jstrnad's Full Review: Apple AirPort Express Base Station with 802.11n an...
I bought the AirPort Express for my Mac Mini after having failed to set up two other name-brand routers in the past. In those two cases, I was able to connect the Mac Mini but not my (old) Windows XP machine even after hours of struggle and phone calls to tech support. I took both of those routers back. After reading the positive reviews of the AirPort Express, especially how incredibly easy it was to install, I spent $100 for one from the Apple Store.
Well, it took a full hour to get the Mac Mini hooked up to the internet and functioning, which included a phone call to tech support at Verizon and futzing around with settings and whatever they did on their end. Then I tried to print to my HP LaserJet printer that I'd hooked up to the AirPort Express.
It took another full hour of messing around, trying another HP printer, checking connections, etc. to eventually print out my first test page on my HP LaserJet. I finally resorted to uninstalling the printer and adding it back again as a new printer once it was connected to the AirPort Express. At that point the router was able to find it.
This was hardly the effortless setup experience I was hoping I'd paid for. I'd managed the same feat with the other, name-brand routers and they'd only failed me when I tried to connect my Windows XP machine.
It was with enormous trepidation that I sat down with my new Asus EeePC 1000 HEB notebook to attempt to connect with the AirPort Express. It didn't help my state of mind that I'd spent a couple of hours reading messages in forums about how hard it was to get the Asus to find the AirPort.
I fired up the Asus and was barely finished with the Windows XP setup when a window popped up notifying me of the various wireless networks available to me. One was my AirPort network, so I clicked it and there I was, surfing the net with the Windows computer!
I'm not technically savvy enough about wireless routers to know whose "fault" it was that the Mac Mini was so hard to connect...the AirPort, the Mac, my ISP's DSL modem, me for being ignorant, all of the above. And I also don't know who gets the credit for the ease of connecting the Asus EeePC...Asus or Apple. I merely offer the experience: The AirPort Express was the typical (to me) router nightmare to set up, but once the network was functioning it worked well.
The speed seems virtually the same as my wired connection, based on how it feels when I net surf and how long it seems to take to print a page to my LaserJet. I don't have the technical savvy to actually measure it. I connected the AirPort Express to my stereo, which had been directly connected to the Mac Mini, and my iTunes music sounds 100% as good as it did when connected directly. Keep my lack of expertise in mind when you read this review! So, once it's connected and operating, I'm very happy with the AirPort Express.
I've downgraded it by one star for the connection hassles which, in my experience, come with hooking up wireless routers to my Verizon DSL modem and which the AirPort Express, in my experience, did not substantially rise above.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 100 plus tax Driver Availability: Don''t Know
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