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Airport extreme on MacPro is misleading

O

OldMacNewb30

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 25, 2013
4
0
I bought a MP 2012 12 core. It is a little overkill for what I do (adobe) but I wanted something upgradable. I bought it thinking that I could hook my modem straight up to it and then run all my other devices off of it. I initially hooked up through my existing router as not to disturb the internet of my roommates. I tried today to hook up the modem to my MacPro and then back to my existing router. It seemed to work for a bit. When I called Applecare to trouble shoot it they recommended that I do not hook up straight to the modem and that I hook up to a router first. My internet was so much faster when I was hooked up to my modem first. How can they say that the Mac Pro has Airport Extreme in it if it should not be hooked up Just like the hardware version of the Airport extreme?

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Does the airport extreme that comes in a new Mac Pro really not have a firewall? How can it be advertised as such if it does not do what the Airport extreme in the box at local retailers do? Is it not a built in router in my MP? It seemed to work. Would hooking up my MP straight to my modem really leave my machine vulnerable??
 
Normally you have modem, which connects directly to the telephone line, then you have a router, which connects to the modem and uses a set protocol to dial via the modem up to the internet and then you have the computers and other devices, which connect to the router to get to the internet.

telephone line / internet <> modem <> router <> computers / devices

The AirPort Extreme Base Station and AirPort Express are routers, the AirPort Extreme card in your Mac Pro is a wireless card device, which allows you to connect to wireless routers and such.

And your Mac has a built in Firewall, go to System Preferences > Security > Firewall to enable it.

To learn more about Mac OS X: Helpful Information for Any Mac User by GGJstudios​

Anyway, was the above understandable?
 
It's not misleading. Your Mac Pro has an airport extreme CARD, it is not an airport extreme ROUTER.

Saying that it's misleading is like buying an iPhone 5 with LTE and expecting to get a cell phone tower with your purchase.

Now while the MacPro can act AS a router, it's not ideal for the task.
 
I guess I just wish it was worded different. Card versus base station you know? When the specs on the MP says that it comes with 802.11 Airport extreme that is the same definition as the base station. But thanks for the help. I am just going to go through my router first. Better safe than sorry. I was going to run cable internet through my MP first because it's so much faster but then my roommates would need my MP running every time they wanted to go online. Sounds like a hassle. The salesman who sold me my MP stated that I would not need a router or airport extreme if I bought this MP so I guess that is why I felt mislead. I had an airport extreme and returned it once MP was in the mail. Thanks for the feedback and the link I will check it out.

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The price of an iPhone 5 you should get a cell tower! joking joking. iPhone 5 looks great but doesn't seem much better than my iPhone 4 which I love.
 
OldMacNewb30 said:
I guess I just wish it was worded different. Card versus base station you know? When the specs on the MP says that it comes with 802.11 Airport extreme that is the same definition as the base station.
Click to expand...


The specs for the airport extreme point to a footnote which clearly states:

Wireless Internet access requires a wireless access point and Internet access; fees may apply.
Click to expand...

How is this misleading?
 
What are you people on about, A modem and router are the same thing.

Phone Line - Cable - Router/Moden - Ethernet Cable - Wired Devices
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa|
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa|
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaWireless signal
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa|
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa|
Wireless Devices i.e MacBook Pro
 
G4DP said:
What are you people on about, A modem and router are the same thing.
Click to expand...

As goMac says above, they are not the same thing. Many consumer modems also include a poor-quality router in the same physical device, but they do completely different jobs and you normally need both of them.
 
Well i must have been bloody lucky then, for the past 15 years any decent router i have bought has been able to connect directly to the phone line.

You know things like this? This router can't connect to the internet, I must be made then. Funny as it's what we use at work.

Scotch Mist

I'm not talking about the crap ones you get from ISP's either. They're not even useful as a paper weight.
 
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G4DP said:
Well i must have been bloody lucky then, for the past 15 years any decent router i have bought has been able to connect directly to the phone line.

You know things like this? This router can't connect to the internet, I must be made then. Funny as it's what we use at work.

Scotch Mist

I'm not talking about the crap ones you get from ISP's either. They're not even useful as a paper weight.
Click to expand...

