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Power Over Ethernet for AirPort Base Station
An anonymous user writes, "With Apple's recent announcements I took a quick stroll through some other items on the site and noticed that there's now a third AirPort Extreme Base Station. This model, at the same price as the model with modem and antenna ports, does not have a built-modem, however it does have an antenna port, supports Power Over Ethernet, and conforms to UL 2043. Great news for those that have wished they could put their Base Stations out of reach of a power outlet."
I have one of the 200 dollar models, and there are a couple of reasons. 1st is they work with appletalk. Most third party wireless products don't. 2nd They act as a wireless print server. Given that stand alone wireless print servers run ~$150, this is a big deal. Access point, print server and full mac compatibility for $200, modem for those without broadband for $250. I'd Say that all together its not a bad deal. Like may thinks mac, the total cost seems high, but to get equal functionality elsewhere, the cost runs almost the same. The only complaint would be they don't sell an access point only model for 100 to 150 dollars.
I agree that it is a bit expensive, but if you start to look at the specs a bit better, you will understand more:
USB Printer Sharing Built in
A good antenna (optional external antenna hookup also)
One model has a built in modem with AOL Compatibility (the only one out there)
An application based admin interface both for Windows and Mac
Like I said.. they are still a bit expensive, but not as much as as it first appears. Much like most of Apple's products.
It's the only one with AOL compatibility, I believe. If you care, which you probably don't, but someone might. Other advantages someone else lists below, like printer sharing, phone-home modem (so you can call your computer from the road (which others don't have, I don't think?)).
I have to admit, as much as an Apple fanboi as I am, I don't even have an Apple Base Station; I went for an Xsense router, since it gave me a 4 port switch for cheaper.
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$tar -xvf
802.3af specifies 48V. Google for specs.
The Airport Base Stations also BRIDGE the wireless to wired connections. Most wireless routers do not bridge.
Bridging is essential if you want Rendezvous to work properly between your wired and wireless machines.
You can tell a great deal about the character of a man by observing those who hate him.
see http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/.. For the original email this was posted from.. No wonder it was done anon...
You should check the price before you complain.
Though you can still get a generic 54g basestation for less, they do not have the same performace or features:
Radius Server Compatibiliry
Excellent & Stable WPA implementation
Built-in 56k modem with Dial in Access
USB Print Server (with Rendezvous)
WPA Bridging (Best i've seen so far)
Roaming
Inteference Robustness (Frequency Hopping)
Antenna Output Power Control
I set up wireless system for a living and i even use the AE Basetations for my PC customers. Not only are the features are better, the IMPLEMENTATION is far more stable. Firmware Updates are so much easier to apply.
I have an original graphite station. I added a lucent external antenna (I don't remember the specs, maybe a 5dB boost?) that required a "case hack" I saw posted somewhere. In may case, the antenna plugs directly into the embedded PCMCIA card. the addition did boost performance for me, but I still found that some areas downstairs remained spotty.
I noticed that the Dr. Bott is more expensive than the lucent. To be honest, I think you will be disappointed to spend a hundred bucks and find only marginal improvement.
sigs are for losers (except to point out that sigs are for losers)
Here's a little picture of my network, the mini-hub is connected to one of the Netgear's 4 LAN ports. Yes, the mini-hub is usually extraneous, I could connect the NAT/DHCPd to the Netgear and the wired clients to the Netgear but sometimes I have more than 3 wired clients I like that I can remove the Netgear without disrupting anything except the wireless clients.
The WRT54G model, once re-flashed with some of the very feature-rich firmware produced by the open source community has been a rock-solid, problem-free device.
I would love to be able to spend the money on an apple airport base station, but *this* model Linksys works for me. I can see where an all-Mac home/shop or even a small, multi-platform environment might want to go with easy-to-manage Apple WLAN equipment, tho.
Now, the older, 802.11b AP's from Linksys were not worth the plastic case they came in, so if you're comparing the Apple equipment to those, Apple is definitely worth the price premium.
Mind the gap...