How good is AirPort Extreme as router in 2022?

[mjoecups]

Just to chime in. I am STILL using the last Airport Extreme with two wired expresses to cover my home.

I recently installed Quantum Fiber (CenturyLink) and I see about 930Mbps via the wired connection, but about 350-400Mbps via WIFI. Still pretty good!

 

[MaxEntropy]

Just a FWIW. Our 4th generation Airport Extreme from way back in 2009 is still going strong. Other than changing settings, I have never had to reboot it and enjoy the air disk function. The only gripes I have is the dumbing down of the airport utility app Apple did several years back and the need for an app (File Explorer) to allow iDevices to connect to the air disk for sharing files and streaming movies. Fortunately, our Macs connect to the airdisk with out an added app. The lack of security updates does concern me though...

 

[MBAir2010]

My airport extreme sent a strong signal to my neighbor's house when she needed "teh internets" last week.

 

[Insidious]

Just brought my last gen Extreme out of retirement after two years of using Xfinity’s XB7 and XB8 gateways and the WiFi range degrades so bad in comparison to what I’ve been used to. It still works extremely well at close range, but I am sorely missing the more advanced capabilities of the Xfinity gateways. I dropped them to save money, but I think I might go back to the XB8 unless I can tweak with the Airport’s placement and settings to improve its performance.

 

[mjoecups]

I have two for a 2300 sqft house with perfect coverage including the yards and decked area. Good luck!

 

[DominikHoffmann]

Just brought my last gen Extreme out of retirement after two years of using Xfinity’s XB7 and XB8 gateways and the WiFi range degrades so bad in comparison to what I’ve been used to. It still works extremely well at close range, but I am sorely missing the more advanced capabilities of the Xfinity gateways. I dropped them to save money, but I think I might go back to the XB8 unless I can tweak with the Airport’s placement and settings to improve its performance.

I would suggest you put the $10/mo of router rental toward a set up like this:

Netgate 1100 internet gateway/router/firewall ($209 at Amazon)
EnGenius EWS356-FIT access point ($70 at Amazon)

If you install just one access point, you’ll need a Power over Ethernet (PoE) injector:

iCreatin Wall Plug Gigabit PoE Injector ($11 at Amazon).

If you install multiple access points to cover a larger home use a PoE switch:

Netgear GS108PEv3 8-port managed gigabit Ethernet switch with 4 PoE ports ($75 at Amazon).

With this you can configure:

• multiple, separate isolated Wi-Fi networks (such as for guest and your home automation),
• get security updates for the pfSense software running the router for years to come,
• set up a VPN server on the router, so you can phone home to provide tech support to your family members.

By contrast the Comcast equipment is completely inflexible and will likely be obsolete in three years, at least from a security point of view.

 

[thingstoponder]

Just a FWIW. Our 4th generation Airport Extreme from way back in 2009 is still going strong. Other than changing settings, I have never had to reboot it and enjoy the air disk function. The only gripes I have is the dumbing down of the airport utility app Apple did several years back and the need for an app (File Explorer) to allow iDevices to connect to the air disk for sharing files and streaming movies. Fortunately, our Macs connect to the airdisk with out an added app. The lack of security updates does concern me though...

Did they remove functionality in Airport Utility? Any way to use old versions?

 

[MacCraig Pro]

Did they remove functionality in Airport Utility? Any way to use old versions?

Yes the removed features in the later version and the only way to use an older version is to use an outdated system OS.

 

[turbineseaplane]

I was using my Airport Extreme up until just recently as I figured out it was the cause of occasional hiccups with my WiFi speakers occasionally buffering

Haven't had a hiccup since

I think it might be time to move on

 

[akswun]

I’m looking to add wifi6 with mesh. But not sure it would work adding wired satellites like the eero or Velop. I have 3 AE. All AC. But one of them has been acting up. I don’t want to have to setup all the devices again and keep the 2.5ghz going because a lot of my older homekit compatible devices depend on that. Or ami overthinking the switchover to a tri band?

 

[Richard8655]

I've considered new mesh routers, but my AirPort Extreme (6th gen) is still going strong with never any lag or issues. But I do have a couple Airport Expresses extending the network scattered about.

I still think it's a shame (and not the best business strategy) that Apple left the networking segment to concentrate on fewer core products.

