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You are here: MacNN Forums > Enthusiast Zone > Networking > Airport Extreme as wireless router, print server, and file server

Airport Extreme as wireless router, print server, and file server
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indigoimac
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Oct 13, 2009, 12:26 AM
 
Hello -- in lieu of having functioning printer sharing between 10.5 and 10.6 I am looking at buying an Airport Extreme since it is getting to be about time to upgrade to .11n.

Here are my questions -- basically this will be replacing a PowerBook G4 which has done the following:
- Share a USB printer
- Share a USB Harddrive over the network for TimeMachine and random other stuff
- An on and off web server

Everything is on a gigabit lan currently w. a .11g fios router.

Obviously an Airport won't do much for the web server aspect of things, but for the other 2 how will it perform? I assume for the first it should be dead simple -- hopefully using the driver installed on the client machine -- with acceptable performance via wired and wireless?

For the second what is the performance like via wired gigabit? Is is comparable to file sharing w. the PowerBook over gigabit? It's limited by USB2 anyway, but is it close? I don't really care what the wireless performance for sharing a disk is like, but I will likely be accessing it randomly and if it were reasonably fast that would be nice.

Finally, how does it perform as a router -- I know it doesn't have a web interface but uses a swanky utility instead -- does it support QoS, Port Forwarding, etc? Apple's site seems pretty sparse on these details.

The main priority at this point is getting printing back online 100% and eliminating the PowerBook and getting .11n is just a bonus, but it would be very helpful to know some first hand experience with the file sharing.
15" MacBook Pro 2.0GHz i7 4GB RAM 6490M 120GB OWC 6G SSD 500GB HD
15" MacBook Pro 2.4GHz C2D 2GB RAM 8600M GT 200GB HD
17" C2D iMac 2.0GHz 2GB RAM x1600 500GB HD
     
Simon
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Oct 13, 2009, 09:31 AM
 
The Extreme is an excellent wifi router. Configuring it (do it wired!) is a breeze. And once set up properly it will simply run forever. Printer sharing should be fine. Disk sharing too but expect performance drops compared to the PB. The problem here is not Gigabit, wifi, or USB, but the processor in the AP that has to do the translation. Consumer grade NAS has always been and still is slow. Expect nothing more than ~3MB/s on average. That's fine for casual use smaller incremental backups, but it's not what you want to rely on for regular and/or heavy use.

Port Forwarding? Yes. QoS? No.

It does sound though like you're looking for a small server rather than for a router. Have you considered a mini? Maybe an older used one?
     
indigoimac  (op)
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Oct 13, 2009, 12:02 PM
 
Hmmm... I was debating the mac mini -- but it's expensive and except for being able to run 10.6 it won't offer much of anything over the powerbook.

I think I'm gonna get the Airport as a router, print server and gigabit switch, leaving the PowerBook in place to deal with the file sharing.

Printer sharing does use the driver from the client correct? It shouldn't matter what version driver as long as it supports the client and the printer right? So like a PPC machine w. the appropriate driver will work along side an Intel box with its driver?

Thanks!
15" MacBook Pro 2.0GHz i7 4GB RAM 6490M 120GB OWC 6G SSD 500GB HD
15" MacBook Pro 2.4GHz C2D 2GB RAM 8600M GT 200GB HD
17" C2D iMac 2.0GHz 2GB RAM x1600 500GB HD
     
indigoimac  (op)
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Oct 19, 2009, 01:32 PM
 
Well, I picked it up over the weekend and am pretty impressed. Got it set up as a router and ap and got printing working again. And yes, it does use the clients print driver.
15" MacBook Pro 2.0GHz i7 4GB RAM 6490M 120GB OWC 6G SSD 500GB HD
15" MacBook Pro 2.4GHz C2D 2GB RAM 8600M GT 200GB HD
17" C2D iMac 2.0GHz 2GB RAM x1600 500GB HD
     
ghporter
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Oct 19, 2009, 09:34 PM
 
Originally Posted by indigoimac View Post
Well, I picked it up over the weekend and am pretty impressed. Got it set up as a router and ap and got printing working again. And yes, it does use the clients print driver.
For clarification, does that mean the client's USB printer driver, or does it still require a network printer driver? (The answer will help me decide what my next sub $200 windfall purchase will be.)

Glenn -----OTR/L, MOT, Tx
     
indigoimac  (op)
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Oct 19, 2009, 09:47 PM
 
Assuming you have a USB printer plugged in it will use the USB driver. It's actually pretty slick -- why OSX's printer sharing can't work the same way is beyond me. And it's a pretty nice router to boot though I haven't had too much time to play around w. N I assume I will be impressed.
15" MacBook Pro 2.0GHz i7 4GB RAM 6490M 120GB OWC 6G SSD 500GB HD
15" MacBook Pro 2.4GHz C2D 2GB RAM 8600M GT 200GB HD
17" C2D iMac 2.0GHz 2GB RAM x1600 500GB HD
     
olePigeon
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Oct 20, 2009, 05:27 PM
 
I'm happy with a normal AirPort Express as a printer server, but it lacks the ability to connect a HDD like the regular AirPort.
"…I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than
you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods,
you will understand why I dismiss yours." - Stephen F. Roberts
     
indigoimac  (op)
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Oct 20, 2009, 05:36 PM
 
From what I have read the HD sharing is a bit lackluster -- but I may give it a try at some point just to see.
15" MacBook Pro 2.0GHz i7 4GB RAM 6490M 120GB OWC 6G SSD 500GB HD
15" MacBook Pro 2.4GHz C2D 2GB RAM 8600M GT 200GB HD
17" C2D iMac 2.0GHz 2GB RAM x1600 500GB HD
     
indigoimac  (op)
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Oct 20, 2009, 05:40 PM
 
Apparently they just updated the thing too -- guess I get to get a new one since it's been 4 days...
15" MacBook Pro 2.0GHz i7 4GB RAM 6490M 120GB OWC 6G SSD 500GB HD
15" MacBook Pro 2.4GHz C2D 2GB RAM 8600M GT 200GB HD
17" C2D iMac 2.0GHz 2GB RAM x1600 500GB HD
     
   
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