# Airport Extreme Base vs Linksys



## csonni (Feb 8, 2001)

Any benefit of an Airport Extreme Base Station over a Linksys WRT54GS wireless? Better performance/range? Will a Windows machine plug into it and work? Any downsides?


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## IronMac (Sep 22, 2003)

csonni said:


> Any benefit of an Airport Extreme Base Station over a Linksys WRT54GS wireless? Better performance/range? Will a Windows machine plug into it and work? Any downsides?


A. There's the built-in modem.
B. You're going to get different opinions on performance and range but since both use the same 802.11b/g protocol and the same 2.4Ghz it should be comparable.
C. Yes, it should.
D. Price.


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## Heart (Jan 16, 2001)

The Airport Extreme (Express or the Extreme Base Station) is a whole lot easier to set up.

Linksys does not (telephone or instruction booklet) support the Mac.

It works but they do not support it. Either will your ISP, so if something goes wrong, who ya' gonna call?


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## mikef (Jun 24, 2003)

csonni, you've had a lot of trouble (if not, asked a lot of questions about) the Linksys... go with the Apple.


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## jicon (Jan 12, 2005)

Heart said:


> Linksys does not (telephone or instruction booklet) support the Mac.


I'm unsure how an OS gets involved with a router? All of the configuration is web based. No seperate application needed to configure, and it includes a wizard for quick setup.


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## RicktheChemist (Jul 18, 2001)

.


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## csonni (Feb 8, 2001)

actually, mikef, my Linksys has performed flawlessly, as far as I know. I do get slowdowns on occasion and once in a while a dropped connection. I just love information for present or future use.


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## mikef (Jun 24, 2003)

I thought you were having some issues getting it setup. Sorry for the confusion.


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## kent (Oct 18, 2003)

I've had an AEBS for two years and I've had to restart it once ... the set-up software is like everything else Apple makes - sweet and it's very easy to control the base station with this software. The wi-fi printing through the AEBS is also bomber - never had an issue. Yes, it's a lot more expensive, but it's an excellent piece of equipment that will work seamlessly with your Mac. I have a good friend who's a internetworking engineer and PC user [when the servers go down in TOs financial district this is the guy they call] and he just bought a Airport Express - he is smitten. The AEBS works just fine with PCs.


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## ice_hackey (Aug 13, 2004)

I have a WRT54G and I'll tell you why you want one.

1) It's much cheaper than the apple unit

2) It's more configurable than the apple unit

3) More options like:
Disable SSID broadcast
PING (directly from router)
TRACEROUTE (directly from router)

4) Dynamic dns daemon, built-in

5) Remote management

6) Exportable configurations (saved as text file)

7) Can be managed from PC or mac

8) Much, much, much, more.


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## ice_hackey (Aug 13, 2004)

The office I work in has a pair of Apple Base Stations.
If they weren't company assets, I'd happily trade them for a pair of Linksys.

The Apple units are constantly crashing.
They also have a pathetic range.
I'm sure the Linksys I have at home could out-perform the pair of Apple base stations.

My powerbook gets full reception at home (using Linksys), through a concrete wall. At work, I'll put my powerbook ON TOP of the Apple Unit and never get more than 3 bars.


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## IronMac (Sep 22, 2003)

ice_hackey said:


> My powerbook gets full reception at home (using Linksys), through a concrete wall. At work, I'll put my powerbook ON TOP of the Apple Unit and never get more than 3 bars.


LOL! That reminds me of my Thinkpad T20 equipped with a 3COM XJack .11b card; it's situated 2 feet away from my Linksys WRT54G v.2 router and doesn't pick up the signal but it picks up the signal of two other wireless networks in the building! 

Like I originally said, YMMV when it comes to different routers.


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## ice_hackey (Aug 13, 2004)

There are 4 airport extreme base stations in my life. 2 in one office, 1 in another office and 1 at a friends home w/airport express for iTunes.

With this level of experience with the product I can say with great authority that Apple's quality is uniformly poor in this area.

Reception is poor.
Price is poor.
Features are poor.
Size is poor.
Mounting options are poor.
You can't administrate from a PC.
You can't have dyndns daemon on-device.
You can't remotely administrate.
You can't disable SSID.

The only person I'd recommend the Apple-brand of router to is the person who:
- Doesn't want to use the internet often
- Cares more about look than function
- Needs the status symbol
- Doesn't need high security
- Doesn't need great range/fidelity

However -- the airport extreme cards that come in the powerbook aren't as bad. They could have an external antenna port.. or a better antenna, but they are acceptable.


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## elmer (Dec 19, 2002)

I use a DLINK because it's cheap _and_ has an antenna port that I got a good antenna for. Full bars reception throughout the house.


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## lightbulb (Oct 24, 2005)

I recently replaced my Dlink with a used Extreme Base. It was an older Dlink and I could never get the security password to work with my PB, consequently I left it OFF, not the best thing...I have a newer Dlink at work where it works perfectly though.

Over the holidays I picked a used Extreme and replaced the Dlink; it actually did not set up easily, there was some glitch somewhere and it took almost an hour with Apple support to configure it. I also have an Express, which set up perfectly in no time flat, go figure.

In my house, there's absolutely no difference between the Extreme and Dlink, there's pretty full signal strength in 80% of the 3 story house, even though the base is located towards the back of house.


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## kent (Oct 18, 2003)

ice_hackey said:


> The office I work in has a pair of Apple Base Stations.
> If they weren't company assets, I'd happily trade them for a pair of Linksys.
> 
> The Apple units are constantly crashing.
> ...


Well ... I don't know what to say ... I've never had a problem with range [always four bars ... it's going through 2 walls right now to my PowerMac] and in 2 years it's crashed once. Yes, it is overpriced ...

While I haven't experienced range issues at home, the one I used to use in my office I had to move to a more central location. It was about 60 ft away and gave me intermittent reception - of course there were several walls [one of which was concrete]. Definitely cheaper options out there, but it depends on what you need ... do I care that my AEBS can't be administered by a PC - no way [that's probably a good thing]. In a large office ... PC compatibility would be more important ...


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