Is the new AirPort Express N Base Station Dual Band?

I'm looking at getting one of the new Airport N base stations, and I was wondering if its dual band? I need to connect 3 older G laptops, and an N laptop, with the N running at full speed(150 or 300MBPS).

 

AirPort Express is indeed dual band but not simultaneous dual band- that means you can use either 2.4GHz band or 5GHz band- that's not what you need.
It's AirPort Extreme that is simultaneous dual band- but that's a different story (and device)

 

Answered my question, thanks

 

Range is curtailed over some other routers however, and it still includes the Fisher-Price (or should I say Apple - same thing in the end) 'firewall'. Putting it in a nutshell, you have essentially the same security features that came with a wireless router circa 2001. Unless you want it for the looks, I'd suggest the E3000.

 

If you're going to spend that much (E3000)... go ahead and get the Airport Extreme Base Station. I've been running mine since last May, and it hasn't had a single issue. My previous core WiFi router was a Cisco Aironet, and while pretty reliable, it did have it's hiccups. The Airport IMO, shames Linksys's routers, even the high-end ones like the WRT610 or the E3000. Linksys routers have decent hardware, but their Config Interfaces and firmware are horrendous. And I disagree about the firewall on the Express. It's no more ancient or horrible than any of the consumer space Linksys routers. They are both configurable, and if anything the Express is more secure. But yea, range isn't a strong point of the Express, but then it's meant to be portable, not stationary, and so range isn't it's priority. Don't diss it just because it's user friendly, as most of the Airport products offer a lot more performance than any of their peers, especially on the N 2.4/5GHz bands. Pair an Airport Extreme with a 3x3 simultaneous dual-band WiFi card, a la Intel 5300/6300, and you get crazy speeds.

 

What do you mean 'that much'? Street is ~$150. The Extreme is also no more stable than routers such as the 610. A decade-old Aironet system? Sure it'd be better.

You might disagree due to the Fisher-Price indoctrination, but NAT translation as your sole method of security (i.e. circa everyone else around 2001) does not constitute security. The 610, E3000, yada yada yada have SPI firewalls.

 

I've owned the 610, and it was orders more unstable than the Airport. The Airport is only $20 more, but for people willing to spend $150 on a piece of network equipment, there are certainly better options. The 610 was finicky, erratic, and downright bad performing at times. The E3000 is nothing more than a revised 610 in a different shell. In the months the Airport has been on, mine has never frozen, randomly rebooted, or had any other issue that I know of. Also it has much better range, and higher throughput especially at long distances, than any of the consumer realm routers I've tried. The Aironet was A/B/G only, but it did operate on 2.4GHz and 5GHz and had a much higher transmit power, and a much more sensitive Rx. The Aironet performed as good as most consumer wireless N routers do, right now.

Indoctrination? Who just bought a new iMac? I don't question it, not because it's Apple, but because it's a piece of network equipment that has yet to fail to deliver on it's promises. It's solid and simple. Same for the Express. Simple, portable, innovative. I've never owned an Express, but it is something that I have looked at purchasing before. For portability's sake, there's not really much at all like it.

 

The E3000 is actually worse than the 610, IMO, because you can't exercise complete control over it through the traditional means of logging directly into the router. You also have to make sure you don't lose the software CD/USB key or else you're up a creek.

I've tried a bunch of different wireless routers, including the selectable dual-band Linksys WRT320N and simultaneous D-Link DIR-825 and Netgear WNDR3700. I ultimately went with the Airport Extreme because it delivers excellent range and speeds and is no-nonsense for configuration. I'm suffering no dropped connections, router lockups, or other strange behavior.

 

This is a weird deviation I agree, but on the flipside it's no different from the Apple method - and you still get more control.

 

...and you can get even more control by loading DD-WRT

 

What I'm really looking for is a very cheap simultaneous dual band router. How good is the Netgear WNDR3300? Only $45 on eBay.

 

It doesn't go together I'm afraid

 

What about the Netgear WNDR3300?

 

Yeah but it costs around $80 which and has only 16MB RAM and pretty old Broadcom 260MHz CPU. So the price is justified by aging hardware.
If it's meant for browsing it should be fine but P2P, some VoIP, online gaming etc may be too much.
It doesn't inspire confidence in me but you're probably right- in this price range it's all you can hope for- next step in quality would cost you another $60 which isn't really justified or needed for an average user.

 

The wndr3300 is WAY better that what I'm currently using. I have a 2005 linksys G router. Its $46 refurbished: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...045917&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT#ht_2864wt_907

 

Well the problem is that WNDR3300 is close to 2005 in hardware department.
What you have is probably a Linksys WRT54G (CPU 200 or 216MHz, 16MB RAM, 4MB flash, 802.11g) and you would be "upgrading" to WNDR3300 (CPU 260MHz, 16MB RAM, 4MB flash, 802.11n).
It's not much on an upgrade really but then again- at least you known what can you expect from WNDR3300 with your usage pattern.

 

So true it hurts. You literally get what you pay for. There are deals to be had, but they're very rare.