Airport way overpriced - look at alternatives!

[jeb1138]

Airport cards and having antennas built into machines is cool, but Airport Base Stations are way overpriced. Anybody 'thinking different' than me on this?
As far as alternatives, everything at
http://www.wi-fi.org/certified_products.asp
is compatible with Airport, and a lot of the options listed there offer more than a base station for a whole lot less.

This is what I have to do to get my G4 running wirelessly with a cable modem on a Linksys wireless + 4-port switch router:
1. Plug ethernet cable from cable modem into router
2. Turn computer on
3. There's no step 3 (heh heh)
No software is necessary and if you want to tweak the router settings, the router is configured via Internet Explorer.

My Linksys BEFW11S4, as an example, does everything the Airport Base station does, and it includes a 4-port 10/100Mbit switch (the Airport Base Station has only 1 LAN ethernet port and it's only 10Mbit), and it has an uplink port to connect it with other switches/routers/whatever, and it has lots of configuration options if you want them, and it costs $170 (at buy.com, for example) instead of $300 for the Airport Base Station. That's $130 or 40% less! And it works beautifully in OS X. I'm running my G4 wirelessly right now with 128-bit WEP encryption with 2 Windows 98 PC's, a Windows ME PC and a Windows XP PC connected via ethernet.

So....why would you ever buy an Airport Base Station? Anybody got any pro-Airport ideas?

[JimNoble]

The box is nice...

Jim

[vanguard]

The Apple/Lucent base station is a low end unit. It doesn't do very much but it looks cool.

I went with a Cisco model (aironet). It's range is much farther, it's speed is faster (not the rated speed, 11 Mbs, the tested speeds), it's security is much better, and it's price is much higher (can't win 'em all).

My problem with the LinkSys unit is that it's range is very poor. It seems like everybody bought one and nobody likes it. (Surely I'll be corrected here.)

Anyway, if attractive styling and decent range are what you're looking for then the Apple/Lucent base station is a good choice.

Vanguard

PS Regarding support, I've never had a single problem with any of my 802.11b stuff. I wouldn't worry too much about support.
PPS The aironet was just as easy to set up as Jeb's unit. I turned it on and it just worked.

[kenny]

The problem with the LinkSys AP is not whether it'll work with Macs, but how do you CONFIGURE them without Windows PCs? Saying that you just plug it in and it works is all very well and good, but what if you want to set up WEP? Or define access control? Or change the ESSID? Or anything? (If there's some tool for MacOSX that'll let me do that, please let me know, but the last time I looked there wasn't).

A low price is worth nothing to me if I can't configure the thing the way I want to. Thanks, but I'll stick with my "overpriced" Airport...

[BlingBling 3k12]

Is there anything easier than Airport that is also cheaper? I need cheap and easy, but if I can't find it, AirPort is the way I'm going...

[roger]

I have an airport base station and am very impressed with it. There may be other products, but the airport has been around and it is tried and tested. I bought a mac because I didn't want to muck around trying to get things to work. I know a lot about PCs and NT but still took the decision to go with Mac at home.

A defining moment for me was when I got my new Airport Base station and turned it on. I already had a card in my iBook, and my iBook suddenly popped up a message saying that a new base station had been detected nearby and did I want to configure it. Within two clicks it had all been done. Now that is exactly how computers should be.

There may be alternatives, but really I cannot be bothered looking at them - everything that I have works.

Roger.

[JimNoble]

If the Linksys AP is anything like my Linksys Router/Firewall, it's configured with a web browser...

Jim

[jeb1138]

Yeah, Linksys doesn't support Macs, and that is definitely a minus. All I had to do, however, was plug in the router and turn on the computer and it worked. And kenny - you don't need a PC to configure it. I configure it from my Mac all the time, it's a web-based setup configuration and all you need is Internet Explorer to do it. And if there was ever a problem, well, that's what press3.com is for, right?

Besides, Linksys isn't the only option. Look at www.practicallynetworked.com and you can find more stuff with similar features for a lot less than the Airport Base Station. SMC's Barricade goes for $180 and has a dial-up modem port, a print-server for your PCs, a great reputation AND 24-hour Mac support! I've never used it, so I don't know for sure if there are any bugs, but I know of some people who use it and say it works great w/ airport cards.

Anyway, I do think Airport cards and their integration into desktops are a great deal, but I just don't understand how Apple can charge so much more for less features (no 100Mbit switch is a big difference to me, at least) on the Base Station. If it were $200 and still didn't have the switch I'd say the extra price could be worth it for some people who want Apple's support and the coolest form factor. But at around 70-80% more, well, I just can't understand that.