Airport Base Station

Author : “wikipedia.com”

airport base station

The AirPort Base Station was discontinued after the updated AirPort Extreme was announced on January 7, 2003. In addition to providing wireless connection speeds of up to a maximum of 54 Mbit/s, it adds an external antenna port and a USB port. The antenna port allows the addition of a signal-boosting antenna, and the USB port allows the sharing of a USB printer. A connected printer is made available via Bonjour‘s “zero configuration” technology and IPP to all wired and wireless clients on the network. A second model (M8930LL/A) lacking the modem and external antenna port was briefly made available, but then discontinued after the launch of AirPort Express (see below). On April 19, 2004, a third version, marketed as the AirPort Extreme Base Station (with Power over Ethernet and UL 2043), was introduced that supports Power over Ethernet and complies to the UL 2043 specifications for safe usage in air handling spaces, such as above suspended ceilings. All three models support the Wireless Distribution System (WDS) standard. The model introduced in January 2007 does not have a corresponding PoE, UL-compliant variant.

An AirPort Extreme base station can serve up to 50 wireless clients at once.

The AirPort Extreme was updated on January 9, 2007, to support the 802.11a/b/g and Draft-N protocols. This revision also adds two LAN ports for a total of three.^[5] It now more closely resembles the square-shaped 1st generation Apple TV and Mac mini, and is about the same size as the Mini.

The new AirPort Disk feature allows users to plug a USB hard drive into the AirPort Extreme for use as a network-attached storage (NAS) device for Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows clients.^[6] Users may also connect a USB hub and printer.

The AirPort Extreme has no port for an external antenna.

On August 7, 2007, the AirPort Extreme began shipping with Gigabit Ethernet, matching most other Apple products.

On March 19, 2008, Apple released a firmware update for both models of the AirPort Extreme to allow AirPort Disks to be used in conjunction with Time Machine, similar to the functionality provided by Time Capsule.. However, this seems to be contradicted by Apple

On March 3, 2009, Apple unveiled a new AirPort Extreme with simultaneous dual-band 802.11 Draft-N radios. This allows full 802.11 Draft-N 2×2 communication in both 802.11 Draft-N bands at the same time. On October 20, 2009, Apple unveiled the updated AirPort Extreme Base Station with antenna improvements resulting in wireless performance gains of both speed and range. Also stated is a resulting performance improvement/time reduction on Time Machine backups of up to 60%.