Marty Barrett: The Flight of the Mavervorl: Airport Extreme Makeover

I felt the need to contribute to the growing collection of Airport Extreme reviews, because what if those other 30,000 websites get busted for sodomy?

On a given day I might have seven computers running in my office, each of which needs an Internet connection. I've got a mixed network of wired and wireless PCs and Macs, all used for constant web-surfing and shared music and video files.

I've got a DSL connection with SBC/Yahoo/AT&T/PacBell/Halliburton. It's clocking at about 2.2 MBps for downloads because I am about 3,000 feet away from a trunk. It is what it is, and I console myself with the other benefits the location offers.

My first wireless hub was Apple's graphite Airport base station, which I bought in 2001 and which is still in use in my sister's house in Washington. I bought the faster Airport Express for my home and hooked it up to a Linksys router. My wife's PC is connected by ethernet to the router, but she uses the Airport Express to play music on the stereo via AirTunes. Meanwhile, I use the Express to connect to the Internet when I bring my computer home.

Because of my satisfaction with Linksys products in the past (I bought them for every company I was the IT Director for), I decided to get the Linksys WRT54GS V. 6 for my office.

This model was like the one I had at home with one difference: it also broadcast wirelessly. So I could connect four wired computers to it and also get on the Internet wirelessly with my laptops. I wouldn't have to buy another Airport Express or another Airport Extreme base station, both of which were more expensive, though cooler looking.

I'd purchased a TV several years ago from Best Buy that had a tracking problem. Best Buy wouldn't take it back, but insisted that I take it to several local repair services, each of which claimed to have fixed it, but didn't. I finally got Sharp to fix it, and they did it quickly and well. I resolved to never buy anything at Best Buy again.

So I got the Linksys WRT54GS at the Best Buy in Los Feliz, took it to the office, and proceeded to hook it up. Linksys tends to provide documentation for its products as if no one uses Macintoshes. This is usually easy to get around, but in this case I was finding that I could not keep two computers on the Internet simultaneously for more than five minutes at a time.

So I called a Linksys operator in the Phillipines and we changed some settings and he was very friendly and we talked about how Magellan brought Christianity to his country and my computers were on the Internet for ten minutes and I was very happy and he said that he hoped Jesus would continue to bless me.

I hung up, wrote a nice letter to Linksys Support about my customer service experience, sent the letter, and then my computers went offline.

I had work to do, so I just plugged my computer back into the DSL modem.

I called Linksys the next day, again was routed to Manila (because I wasn't being routed here), changed a few settings, explained that I was worried I would only be online for another ten minutes after I hung up the phone, upgraded the firmware, and hung up. Once again I lost connectivity after about ten minutes.

I plugged my computer back into the DSL modem and worked that way for a week, then I found my Best Buy receipt and decided I'd give Linksys one more try. This time I got India.

In the past week there was yet another firmware upgrade, so we tried that.

I have been trained to keep my expectations low in most consumer areas, but I was frustrated.

I was calmed, however, by the fact that each support technician already knew my case and didn't waste time going through procedures I'd already tried. Each one tried something different.

The end result was the same, however: the Linksys WRT54GS didn't work. "Your unit is defective," the Linksys representative said.

"No, your unit is defective," I replied.

I went back to Best Buy expecting the worst. I'd already thrown out the box. I didn't bring the supplied ethernet cord or the software back. I know it didn't matter, but I still anticipated a hard time.

"Do you want to exchange this for another one?" the bored kid at the busy Returns desk asked.

"Hells no," I said. He said OK and gave me cash.

The lesson I learned was that I probably should have have demanded to bring my TV back to the store a few years ago and just picked up a replacement or got a refund. I probably didn't do it because the TV (which I still have) weighs 105 lbs. and I had a two-door Saturn at the time.

Anyway, unless it's a DVD or a Monster cable or something - something under $50 - I'm not shopping at Best Buy again. Every larger-ticket item I get there ends up sucking.

So it was the end of February and the new Airport Extreme was out. The big difference between this one and its predecessors is that the new version has three ethernet ports as well as its 802.11n (backwards-compatible to 802.11g) wireless broadcast capability. It also has a USB port into which you can plug a printer or a hard drive and share them across a network.

(I'm wondering if you can plug a powered USB hub into the AE and share both a hard disk and a printer.)

Setup was quick and painless. Wireless speed is slightly slower than wired speed, but even seven machines accessing the web at the same time and sharing files do not amount to a significant slowdown. I'm very satisfied (though it wouldn't have killed Apple to incorporate AirTunes into this new base station; at $180, they could have).

I am feeling a little itchy to get a new computer. I am noticing my 2004 PowerBook slowing down, and that people are attracted to tripping over its power cord. The new MacBook is much faster and has that excellent magnetic Cremaster function with its power cord.

So my router is the newest piece of technology I have in a gently aging network (I also have a pre-video iPod and a 450 MHZ iMac G3). It's like putting a GPS and DVD player in my 1973 Mercury Montego.

See also: Here is a much more comprehensive and objective report from a colleague (but hey, he got paid to write it) with comments that address AE's lack of gigabit ethernet (gizmodo.com)

Labels: apple, commerce, faulty technology

--2.28.2007--

Airport Extreme Makeover

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