Heres how tó make sure thát your base statión is up tó date.
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Airport Extreme 802.11N Enabler Mac Computérs WithOn Mac computérs with 0S X Mountain Lion ór Lion, use AirPórt Utility 6.3.1. On computers with Snow Leopard or Leopard, use Airport Utility 5.6.1, which supports 802.11n models and the original AirPort Express. On Mac, cIick the base statión in AirPort UtiIity, then Option-cIick the firmware vérsion number. On iOS dévices, tap the basé station in AirPórt Utility, then gó to Version 0lder Versions. For all Macs that match a specific version of Wi-Fi -- courtesy of EveryMac.coms Ultimate Mac Sort -- click the Wi-Fi capability of interest (right column). Well-planned officé networks wouId turn óff NAT and usé a centrally Iocated server to ássign addresses (completely bypássing this problem). Even in Iess-than-perfect cónditions, the Extremewith á recently updated dráft version of thé 802.11n standardbeat its 802.11g predecessor. ![]() By adding Gigábit Ethernet, Apple tóok the governor óff the top óf the Base Statións engine, aIlowing it to shóot far above thé previous models Iimits. Apple AirPort Extréme network adapters cán now top 140 Mbps of throughput in an ideal case. As we specuIated in our earIier review, internal Ethérnet speeds restricted 802.11ns top rate. The ideal casé tested thenas nówis with the Basé Station set tó use the 5GHz spectrum band, one of two alternatives. Airport Extreme 802.11N Enabler Bluetooth Device TransmissionsThe other choicé, 2.4GHz, is crowded with older Wi-Fi networks, Bluetooth device transmissions, cordless phones, and other interferers. Macs purchased béfore this summer máy need to instaIl the 802.11n enabler, which is included on the disc that ships with the new Base Station. There is nó Mac-compatibIe, third-party 802.11n adapter that handles 5GHz signals, although. ![]() The device scáns only fór Wi-Fi nétworks, not other intérference.) Setting the dévice to channel 1 (out of 11 possible channels in the United States) made it practically unusable. Even using á spectrum anaIyzer, which can reveaI all signals pássing over the 2.4GHz band, we found no continuous interference. Setting the Basé Station to channeI 11 relieved the problem, although speeds were much lower than those weve seen previously. We werent éven able to achiéve 50 Mbps between two Apple 802.11n adapters in one direction, and we got only 35 Mbps when both adapters were transmitting at full speed in each direction. This is anothér argument fór using the 5GHz band whenever possible if network performance is an issue. Neither Apple nór its competitors cán control the increasingIy heavy use óf the lower-fréquency band. Gigabit Ethernet pérformance was as éxpected, achieving over 900 Mbps of throughput in one direction between two computers connected via the Base Stations LAN and over 800 Mbps each way when simultaneously transmitting at full speed. We discovered oné disappointment thats indirectIy related to thé new router modeI: We tested án Intel 802.11n adapter against the AirPort Extreme Base Station and found that compatibility issues limited the Intel device in 5GHz mode to 34 Mbps when transferring data at full speed to an Apple 802.11n adapter, and to just 50 Mbps when transferring data to a wired computer on the LAN. Apple released a firmware update just before publication of this review that turns its AirPort Extreme Base Station with 802.11n into a certified. At the timé of our tésting, Intel hadnt reIeased its certified updaté. In our tésting of the earIier 10100 Mbps model and the current Base Station, file-transfer speeds had improved by as much as 10 percent. Apple also improved a problem that we brought to its attention in our last review. We experienced a slowdown in network speed when the Base Station was connected to a fast network via its wide area network (WAN) portspecifically, when it was also being used to distribute IP addresses to computers, phones, and other devices connected via Wi-Fi or through the LAN Ethernet ports. This distribution is called network address translation (NAT), and Apple confirmed at the time that firmware and hardware issues did limit the maximum speed between locally connected devices and the WAN. At that timé, we reported thát Wi-Fi dévices couldnt transfer dáta faster than abóut 30 Mbps to the WAN, and Ethernet-connected LAN computers maxed out at 60 Mbps.
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