Final Hands-On Report--Apple AirPort Express Base Station

Apple introduced the AirPort Express Base Station (Express) on June 7th but, like many releases of new Apple hardware, supply was way below demand after it was finally released on July 14th. We provided an initial report on July 26th that primarily tested its wireless network-extending capability. The Express was fairly easy to set up and worked as advertised. The only concern we noted was that the correct documentation was not easy to find. However, not being able to use WPA encryption for the wireless extended network is also a significant concern.

The Express' MSRP is a nice $129. In addition to being a small wireless fast Wi-Fi (802.11g/b) access point with a USB printer port, the base station was designed for three principal purposes: streaming music from your Mac to your stereo wirelessly using iTunes and AirTunes built into the AirPort Express, wirelessly extending your AirPort Express network and providing a much more portable alternative to Apple's Extreme (or graphite or snow) Base Station.

We have now had an Express unit for nearly two months and have used it extensively around Mac Only!'s global headquarters and on the road. This article covers our longer-term observations and the Express' use beyond wireless network extension.

Signal Strength. Complaints about the AEBS' signal strength have been posted on the web. In our experience its signal is, in fact, weaker than our Apple AirPort Extreme Base Station but only slightly so. Mostly, using our 17" PowerBook at various distances, the Express' signal has been comparable to that of a regular Extreme Base Station or only one bar less using the meter in the Internet Connect application. During general use we see no actual difference. Both Base Stations were set to be compatible with WiFi "b" and "g" devices but we have only the faster "g" devices on our network. There may be differences when compared with graphite or snow AirPort Base Stations which use only Wi-Fi "b" and have a somewhat greater signal strength.

AirTunes Music Streaming. This works very well and very easily in our experience. If this is your main use of an Express Base Station, you will be very happy. It is our secondary use and we are happy with it.

Wired Network Extension. Our new global HQ is wired with ethernet cable throughout the structure. We have Cox cable internet and use a D-Link router/switch to deliver internet via the ethernet cabling to each room. So we used the Express as a second wireless base station to extend our wireless network to both ends of the structure using it's wired backbone. That way we could use WPA encryption instead of 128-bit WEP encryption for much better security. Roaming between the base stations is a bit more of a hassle, having to join each manually (we also use a closed network with MAC address management), but to us it's worth the added security. Unfortunately, the internet connection via the Express Base Station occasionally (maybe every 48-72 hours) quit functioning and we had to reboot the Express to get our internet feed back. This has almost never happened with our Extreme Base Station.

USB Printing. Dana Baggett was unable to get his HP PSC 2110 All-in-One USB printer to work for our initial report but we had no problem with our HP LaserJet 3030. It is set up to print as a share via USB off our Extreme Base Station. After replacing the Extreme with our Express, printing worked just fine.

Portable Base Station. This is our primary use of the Express. We have carried an AirPort Base Station with us on travel since the original graphite AirPort Base Station came out. The base station has allowed us to work anywhere in the room from when most in-room internet service was dial-up via a telephone jack near a night stand and frequently hidden behind a bed. While many more hotels have in-room broadband internet connections these days and some have in-room wireless internet, many do not. So we still carry a base station with us. As far as we are concerned, the small size, weight and shape of the Express alone make it worth the purchase price.

We used the Express in six different hotels, mostly Marriotts, during the past two months and never had a serious problem getting the broadband internet connection to work with the Express. Our biggest problem was not exclusive to the Express. It was encountered at a Marriott Residence Inn which provided free "high-speed" internet from Guest-Tek. We had to authenticate by signing in every 24 hours and occasionally we could not authenticate with the Express attached. The solution was to authenticate using our PowerBook connected directly and then to attach the Express and re-authenticate. The same problem happened when we used an Extreme Base Station.

In summary, we are very pleased with AirPort Express Base Station and will continue to carry it everywhere. We are not sure if the stability problem on our wired network is a problem with our unit or its environment or if it is common to all Express Base Stations. From Apple's Discussion Forum others have similar problems, especially with reconnecting PowerBooks after waking them from sleep. But it is difficult to tell if it is the same problem since ours is intermittent.

For more information, here is Apple's AirPort Express FAQ.