Customer Ratings & Reviews

I've gone through so many routers in my life (D-link, Linksys, Netgear, etc...) and they've all made me want to throw them at a wall. The Apple Extreme is the easiest to set up and manage of anything I've ever used. And the range and speed is top notch. I have 1GB fiber optic service at my house and I can pull 550MB wireless with my iMac in the next room which is as good as it can get for wifi. I would never let anyone I know buy any other router. Period.

I own and have installed a bunch of airports and extremes for biz, family and friends over the years. With the easy airport utility interface and set up you can't go wrong for building a solid LAN. The extreme A/C pushes the full 250 -300 MBPS that Comcast serves us here in this part of the wine country. We get decent broad coverage even through walls etc.. Wish there was an external antennae hookup for customizing the installation up high for even broader coverage at our barn but other than that am totally satisfied. I tried some other monster A/c 1900 router extenders but ultimately prefer the Apple interface that works with iOS devices as well as my Mac laptop. Guess I'm just an Apple addict. I do wish the extreme worked with airplay speakers so I didn't need another airport just for playing music. Hence the 4 stars. BestBuy also matched the online discounted price I found so bought it at the local store.

You have probably read this many times in other Airport reviews "It just works", and that is absolutely an accurate statement and why this router is worth the cost. I have had just about every make and many models of routers over the years and have always had to reboot with varying degrees of frequency for one reason or another. When I started my last search for a "reliable" router, reading endless user and tech reviews, there seemed to always be glowing reviews with the one caveat that they had to reboot the router from time to time. Every other router I have owned had other hiccups that irritated me at times but I could live with that, having to reboot is the biggest irritation though. I was told by a family member that they owned an apple airport extreme and had not rebooted it in over three years, seemed to good to be true, but I have not had to reboot mine since I bought it months ago. In addition, all I did to set it up was plug it in, connected with an iPad, named the network and connected everything else (Xbox, network printers, iPhone, Android phones, TVs and PCs) both wireless and wired without a hitch. The wireless signal is pretty good, covers a 3000 sq ft house and even get good signal out in the backyard. I'm not really an Apple person, but I am absolutely thrilled with the Airport extreme.

First off this is my second AirPort Extreme, and I've wanted to get my hands on one of these every since it came out. It's a snap to set up with the airport utility app and you can monitor whose on it and what their signal strength is. Also works very well with the iPhone 5s for lightning fast wifi browsing. As I said this is my second one had the other since 2008 along with a 2008 Mac mini, I also have a 2013 i5 Mac Mini. Awesome apple product and takes up very little space I would not own another router, seriously it's that good!

This replaced 5th generation Airport Extreme & the signal strength difference is quite noticeable! Although I currently only have 802.11N devices, the signal strength & speed difference is night & day! Great coverage throughout my home and I have excellent speed with multiple (6) devices on wi-fi while streaming movies on at least two of them! I am quite impressed! Can't wait to see what the difference is with an 802.11AC device!

Do yourself a favor and buy this router. I've had about half a dozen routers and this one by far has the longest, strongest signal, with no drops or fade-outs. The setup took maybe 2 minutes. Finally no more complaints from the wife and kids about lousy or slow wifi. We can all be on it at the same time with no issues. The last time I looked there were 14 devices connected to it. You won't regret buying this, not to mention it looks good too. As with all Apple products, it's well made.

Just plug it in and go! Easy to set up, super fast speeds, great range, and most importantly, it just works!

I have been using an Apple Time Capsule as my wireless router for my home. My home is quite large and the interior walls are covered with sound absorbing wallboard as well as insulated. These features limited the range of my Apple Time Capsule wifi router so I opted to put in a remote AirPort Extreme at the opposite end of the home to give my full wifi access throughout my home. The Airport Extrem was an excellent choice, I now have a well balance strong wifi signal throughout my home and outside porches. It was very easy to install as an extended router without using cables. The performance of this unit is flawless and based on my AirPort Time Capsule, which is 8 years old, I expect the same length of service from the new AirPort Extreme. I wold recommend the AirPort Extreme to my friends and family.

I bought this because it works! Let me explain: Over the last several years, I have purchased many wireless routers. In fact, about 1 every year. I usually spend $80-$120 on them in the hopes that the next will be better than the previous one. I am tech savvy, and wanted to use dual band broadcasting so I wouldn't have network slowing if I connected an older device to my network. I was able to do this successfully, except connecting too many devices to either network would always drop the Internet from the OPPOSITE one. For example, if I connected 5 devices to my "n" network, the wireless router would drop my "b/g" network. After months or frustration and hours of tech support with no resolution, I decided it was time to replace my router AGAIN. SO, enter my new AirPort Extreme. It works. In every way that you would expect it to, and more! It is by far the strongest and most reliable router I've ever bought! It runs dual band networks SEEMLESSLY! Which means I don't have to manually set up 2 different networks and bounce between them! It is incredible! Buy it!

