I just heard on a local radio newsbreak that Apple has dispersed its wireless router hardware development team to other areas of the company...

[Link: bloomberg.com]

Apple finally realized their routers and network is literally bottom of the barrel crud?

Good Riddance! I have a pile of them in my garage that I've ripped out. Might get top dollar for them on eBay for the sheep that think their networking is "amazing"

ANY CI on this site that uses that crap must absolutely love service calls and has about the same knowledge of networking as their customers!

While they don't have a place in a CI environment, for a basic household network they do just fine.

I have 2 Extremes and an Express providing routing and wireless in my house. I needed a network and they were free (take outs). Been up for abt 3 years now and they were in service for a year or so before that. Other then AP to AP handoff, they work just fine for your average house. There is a full Luxul network (router, AP controller, APs) sitting in boxes in my garage waiting to be installed. The Apple stuff just hasn't given me any reason to haul my sorry butt into my own attic on my day off to pull cable.

Every job I have been on with an existing Apple network has had issues. Every single one. People still want to hang on to them. Some because "it is the best". Some because they are reluctant to leave the Apple Ecosystem. Some simply because their time machine is built in. The one thing that is consistent is that 100% of the jobs in which we replaced the Apple Networks, the clients have thanked us later and all the issues they were dealing with disappeared.

I am not sad to see them go.

Talking about the Time Machine aspect. I wonder what Apple is going to do with supporting the customers. As far as I know, Apple doesn't like supporting folks who uses a HD plugged into a router for their Time Machine. Now that they won't be selling "new" Time Capsules. Apple will have to think of ways to support clients who wants to have a Time Machine for their Macs, whether being MBPs or Mac Minis or what not.

There again, perhaps Apple will kill off their Macs as the iPads get better?

KOT

My guess is Apple will push toward cloud service to replace Time Capsule. Actually, they already have been for awhile now. They want everything in the iCloud so it can easily sync between devices. And when you need more storage space, charge a monthly fee for it (RMR).
Meanwhile your data usage goes sky high, while putting money in the pocket of Apple.
And if you are somewhere you have no internet connection...

I was discussing Mac and Apple networking stuff on Saturday- the other guy is a graphic/web designer and he thinks they're going to kill off their computers, or they may be shooting themselves in the foot by removing most of the ports. He's impressed by the new Microsoft Surface pieces WRT graphic design capabilities and he also commented on the fact that the Airport Extreme signal just disappears, intermittently. I set up the office so all of the computers are hard-wired, but they all have smart phones and some use iPads, so it can be a problem.

The main issue I found at the house I recently did that has wire lath & plaster walls and ceilings- the signal strength is great in all but two areas that aren't critical but when roaming, i-devices seem to have separation anxiety when handing off. They're connected, the signal strength becomes too weak to do much and it almost acts like complete disconnection is required before making the next connection. Kind of like a baby that's being handed from one person to another and really wants to stay where it is.

Worst case, they stop supporting this stuff and we're stuck dealing with people who want to keep it and best case, we sell more network equipment.

They always have been pieces of crap. No, they're NOT FINE for basic networking. If you believe they are, STOP doing networking.

It will be the best case scenario. At least for me. I already will not support an Apple Network. I will not install one of our systems on an Apple Network. The only ones I deal with are the ones that were existing before we were hired, and anything I have to touch with an Apple Network is time and materials. Clients quickly see how it would make more sense to upgrade the network than keep paying us for service calls related to their Apple Network

On the list of things to be thankful for.

I would love to see Apple accomplish an iCloud back up of several Macs on one account. Then multiply that by millions.

Even with paying for data usage, that would be a lot of data for Apple to store on their servers.

For iOS, it's rather simple. Because all of the apps on a. iOS devices is already on the Apple servers. So the back up only consist of the on device and/or personal data for those apps. And photos and other unquie information.

Where on a Mac, there are several apps that are not on Apple servers that are backed up to the Time Machine. Such as Adobe Photoshop, MS Suites and more. So those would need to be uploaded on an individual basis to the iCloud. Despite having millions of copies out there.

So I believe that Apple will have to start supporting Time Machine back ups to a HD plugged into a router. Whether it's plugged into the Ethernet port or USB port.

KOT

For your friend with an intermittent signal, have him check the IPV6 settings and change it to link-local. This may fix the issues.

What are people using in the same price range as the Apple products? We've had great luck with their stuff at the price point. I understand why you wouldn't use it for seamless hand-off situations, set-ups with dozens of devices that are constantly connecting/disconnecting and situations that require multiple VLANs. What problems have people had when comparing it to other $200/$100 AP solutions?

Thanks.

Face it. You enjoy mediocrity

If a potential customer seems welded to their Apple network, I encourage them to call Apple support when they have issues. I try to fade away as gently and quickly as possible. This customer is convinced that Apple is the best,  it is "easy" and when I can't tame something as "easy" as an Apple network, I must not know what I'm doing or I'm just trying to make a sale, replacing their perfect gear with something else. Allowing them to stay with Apple networking is all pain and no gain for me. In the end, I may make a sale when it finally becomes clear that Apple networking is not a great idea.

Over the years I've noticed that when a person is struggling with PC technology, they get mad because PC is unnecessarily "hard". If they switch to Apple, because Apple is "easy," and they still fail, they never get mad at Apple, but quietly accept the failure as their own.

WiFi isn't their main method of connection, so it's not a huge problem and it's an older Extreme, so it's also possible that it needs to be updated. I installed 16 drops for voice/data during rough-in, so there's no excuse for anyone not using it.

Setup is easy enough, as long as a long period of time doesn't pass between installations- it's no secret that Apple doesn't do things the same way as others but the Airport Utility does make it pretty pain-free. Still, I like opening a GUI on my computer and seeing more info on a larger screen.

Other than port forwarding for the camera DVR, it's a pretty standard setup- the guy I was talking to has gone through all of the settings and hasn't found anything that raises a flag. My WiFi flakes out on my Arris, but it's from ATT U-verse and they don't offer a basic modem. If they did, I'd be more eager to slap a router on it and suffer less. If it pisses me off again, I'll shut off the Arris' WiFi and use a Ubiquity that's in my van.