Longevity of Airport Extreme Base Station

Okay, I am COMPLETELY frustrated with having to buy a new router every year. In the last 5 years, I've been through 3 Linksys, 1 D-link and 1 Netgear. Each of them did the same thing, working well for almost a year, then working sporadically. A firmware update usually provided a temporary fix, but soon after the symptoms would return.

I'm really not in the mood to spend $180 on a router that is going to do the same thing to me, so I ask you... does the AEBS hold up over time, or is it just another one year wonder? Any comments are appreciated.

 

Why don't you just get a $50 router from Linksys? Mine was $50 at the time, and two years later it is still working great.

You don't need to spend $180.

 

What kind of routers have you been buying? I've been using the same good old £60 Netgear for the past 3 years.

 

I've had 3 WRT54G routers from Linksys, and all have died almost a year (to the day) after purchase. I'm glad that you are having luck with them, but I know at least 2 other people who were lucky to get a year out of them

 

I bought an AEBS and based on it's functionality, I have no regrets dropping $200 on it.

Combine that with an AirPort Express to extend my network, and it's value rises even more IMO.

 

I can get it for $150 actually, either through my State employee discount, or with a Reward Zone coupon I have, so that's even better. Thanks for the review

 

I had Linksys WRT54G v6 and Buffalo WHR-G125 for over a year with no problems.
Original firmwares are crap (especially on Linksys), flash DD-WRT to them and they will run great.
DD-WRT gives you many many features that original firmwares do not offer.
Don't waste your money with Airport extreme or anything like that, buy a cheap router (WHR-G125 is great and very cheap) and flash DD-WRT on it.

http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

 

The Airport base station is great if you use it's features (Dual band A and N), and gigabit ethernet. It's not a bad router for the price.

However, I agree that DD-WRT may fix your problems. Try loading it on your routers.

 

Personally I didn't think DD-WRT was all that great. Yes it has features which original firmwares don't offer, however IMO, the AirPort Extreme is a much better device. I certainly don't regret purchasing mine nor is it a "waste of money".

You get what you pay for, and I'm personally tired of buying cheap crap.

 

my favorite part about the AEBSn is that it actually has a real software interface built right into the OS that could not be simpler to use.

if you can afford it, definitely buy one without question.

if you can afford a time capsule, even better, although I have had no problems backing up wirelessly to my 500gb usb drive connected to my AEBSn.

 

As someone in another thread pointed out, the major advantage of having an AEBS and USB external drive, is that you're able to take your backups offsite. With Time Capsule, if you take your backup drive off site, there goes your router too.

Just today I figured out how to manage my AEBS while away from home with my MacBook. Little things like this continually impress me and make me glad I switched from Windows.

 

Running a WRT54GL - please note the L at the end!! - with Tomato firmware, it's bliss.

The tomato firmware interface is similar to DD-WRT, but it's totally snazzed up with AJAX and its back end performance is also fantastic. I got this setup to replace a Zyxel router. The Zyxel worked flawlessly for years but it ended up crashing with too many simultaneous connections (e.g. bittorrent). The WRT54GL with Tomato can take any number of conns and never breaks a sweat.

I also have a few DLINK DWL21000s running in a WDS setup (linking a few houses with directional antennas) and those little buggers are hard to kill. They never, ever crash. They have a very strong WiFi signal. And they can run 24/7/365. I eventually had a few go but they were connected to external antennas so I think they got killed by built-up static from that, you should never have that when using the internal antenna.
The only problem with the DLINK is the ****e interface - confusing as hell until you get used to it. Setup is a pain. But if you use it as a plan wifi access point you shouldn't have much setting up to do.

I have also seen ancient Airports running, so I believe those are top grade hardware, and if you have a Mac then they are very easy to set up with the Airport Admin tool that comes with OS X.

I would try the WRT54GL with Tomato first though. These are pretty cheap, the interface is brilliant, as is the performance. Just keep in mind that you can't install Tomato on a regular WRT54G - you need the WRT54GL, and the "L" stands for Linux, e.g. open source capable.

Important note: I live in a country with fishy electricity so I run all my access points off of UPSs/stabiliziers. If you had a lot of routers die on you, you might consider putting a UPS / stabilizer in front of the router. The electronics in these are very delicate and easily destroyed by a power spike. At the very least, put them on a surge protector plug, they cost around $10.

 

Actually you're wrong. The "L" simply means that the router is running Linux instead of Linksys' own router OS. The revision of the WRT54G will determine if you can run Tomato or DD-WRT on it as later versions have reduced on board memory.

I've had Tomato running on a WRT54G v3 and just as DD-WRT, I wasn't really impressed with it. Sure it does give you some pretty graphs and a little more eye candy than your typical router, so I guess if that's what impresses you, go for it, but I'd rather have something that's rock solid and my AEBS and two AirPort Express' haven't so much as hiccuped yet.

You really get what you pay for, period.

 

there is something more to your issue if different brands are all dying within a year....

do you have them hooked into a surge protector? Are they in an enclosed space....this stuff can lead to potential problems.

wrt54gL running ddwrt for 2 yrs now ( i think), no hiccups.
I do wish the wireless- wireless transfers were faster though, only getting max 2MB/s

 

I can't say enough good things about my UPS. Recently they were doing something funny with the power when they re-routed a section in my neighbourhood. My clocks kept getting knocked out of whack, but my computers were all still up and running.

Plus after my horrid transformer explosion out back that blew up two computers last winter, I don't want any cheap surge protectors anymore.

 

Thanks for all the suggestions. I always have my PC equipment plugged into a surge protector, at the very least. Most of my geek stuff is plugged into a power conditioner or UPS, so that's not the problem. My routers are always placed atop an end table or entertainment center, away from heat and free of obstruction. Maybe I've just had really crappy luck with routers in general, but you couldn't GIVE me another Linksys. I know 2 other people personally who have had their Linksys crap out on them after a year, and when I bought my last Router (my now-dying Netgear), the guy that sold it to me said he had the same problem with them. They may be very nice routers, but they've lost my business for good.

 

My WRT54G died a year after (to the month) after I bought mine, so have several of my friends, so I know how fun it is dealing with them.

 

We had two Linksys routers. The first one died after about a year. I don't think the second one lasted that long even. I replaced it with the Airport Extreme. It died in about 2 months, sent it into Apple and they replaced it. This one hasn't had any problems so far.

 

I had a Netgear that kept dropping my DSL connection. I bought the AEBS when the gigabit version was released and I cannot say enough good things about it. It works great as a print server, and as of 10.5.2, also for sharing a USB external. In fact, before I got a real network printer, I used a USB hub to take advantage of both features at the same time.