I have a Mac desktop, and a new Mac laptop. I want to add a wireless router to enable easy internet access from the laptop. The Apple solution is the AirPort Base Station, which costs $179 dollars. There are plenty of wireless routers available for much, much less. The question is, why does the AirPort cost so much? Is there any reason to buy that over a similar Linksys or Netgear or what ever wireless router?
My vote is simply because it’s Apple and it looks good.
I have a Netgear router that works great and I hooked my MacBook Pro up to it with no sweat: the AirPort card in the Mac doesn’t care a whit which WiFi router it is hooking up to.
One small thing: as I understand it, the AirPort comes with a print server built in (it has a USB jack right on it). If you want that functionality and don’t already have a network print server, consider that difference. I have a separate Netgear print server I use.
I would save the $$$ and use it elsewhere (get a Bluetooth Mighty Mouse to toss in your laptop bag).
The Airport Extreme Router is an “N” router, plus it has three gigabit wired ports plus a USB jack for use as a print server or adding external hard drives (or both and multiple with a USB hub). You would be hard pressed to find a comperable product for $179.