 

[Herbit]

I'm wondering how long the official support will last. The 6th gen Extreme and 2nd gen Express is still not on the obsolete list: https://support.apple.com/en-us/102772

As long as it is official support, I will keep my Extreme+2 Express combo running. It works seamlessly and fast enough for my needs.

 

[Insidious]

Been using it since my last reply in January and it's serving me well! It took some getting used to, but it's still reliable and fast enough.

 

[saldin]

I tried to replace my 2009 "simultaneous dual-band" A1301 Airport Extreme Base Station a couple times in the past, once for a Synology RT2600AC (which was a beast and absolutely wonderful, but I couldn't justify the price tag when my ISP refused to provide me enough access to actually use its best features) and a TP-Link Archer C7 (which was a terrible piece of crap that disconnected all the time, had atrocious performance, and its support reps were literal idiots that didn't know basic networking to provide adequate support; my experience was so bad I swore to never, ever buy a TP-Link wifi router in my life).

Every time I try to look for something modern, it's either very expensive or lacking Mac features I consider important, like Time Machine support or Bonjour Sleep Proxy.

 

[ChrisA]

Every time I try to look for something modern, it's either very expensive or lacking Mac features I consider important, like Time Machine support or Bonjour Sleep Proxy.

Checkout Asus. All their routers run the same software so just buy the one with the radios you want. All of ther routers can work as mesh nodes too with either wired or WiFi backhaul.

 

[AlumaMac]

AirPort Extreme, Airport Time Capsule, and Airport Express still going strong here serving 5 Macs, 1 PC, 3 IOS devices, 2 Raspberry Pi’s, 2 ATV’s, 1 printer, and 4 home devices.

Quoting my previous reply for context...

Recently switched to Verizon FIOS Internet and switched to their provided WiFi Router and man what a piece of junk in comparison to my old Airport setup. I had to separate the 2GHz & 5GHz networks because my 2Ghz devices were constantly loosing network connection and my Sonos Arc just plain refused to ever join the combo 2Ghz/5ghz network. I've also had all WiFi go down several times requiring a router reboot. I'm at a point were I'm going to re-install the Airport network (use the Verizon Router as "modem" only) or go with a modern mesh system.

 

[Boyd01]

I got FIOS around 2018 and the router they gave me doesn't support 802.11ac, so it was much slower than my Time Capsule. I have never used the Verizon router, I just cabled it to my Time Capsule and am still using that without issues.

Now, it's possible that the newer Verizon routers are better but I wouldn't know about that. As I posted earlier, as long as the old Time Capsule continues to work, no plans to upgrade.

 

[redheeler]

I got mine at a thrift store around 5 years ago, continues to do the job just fine.

 

[xraydoc]

I had 4 AirPort Extremes (the 802.11ac tallboys) set up in my home for years but wanted something faster around 9 months ago. Replaced it with an Orbi 960 wifi 6E mesh system. Even with gigabit wired backhaul, I've had tons of problems (devices just dropping off wifi for no good reason, weird periods with high dropped packets, etc.). Ripped them out just a few days ago and put my AirPorts back into service until I decide what to replace it all with.

Open to suggestions...!

Was thinking about two (maybe three) Synology RT6000ax units. I don't need a ton of VLAN and segmented network features, though. Just something bulletproof & stable.

 

[phillytim]

Checkout Asus. All their routers run the same software so just buy the one with the radios you want. All of ther routers can work as mesh nodes too with either wired or WiFi backhaul.

I've had the ASUS RT-AX86U Pro for a year now, and it's been stable and working quite well.

I do not have AirPorts, but my folks do - and I would feel comfortable to recommend the RT-AX86U for them. I'd rather they have a simpler router app/interface like Apple; but I've heard tons of issues with Orbi/TP-LINK/etc. stability and then Eero makes you pay a subscription for advanced settings.

I'm holding my breath to keep their AirPorts going for a while longer; they are ethernet-backhauled and still seem to serve their house needs well.

 

[xraydoc]

In case this helps anyone, I've decided to go with a Firewalla Gold SE as an ethernet-only router (to interface with my ISP's ONT), and TP-Link BE11000 mesh wifi 7 as wireless access points.

The Firewalla is still in transit, but should arrive early next week, so I'll report back. But going through the manual, the power and features are amazing, including built-in ad block and domain filtering. And it'll do dual WAN failover, so I can keep a slow, cheap plan on my cable company's internet service and use that as a backup to my primary fiber provider (Ting, which is fast but unfortunately has periodic outages lasting from like 5 - 60 minutes in my area -- too much construction, I think).

