“With the rumor that Apple is discontinuing Airport and Time Machine Wi-Fi products, it leaves some users looking for new solutions,” Lester Victor Marks writes for AppleInsider. “One of the problems with Wi-Fi is its inherently poor signal strength to the places in your home you want to actually use it.”
“And all that’s fine, but it doesn’t really help you understand how to solve the problem of dead zones of Wi-Fi in your home or apartment. The first thing to know is that Apple provides you with a quick way to tell what your signal strength really is,” Marks writes. “Option-click on the Airport (Wi-Fi) indicator in the menu bar, and it reports your RSSI in negative db. The closer your number is to zero, the stronger the signal.”
“Is Eero a complete Airport replacement? No. Each Eero has just two Ethernet ports on its back,” Marks writes. “You can’t connect a printer and use it for Bonjour printing as you could for an Airport Express.”
“But for printing, many affordable modern printers work with AirPrint, and it’s possible you should consider one of them,” Marks writes. “If you have Wi-Fi dead zones, don’t want to go to networking school, and want an easy solution with acceptable range and speeds, Eero isn’t wrong. ”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: We’re in the process of replacing our older Apple Airport Extreme (which Apple released on June 10, 2013 and is still inexplicably calling “all-new” on their website) based Wi-Fi systems with Eero mesh units in our homes and offices. We’re seeing significant, very noticeable increases in Wi-Fi speed and range. Eero is the Wi-Fi system that Apple should’ve made.
SEE ALSO:
With Eero, you can kiss slow Wi-Fi goodbye forever – February 10, 2017
I just installed this last week. I noticed a speed bump as well. The installation is very simple with the iOS app.
When 5G comes out will there be a reason to have wi-if?
Sigh…do you really think that the wireless companies (ATT, VZW, Sprint) will ever offer the all you can eat pricing of most cable companies? I truly hope so but the $49 a month I pay Cox for 60 megabit down and 5 up with a 1Terra Bit (1000 Gig) recommended limit vs the $180 I pay ATT for a 30Gig plan (3 phones). I think that day is in the far distant future or will require a new mobile entrant.
I’m reading that Google Mesh is even faster. So is Netgear’s Orbi, while not a true mesh system is faster still.
Anyway, these are good solutions.
If Tim Cook had not converted Apple from the world’s best supplier of personal technology solutions to instead being the most prominent Democrat PR machine, then maybe Apple could have produced a full line of home and office wireless network solutions to complement its computing and mobile devices. But no, Tim now has made Apple the biggest full time PR machine for LGBTQT innovation and helping the Democrat Party figure out how to piss of more Americans. That is the Tim Cook Apple.
I’m still using the AirPort extremes at home until our moving date of march 2nd. Tried all the new mesh systems, eero is pretty good especially for people who don’t know how to set up a network. But, it doesn’t perform nearly as well in our environment as the AirPort extremes. The only mesh system that was significantly faster was the NETGEAR orbi, and the linksys velop which averaged about 16-19% better throughput. But they had to be restarted at a minnimum once a month (Velop), and once every 2 weeks (orbi). The airports still don’t ever need any maintinence except for the occasional firmware update.
I hope apple releases a new AirPort Extreme line with wireless power & Siri, which would be amazing, because I think these AC units are going to be used until they die, and although the newer systems are good, the management and reliability still isn’t quite there. Only 3 more days until we head up to the great white north, closed on a townhouse in Toronto, and can move in march 7th (a couple days early).
I just invested in new TC and two AX and hard wired connected them one at each floor. So far so good my last TC was bought in 2008 never felt an upgrade until I started 4k streaming, I spend almost $700 on this system but I forgot that TC of 2008 was so much superior to competition it was Steve jobs apple sadly it is Tim Cook apple in 2017.
I think it says a lot about apple’s routers that they don’t need to be updated constantly like other companies wares. The new AirPort Extreme AC was one of the first AC routers and it still outperforms all but the newest “wave 2” stuff. Apple never updates something unless they feel the tech is there to make an existing product better, and it’s always served them well. I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re just rejiggering their wireless division to work on the wireless power/Siri/AC box and that’s the replacement. I don’t understand why they’ve never updated the AirPort Express to AC, but given that it’s essentially a 7 gen AirPort Extreme in a smaller package, they may not need to for its purposes (since it’s hardly ever a primary access point, but an extender or attached to speakers or for small apartments).
It’s kind of amazing that to this day there still aren’t better routers than Apple’s (there are many with higher theoretical throughput) but none that are as reliable, easy to set up, and simple to control with good performance. I think it’s a case, similar to the trash can Mac Pro/iMac/Mac mini where they were so overbuilt for their time that constant replacement hasn’t been necessary like in the early days of wifi when the standards were updating almost every 18 months, or in the mid 2000’s when chips were improving 20-30% every year in IPC.
One thing I can say is apple routers are connect and forget kind of devices. it never needs rebooting, that was one main reason I invested in TC with wireless AC again, I did not fell for the high throughput trap from other manufacturers at cost of reliability.
At last…the voice of reason personified, as is the AirPort Extreme….the epitome of power and reliability personified.
Tried eero, did not work out to well for my environment, returned it and went with Amplifi HD which is unbelievably good at getting the wifi thru out my story house with the same speeds all over and outside my front door as well…super easy setup…..
Tim Cook, Steve Jobs biggest mistake.
I upgraded to Eero last month with 3 units covering my 2900 sq ft two story house. All bars everywhere I go. Plus I can now stream wireless between my Tivo’s without dropouts. Looking for good home for outdated Apple Airport Extremes. Glad I made the switch.
What generation are they?
AirPort Extreme 802.11AC Model #ME918LL/A
I will buy them if you have an eBay listing, put up a link and I’ll bid or hit buy them now provided they’re around 129 (going rate for refurbished units).
You are all missing the boat. Portalwifi.com paired with Plumewifi.com makes the best, fastest coverage. Beats Luma and Eero by a mile. And the total cost of the two is about the same as the wildly overpriced Eero.
In Cook’s world, there won’t be an option-click because we will all be using iPads instead of Macs.
Quick review – Have had the system up & running for a week. Much better coverage throughout the house, very easy to set up, including static IPs and port forwarding! As long as they stay reliable, and the company stays around. I like these very much.
Kenners