Really easy to setup and handles a ton of devices at once. The range on this tower is great. I have it sitting in my basement and it covers the entire house and even outside. I have Charter Spectrum internet service and I'm pulling 64mbps on a wireless connection upstairs & 72mbps hard wired. It just works.

I purchased the Airport Extreme to replace my existing Netgear R6300 router. The setup was fairly simple, and I was up and running with a strong, fast internet connection. However, after a while, the internet connection would simply drop. The wireless signal was strong, just no internet connection. In researching this online, I find that many others have had the exact same problem. I have called Apple Tech support twice, but the solutions they offered have had little success. After resetting to factory defaults 2 times, I decided to try Bridge Mode for the setup. So far this has worked; no dropped internet connection. Tech support recommended I take the device to the Apple Store Genius Bar for testing/diagnosis. That will be my next step if the problem continues.

Was looking to improve WIFI network to accommodate needs for expanded home automation and increase in number of "Screens" and phones in my house. Have a 5 year old Airport Extreme and was very happy with it so naturally I looked at the latest model. Also did some comparisons and my research seamed to indicate its tough to beat the WIFI strength and range of this router. Setting it up was flawless. Just plugged it in and imported my old configuration file. DONE! Very little else to do. Had to enter new passwords on some devices but all in all quite a painless install out of the box. WIFI signal strength on TV/Streaming devices? Excellent! 4 bars (Max) all of them. They are between 20 and 40 feet away from the router. I also have decent WIFI in garage now (60-70 feet away) and around my home so no need for an extender. This router is capable of speeds as high as 1Gbps on the 2.4Ghz band and as high as 1.3Ghz on the 5Ghz band. This is of course dependent on your provider. Home automation is typically on the 2.4Ghz band. I put everything else on the 5Ghz band except for 1 older TV and have had no issues streaming. I would highly recommend this router. Well worth the cost.

My home is too big for one router to reach across the whole house. We just installed Centurylink's fiber internet at 1000mbs. I hooked up the AirPort Extreme to the Centurylink wiresless router with a 100' Ethernet cord that runs through the walls into a bedroom on the other side. I activated both 2.4ghz and 5ghz on the Wireless Extreme. I put the same SSID and passcode on both routers. I love the AirPort Extreme. It's range is long and the connection is steady. What I like the most is the 5ghz network. With my fiber internet, I consistently speedtest around 260mbs down and 290mbs upload on my iPhone 7 plus. My MacBook Pro 2011 only gets to 80mbs but it's probably because the MacBook doesn't have the ac wireless card. Setup was easy. I read online how to get the two router setup to work. AirPort Extreme was easier to configure then the Centurylink. I will replace the wireless function in the Centurylink router with another AirPort Extreme when I want to spend another $200. I'll always have to keep the Centurylink router as first on my network to talk to their fiber network. But the money maybe worth it because of the extra speed I get from the AirPort Extreme with the ac wireless functionality. To really use my fiber speeds I need to plug Ethernet into the computer and I get speed tests at 980mbs. I'm planning on getting a hard drive and plug it into the USB port for file management. I love this router.

I'm not strictly anti-Apple, but I like choices and open-architecture that Windows PCs and Android phones/tablets can give you (ex. want a phone w/a screen larger than 4.5"? Wait til Apple says you can have one - otherwise feel free to choose from any number of Android and even Windows phones!). So besides a single iPad that's used by the baby and as an occasional Uverse remote, I didn't own a single i-item by choice. After being let down constantly by the new AC routers out there (Linksys and Netgear) that would constantly drop out or hang (seriously not more than a day or two at a time). I have an older Uverse 2wire modem that I'm connecting to the router/AP via DMZ-plus mode (basically giving it an open port to the internet). Uverse support figured it would require a factory reset of the modem and reconfiguration and then please "try again" with the other routers. Not having time for that, I read some reviews about the AirPort Extreme and decided to try it. Setup was easy (via an iPad) though I was underwhelmed by the configuration options. If you're used to looking at the advanced settings of other routers, don't bother... However, the most important thing is that it has been working flawless since day 1! Not a hiccup at all with tons of devices (multiple laptops, gaming PC, PS3, Xbox360, 4 mobile phones, Ooma, 2 drop cams, 2 other security cameras, etc.). It's been more than 2 months and I am nothing but impressed. For a device like this, I want to set it up and walk away knowing it's working all the time (especially since I use it for home/baby monitoring).