As for the TP-Link BE11000, I took a chance and picked up a Costo $399 special deal on three satellites. It's been remarkably stable so far, and the wifi 6E speeds are impressive, getting >800Mbit/sec over wifi consistently. I don't have any wifi 7 devices yet, but nice to know it's future proofed there, even if my ISP doesn't offer anything over 1GB/sec presently. At least LAN traffic won't get bottlenecked. I'll just need to upgrade the big 24-port switch in my network closet from 1Gb to 2.5Gb when the time comes.

The TP-Link system seemingly has more useful features as compared to the Orbi, such as being able to have certain devices preferentially use a specific satellite and/or a specific frequency (2.4GHz vs. 5GHz, for example). Handy for some of my further away IoT devices, like one particular security camera that I have, that tries to connect to 5GHz, only to drop, pause, then connect to 2.4GHz, then to try again to roll up to 5GHz, drop, repeat.... The TP-Link app can assign a device to a specific access point and restrict it to 2.4GHz only, seemingly enhancing its stability. Still testing it out, but appears to be a significant improvement over the Orbi in both speed consistency and stability (and price, TBH).

 

[IvyKing]

The Firewalla is still in transit, but should arrive early next week, so I'll report back. But going through the manual, the power and features are amazing, including built-in ad block and domain filtering. And it'll do dual WAN failover, so I can keep a slow, cheap plan on my cable company's internet service and use that as a backup to my primary fiber provider (Ting, which is fast but unfortunately has periodic outages lasting from like 5 - 60 minutes in my area -- too much construction, I think).

My experience with Ting was that the connection was pretty much rock solid from the start, so it makes me wonder what's going on in your area. Hope Ting gets that resolved soon.

I'm going to take a look at the Firewalla as I rather have an Ethernet only router than I can stick by the fiber connection and make the Asus router a wireless access point.

 

[xraydoc]

My experience with Ting was that the connection was pretty much rock solid from the start, so it makes me wonder what's going on in your area. Hope Ting gets that resolved soon.

I'm going to take a look at the Firewalla as I rather have an Ethernet only router than I can stick by the fiber connection and make the Asus router a wireless access point.

So the Firewalla arrived early (on Saturday) and I've set it up. It's pretty impressive. Tons of network details (throughput, blocked incoming connection logs, upload and download volumes, most hit URLs/IP addresses, per-device, per-domain and per-network usage alerts, and more, customizable routing on per-device or per-domain through one WAN or the other and other related features).

The Firewalla was able to clone the MAC address of my old router, so I was able to just plug it in and Ting's ONT happily provided a network connection. I've also got my old Comcast Xfinity network connection attached as WAN #2 for failover (which I'm going to downgrade to a slower, cheaper plan just for backup). It failed over for about 5 minutes on Sunday and worked pretty well. The Firewalla will periodically ping certain DNS servers, and if there's no response, it'll fail the WAN connection and switch to WAN #2, then will monitor until it receives proper activity then automatically restore WAN #1.

The network-wide ad block is pretty great. I'm sure people who have Pi-holes know what this is like. Really makes loading certain websites much faster -- even faster than with browser-based ad block.

Also has typical features like IP address reservations and such. Plus lots of VNP, VLAN and dual LAN features that I'm not using currently. It also has some built-in category and per-app blocking, like porn block, forced safe search, blocks for Facebook, Twitter, SnapChat, Instagram, YouTube and some games if you've got kids that need managing, plus some timers and schedules for blocking/unblocking these sites. I don't have kids living at home any more, so I personally don't need any of the parental features it has.

I think Ting in my area has problems due to all the construction in the area... several new neighborhoods going up. We have the same problem with electrical power -- it can be a clear, sunny day with no significant wind and power will go out for 5-10 minutes for seemingly no good reason. Very frustrating. Getting better over the 6.5 years we've lived in this house, but I've got UPSs on almost all computer and network equipment.

 

[iBookmaster]

I use an AirPort Express on an old G4 iMac that doesn't have an Airport Card inside it to jump on my wireless network.

 

[wilderkun]

I just bought a new in box last generation extreme, and plan to buy i few new in box last gen express ones in bit. I’m moving to a new apartment soon, and planning on getting into HomeKit/home assistant. I know they aren’t the actual best routers available anymore, but it’s fine, I don’t need gbs+. I also plan to use a few of the expresses to add airplay to some iPod Hifis 😝😝😝