They all look like ethernet ports to me on that router you linked to, so where exactly are you putting the phone line in?

Even the website says they need a modem connected to it first:

http://www.peplink.com/balance/tech-spec/
 

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Uhh...

G4DP said:
Well i must have been bloody lucky then, for the past 15 years any decent router i have bought has been able to connect directly to the phone line.

You know things like this? This router can't connect to the internet, I must be made then. Funny as it's what we use at work.

Scotch Mist

I'm not talking about the crap ones you get from ISP's either. They're not even useful as a paper weight.
Click to expand...

If you're at work, you're likely connecting that router to an existing modem-like device set up by your IT department.

Phone and ethernet cords may look similar, but they're not.
 
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G4DP said:
Well i must have been bloody lucky then, for the past 15 years any decent router i have bought has been able to connect directly to the phone line.

You know things like this? This router can't connect to the internet, I must be made then. Funny as it's what we use at work.

Scotch Mist

I'm not talking about the crap ones you get from ISP's either. They're not even useful as a paper weight.
Click to expand...

Well quite a few devices have incorporated an ADSL modem into a router. Quite popular. However, you can't say every router has a modem on it. A modem is a modem and a router is a router. Then you have switches and hubs that look like routers but are completely different.
 
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You can share your internet connection through your wireless airport to basically make an access point. Mac Pros also have 2 ethernet ports so you can set up one for your access point and the use the other for your MP.
 
G4DP said:
Well i must have been bloody lucky then, for the past 15 years any decent router i have bought has been able to connect directly to the phone line.
Click to expand...

So you have a combo modem router.

My Airport Extreme router does not connect to a phone line. My cable modem does not have an ethernet switch.

Both are new and top of the line.

They are not the same. Never have been.
 
G4DP said:
Well i must have been bloody lucky then, for the past 15 years any decent router i have bought has been able to connect directly to the phone line.
Click to expand...

It is unfortunate you have been confused/mislead by the terms Apple uses to describe their network interface devices and hardware. The AE card in your Mac is a hardware device that is intended to connect the Mac wirelessly to a router or access point. It is not an Airport Extreme Base Station. There are a wide variety of alternate routers available. The Mac out of the box has little capability to act as a router as an AirPort Extreme Base station does.... neither do PCs.

I've been buying routers for 20 years and have only seen this feature on DSL modems that connect to a dedicated telephone line and are provided by the service provider (although you probably could supply your own). DSL is rare now days and DSL is not built into any Mac. Cable TV or Fibre modems are also typically provided by the cable provider, and then there are dial up modems often built into the computer... but more often not now as thats like ancient history.... Typically today there is a service attachment to your provider's network that provides an ethernet type connection. Most homes and businesses use a router to attach to the ethernet connection and to manage their computer network. You can use a computer for this function, but that's probably a waste of resources (good routers being so cheap). You would have to connect your Mac to the service provided ethernet and then share that connection with other computers. But how do the others connect to the Mac? You'd have to install and run a router application on the Mac to manage the network.. and you probably don't have enough ports.... just get a $50 router... As has been mentioned, the phone line is an entirely different animal than an ethernet line, although they look similar.
 
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Thanks for the replies. Always interesting to hear/see different opinions on Mac subjects. I had a router and it is hooked back up now. Did a few resets and my internet is loading blazing fast. I love Apple and thanks to all the people who left positive feedback. I was not trying to knock Apple by saying it was misleading. I love Mac's got four of them now not including accessories. I think I am starting to get the hang of it, and to any Adobe users out there I strongly recommend their creative cloud subscription. A 20gig cloud you can put anything in and free updates for all their software.
 
OldMacNewb30 said:
I think I am starting to get the hang of it, and to any Adobe users out there I strongly recommend their creative cloud subscription. A 20gig cloud you can put anything in and free updates for all their software.
Click to expand...

I've had massive issues and data loss with Create Cloud Sync. (Apps themselves work just like Adobe apps normally do.)
 
goMac said:
I've had massive issues and data loss with Create Cloud Sync. (Apps themselves work just like Adobe apps normally do.)
Click to expand...

He said you could put anything in the Adobe Creative Cloud, he never once said that you could get it back. :eek:
 
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