For years, I maintained a Netgear/Belkin/D-Link wireless network in my home. I always had the latest, greatest, strongest wifi router available and used range extenders as well. But, no matter how much money I spent on the newest gear, I ALWAYS had problems that required a restart of the entire network, re-entering passwords, etc. I have always been a PC guy, and like most PC guys, I turned my nose up at Apple products. No more. I bought the Apple Airport Extreme Base Station and three Airport Express's because I wanted to make sure my signal would reach out to my shop, to the end of my driveways, up in my attic--wherever I wanted a signal. I spent a good chunk of change on these items, but they have proven worth the money from the moment I transitioned out of the conventional wifi network gear. I have not had a single incident, have not had to restart, and I have only the Base Station hooked up! My old gear is sitting in a box ready to be donated and I will never look back. Additionally, the entire network is controllable from my iPhone; can't do that with a PC network

Came into store and intended to purchase a different brand. The sales rep suggested this one given the size of the area I was looking to drive a signal. He was right! Even in the remote corner of the home the signal is strong. Speed and capacity have been great as well! Set up was almost too easy. 2 months since purchase and very pleased.

Wife and I just moved to Colorado in July of this year. We started off using a router supplied by Comcast but kept running into problems with their routers. I decided to ditch their router that they supplied and buy my own. This router is amazing. The antennas on this router are awesome. We live in a very large house 3500 square feet with two stories. We get a perfect signal within every room of the house. We did situate the router in the middle of the house. We hooked up our printer to the router and now have wireless printing. The only thing I don't like about the router is the price. Seems awfully steep.

I'm a Mac consultant by trade and have been since 1992. The AirPort Extremes just keep getting better. Better antennas in each iteration give a stronger signal. They're intelligent as the AirPort will flag when there is an Internet connection problem automatically on your Mac if you used it to configure the AirPorts. Firmware updates are easy; the app will post a badge when there's an update or an issue. The app will also inform you if there is double NAT for example; the light on the front of the unit will flash yellow. (Putting the AirPort in "bridge mode" will resolve this issue. I still plug Google's DNS numbers, 8.8.8.8, in the DNS setup. The app works pretty well for configuration but not 100% of the time. Sometimes, I'll have to do a reset and configure the Extreme manually. That and only 3 Ethernet points gets dinged a star. It's convenient to use an IPhone or iPad the Apple app to login onsite to see how the WiFi network is configured. One can also run the updates directly from an iOS device. I haven't figured out why there's inconsistency within the app when reporting what devices are connected. Sometimes, it will give me the shared name of a device like "Bob's iMac" and other times it will only give me the MAC number which is not exactly useless, it's a pain to go around to different devices to find out what the MAC number is. Especially if it's something like an HTC cellphone. The newer AirPort no longer has an external power supply, so there's no longer that big lump of plastic inline. It makes it easier to fish the power cable behind a desk unencumbered. They are pricey but I only put in AirPort Extremes as they seem to last longer and I had too many callbacks with the cheap $60 WiFi routers that die in three years and are harder to configure. I admire the shape. Very clean and elegant. They've gone to a tower style and it looks like it has cooling via convection compared with the old, flat AirPorts.

For too long, I've been getting 20mbps download speed with my old Comcast modem/wireless router on wifi. Plugged this baby in and now I'm reaching 50mbps download speeds on WIFI! yes! I'm actually getting the speed I'm paying for! Even though download speed from ISP are rated if you plug a Ethernet cable, but who does that nowadays?? Best Router Ever! Before: 22mbps DL, 4mbps UPL After: 51mbps DL, 6mbps UPL Cost: $185 (price match) Now I can run wifi on my Apple TV, several smartphones, and two Desktops in a 3 story home with no issues. Side note: I can catch a wifi signal one block down from the house; no joke

I bought this to replace an older version that had been replaced by a modem with built-in wifi. I was unhappy with the modem's performance so I caved and bought this. I've been blown away by the performance so far. Using speedtest.net, I've found that my internet speeds via wi-fi are now just as fast as the devices that are connected with ethernet. I can get 55Mbps download speeds on any device in my house now, whether it's hardwired or connected via wi-fi. That is pretty nice. Not sure how it would be in a Windows environment, but setup was a piece of cake in my Apple world. MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, iPhone, and a hardwired MacPro just plain worked. My Sony TV and Xbox connected via wi-fi without a problem. All the various video streaming devices in the theater connected without a problem via ethernet and a switch. Very pleased. I was pleasantly surprised at the performance boost I received from this.