjour for Windows, power cord, printed and electronic documentation.

Customer Reviews more useful 53 of 55 people found the following review helpful. Excellent performance, easy to set esanta I've used many wireless routers (Linksys, D-Link, SMC, Netgear, Siemens ...) over the years, from the early days of 802.11b, but this is my first experience with a router from Apple. No need to comment on the production design, quality and packaging: in typical Apple fashion, they are miles ahead of the competition. For example, unlike all other routers I've used that came with a 110V power only, the Airport Extreme Base Station (AEBS for short) comes with a universal power supply in the world equipped with a standard power cord. In terms of performance is exceptional. I gave it to the test over the last few days and is barely breaking a sweat in situations where my previous router (Linksys WRT54G and Netgear WGN824) would always slower, or just fail and require a simple reboot. The coverage is excellent, better than my Apple WGN824 already quite impressive that traditionally do things differently, and shows once again: unlike most routers, managed by access to an embedded web server, this router only be set to "AirPort Utility "configuration program. The CD contains a Mac OS X and Windows version of the tool (I can already hear the groans of the Linux geeks). The tool is very easy to use, although I have not tried to use more advanced features like creating another router Airport Express as a range extender. One problem you may encounter is the lack of support for "old" devices, despite the AEBS offers a compatibility mode with WEP devices called "WEP (Transitional)" that allows both WEP and WPA coexist, this imposes restrictions on how the keys can not work for you (for example, you can not reuse an existing 40-bit WEP key). The problem is that WEP-40 and WEP 128-80211n are not supported by default, so you have to choose between speed and backward compatibility. In addition, you should know that WEP WEP-40 and 128 not-quite safe: there are utilities out there that can easily break these keys. Note that 802.11n offers a significant speed boost to the AppleTV and laptops equipped with compatible cards (such as Apple laptops with Core 2 Duo 802.11n enabler installed - is the facilitator of AEBS CD). Unless you own one of these machines, there is nothing wrong with moving to an 802.11n radio mode. How? Just hold the Command key (or control on Windows) while clicking the "Radio Mode" popup in the Wireless tab of the AEBS configuration utility. Additional non-n modes appear in the list, and once you select WEP-40 mode and WEP 128-Security is available. If you select WEP 40 or WEP 128, you can enter a hexadecimal key prefixed with a dollar sign. The AEBS also comes with a versatile USB port, which can be used for hard drives and / or a printer (USB hubs are supported) Unlike other base stations or NAS boxes attach unnecessary AEBS can not reformat the hard disk, everything you just plug and voila! Instant NAS, all your files to display on the Web. Some very basic access control functions. I connected the external USB drive that I use to back up my MacBook, and now I can make automatic backups without having to worry about remembering the plug in the device: It just works wireless. The AEBS, you can share a USB printer. In short, this router is a fantastic artist. Although one of the most expensive 802.11n routers out there, its features, quality, performance and superior customer support more than offset the price difference. I recommend it highly. 35 of 36 people found the following review helpful. Worth the price, great WiFi station By Jeffrey Heaton I had the previous model, and never had any problems with it, so I upgraded to a series