Apple

You might want to do a test restore just to make sure the disk in there is still good. A decade is a long time for a mechanical disk, and you might just be writing your latest files to the disk dutifully every day while bad sectors linger elsewhere on the disk.

Just saying... verify your backups. And I mean by doing a restore, not Apple's verify which doesn't actually check every byte.

It's usually good to have at least two backups anyway.

I worked at Apple for 21 years in Comms QA and I had good times working with the AirPort base station guys. The tower AirPort Extreme was a great unit and I still have one brand new that I bought when I heard Apple was ending production. It doesn’t support all of the current bells and whistles, but it was just a good, solid unit. Sadly, the base station team has been scattered to the winds, but I memba.

I bought two of these with broken hard disks, installed new 3Tb disks and use them as NAS. Performance is great.

I was informed by my fiber provider that my Airport Extremes were super insecure a couple years ago.

What’s with the downvotes, this is the way. Rock solid for 6 years with no resets ever.

I had to scroll way down here to find people that still use them.

This is me right now https://i.imgur.com/MOUgJwL.png

Express are mostly for Airplay, but still serve WiFi.

I partially agree with you. The problem is that the wifi router requires an Ethernet cable to connect to the modem which limits where you can put it.

What would be cool is to have a base station that’s just a router (maybe with HomePod functionality), but then add-on mesh network hotspots that work as HomePods. These would be a lot more flexible for placement.

Would have been a great idea

Would be great if they could collaborate with Ubiquiti about making such devices. Like a HomePod, but with UniFi built in. Or a Dream Router, with Apple TV built in…

I have been pleading for them to have all the various wifi enabled devices serve as a mesh network! Essentially idden and integrated into existing devices that “need” to be there and connected anyway...

I really thought that was the endgame for removing the airport series...

Maybe as a mesh network, but then where i would place mesh routers are not exactly where I would place a HomePod.

Meh. Everything coming out of that group is clickbait.

I loved mine. The app was super simple which made configuration and diag super easy.

I loved it shipped with 802.11g, then they software upgraded it to 802.11n, added mesh networking, updated the WiFi spec & WPA, added Time Machine backups, and a bunch of other features. I had the Express, so I could use it as a bridge for Ethernet only devices and beam music wirelessly to my stereo optically all 20-ish years ago. I miss how simple and integrated it was and how simple it was to get non-WiFi devices on my network.

Mine is still sitting on my shelf, chugging along. Granted it's the 2013 version, but I haven't had any problems with it. Except once in a while the entire network stalls and reboots. I guess that's an issue, but not something I've bothered fixing.

ASUS has products similar to eero with a more sedate design. The zen series comes in a range of shapes and isn’t tied to amazon.

Also the content to advertisement ratio is ridiculous.

Eero is awesome

That was the first project I worked on when I started at Apple as a contractor in 2001.

Once upon a time, the ISPs would send you a modem and you had to buy a router separately. And then even for a while, they'd include a modem/wireless router combo, but it often sucked and a lot of people would buy a separate router anyway.

Nowadays? The ISPs are giving you free wireless routers that do everything the masses will ever need. My ISP, Verizon, even does little monthly self tests on the network and they'll apparently send us free mesh networking nodes if they detect there's an area where some of our devices aren't getting good signal.

Why would apple even compete in this arena? When most users are having their needs met by their ISP for free? The only people really buying routers nowadays are the power users who want to be on the cutting edge of technology. And that's an area where apple doesn't like to compete. So it makes sense that they don't.

They were awesome, but AMPLIFI Alien is an easy, reliable and performant spiritual successor in almost every aspect to the airports extremes in my experience.

While I agree, this entire video was an advertisement for a 899 dollar (Canadian) Asus router with dubious marketing strategies. I really don’t enjoy that angle - but that’s me.

I bought an AMPLIFI Alien at the start of the pandemic for reliable remote work. It doesn’t have 6E support, but in my mind it’s the closest thing to the old AirPort Extreme in user experience (e.g. “it just works, although it’s definitely not as configurable as many other things on the market” - but it does static dhcp leases, port forwards and separate 5 and 2.4ghz SSIDs etc), reliability (no need for constant reboots and shit. I Only reboot when there’s an update to install.. so run it like 4-6 months between reboots), and performance (solid speed everywhere, no weird IOT-devices dropping off Wi-Fi issues, no messing with my Sonos speakers etc), and it’s powerful and performant so that it covers my entire condo with great speeds, meaning I don’t have to worry about mesh solutions and inconsistent handovers, devices having a hard time deciding which mesh point they should be connected to etc. I’ve got a 300/300 fiber connection, and the router is never a bottleneck. Still do a lot of remote work, and no issues with video conferencing jitter or any other performance while my SO is streaming 4K/UHD or doing whatever she wants at the same time.

Unfortunately it’s also very Apple:esque when it comes to price. Still worth it, and I would buy a new one immediately if it failed, despite being the same hardware and despite not having 6E support.