Is Apple's AirPort Extreme the best Wi-Fi router for your Mac?

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Our colleague at Connectedly recently disregarded AirPort routers in his Wi-Fi roundup. This is why he's wrong​
Our colleague Haroon Q Raja recently elected not to include any of Apple's devices in his roundup of the top five best Wi-Fi routers for your connected home. His rationale was that there are "faster, more feature-rich, customizable, powerful and cheaper options." He's right about that. But he's also wrong to exclude them from consideration. Let me explain.

Full story from the iMore Blog...
 

anon(4698833)

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Why would a person ever consider which router is best for one particular product that connects to it?

Personally, I've never considered the airport extreme because of the negative reviews I've read about gaming on a network based on this router. I'll stick to my NetGear, which is a powerhouse dual band and serves me more than perfectly.
 

Just_Me_D

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My dual band Apple Time Capsule serves my wireless needs, and have served my wireless needs well over the years I've had it (since 2009). Heck, I was pleased with the Linksys, Netgear, Belkin and the others I've had over the years as well. Anyway, my Apple Time Capsule is it until I deem it necessary to replace...:)
 

audit

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I love my Airport Extreme, I was destroying Linksys wireless routers every couple months with the bandwidth I put them through but since I picked this up, it's ran like a champ. I've had to put in a couple repeaters through my house since we moved due to lack of coverage thanks to it being in the basement laundry room surrounded by plenty of Brick and metal but so far it's been great. Only had a couple issues with coverage but that's what the repeaters are for. I'll be hooking up a new MBA tonight to it and see how the speed is after that. First Mac in the house but we have 8 Apple TV's hooked up, 2 iPads and 3 iPhones. At least 3 Apple TV's are streaming 24/7 so it should be interesting to see the speeds I get with the MBA.
 

the_tech_eater

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I love my Airport Extreme, I was destroying Linksys wireless routers every couple months with the bandwidth I put them through but since I picked this up, it's ran like a champ. I've had to put in a couple repeaters through my house since we moved due to lack of coverage thanks to it being in the basement laundry room surrounded by plenty of Brick and metal but so far it's been great. Only had a couple issues with coverage but that's what the repeaters are for. I'll be hooking up a new MBA tonight to it and see how the speed is after that. First Mac in the house but we have 8 Apple TV's hooked up, 2 iPads and 3 iPhones. At least 3 Apple TV's are streaming 24/7 so it should be interesting to see the speeds I get with the MBA.

Sounds like you are a super power user lol
 

rayz336

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I love my Airport Extreme, I was destroying Linksys wireless routers every couple months with the bandwidth I put them through but since I picked this up, it's ran like a champ. I've had to put in a couple repeaters through my house since we moved due to lack of coverage thanks to it being in the basement laundry room surrounded by plenty of Brick and metal but so far it's been great. Only had a couple issues with coverage but that's what the repeaters are for. I'll be hooking up a new MBA tonight to it and see how the speed is after that. First Mac in the house but we have 8 Apple TV's hooked up, 2 iPads and 3 iPhones. At least 3 Apple TV's are streaming 24/7 so it should be interesting to see the speeds I get with the MBA.

That is a really connected home
 

audit

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It's getting there, I've been pulling Cat6 cable through the house putting drops in every room of the house including the attached garage to run a full GB LAN. Switches have been mounted and I plan on setting up a media server and backup server that will hold all the laptop's backup's each night. I didn't get a chance to test the bandwidth with the MBA last night since I was just installing the software I needed because it's replacing my iPad that I gave to my daughter. Still trying to get used to how the MBA works since it's the first Mac I've ever owned. Just got tired of hauling my 9lb laptop around when I needed to go somewhere and I may need to connect to my office to fix a server or something. This makes things much easier for me.