Chance Miller, 9to5Mac, lays out his take on the best router and mesh alternatives, now that Apple has end-of-life’d their AirPort line.
Before you dig into Chance’s list, take a moment to read through the list of “features to look for” in Apple’s Choosing a Wi-Fi router to use with Apple devices support note.
My biggest concern about a third party solution is trust. If I buy an Apple branded product, I trust that there’s no malware embedded in the firmware/software. I trust that if a vulnerability is found, it will be patched quickly and that patch will make its way onto my device pretty quickly. I trust that if I do run into a problem with that device, I can turn to Apple, an Apple Store, or to the thriving and friendly on-line community to help solve it.
Apple selling a product does not bring the trust of an Apple-branded product. One case in point, the LG UltraFine 5K Display and the Wi-Fi interference problem. The problem was fixed, but the product was sold by Apple as it exited the display business.
My home network is the weakest point in my on-line security and the router the focal point for attempts to break in. Choosing a router I can trust is a critical decision. I hate that Apple has left this market. And no matter how recommended a router may be, I just won’t trust that my interests will come first with that company.
I chose to move on from my AirPort Extreme 5th Gen to a separate, non-consumer Ubiquiti AP and router. Takes a little more know-how but it’s rock solid, flexible and secure.
Considering that our airport express meets our networking needs perfectly, just this weekend I went and bought a second one (refurbished on Ebay for $52) as backup if the first fails.
I agree with you Dave. I’ve been reading lots of stuff about this for the past week and have been considering it for longer.
I don’t need or want a mesh network or a more complex Ubiquity product or products. A single AirPort Extreme has handled all of my needs for many years and the newest model (the tower) has enough coverage for my entire house and for enough distance around my house so that we can sit outside in summer and have a full connection.
What I want is a complete replacement in a single product:
Decent coverage
1 WAN port
3 or more LAN ports (I have a computer, a printer, and an Apple TV hardwired into my AirPort)
A USB port (the more modern the better) for attaching a NAS or backup disk
Easy to use management and update software that’s updated regularly
If Ubiquity came out with a single product that filled this need I think they could own the market as they have an excellent reputation, but for the average person, their site and offerings are overkill.
The NETGEAR Nighthawk X10 AD7200 looks like a decent router/access point and it has everything in my list above and more plus an iOS app to run it. But, I have no clue if Netgear updates its firmware with regularity.
I suppose the best solution is to buy one of these things from Amazon and hook it up and try it out and then, if its junk return it and go back to the AirPort until someone in the Mac community posts that they’ve hit the jackpot.
It would be great if you could list the exact products you bought from them. Thanks.
“I trust that if I do run into a problem with that device, I can turn to
Apple, an Apple Store, or to the thriving and friendly on-line community
to help solve it… Apple selling a product does not bring the trust of an Apple-branded product. One case in point, the LG UltraFine 5K Display and the Wi-Fi interference problem. The problem was fixed, but the product was sold by Apple as it exited the display business.”
So a problem was found in a product and you can bring it back to the Apple store to get it fixed. I don’t see how the LG display defect is a good case in point since you know, THEY FIXED IT.
I bought an EdgeRouter X and an UniFi AP-AC Lite, but that’s just a starting point.
To me the big selling point is to separate the AP from the router. I think I have 4 perfectly good gigabit routers sitting in a closet because they’re attached to wifi APs with old wifi technology.
That also lets me buy much better quality and manageability in both. (The EdgeRouter Smart QOS is amazingly simple and extremely useful).
True enough. But, as I remember it, LG fixed it only after a lot of people had issues and in the end, I think they replaced it, didn’t actually fix the first monitor they were selling. In short, it was handled poorly.
Is the firewall software in the router? And, if so, is it easy to control? I’ve looked at screen shots of their management software and it looks overly complex to me.
It is. And it is more complex than most consumer routers, but for basic tasks there are wizards, and the high-level features are easy to get at.
I’d say if you’re comfortable with dd-wrt you’d be fine here. Firewall (port forwarding rules) are as easy as anything else I’ve used.
VPN setup is more complex, NAT rules and routing tables etc… but I haven’t even touched those.
Right, thanks. I’m marginally comfortable with much of this stuff but frankly, would rather not think about it at all and I’m guessing most AirPort users are like me, they want a plug and play solution with minimal setup and hassle.
I have two friends with Ubiquity setups, much like yours and they’re extremely happy. But, they LOVE tinkering and getting into the weeds on networking. If they were my neighbors I’d let them put in my network and support it…
“Defunct” is a bit harsh, no? It’s not like every Airport access point out there will suddenly stop working. Apple are going to sell out their current stock, then support them with parts and repairs until 2023.
Linksys Velop mesh system advertises, “Works with Alexa. Forgot your password? Just ask Alexa.” That does not sound like a good idea to me.
I would recommend their very first consumer device. I got their AmpliFi HD mesh router and have been very happy. Their tech support is spectacular, and their firmware updates are done quite often. Easy to use and set up. And very fast and reliable.
I’m also extremely unhappy about this development, though it’s been expected for a while. Particularly frustrating since there were so many interesting possibilities of combining a bulletproof router with other home services, an area where Apple is having its lunch eaten.
I operate networks in two locations. I’m still running Airport hardware in one (and will probably continue until I suffer some irreparable parts failure). But at the second I’m running Ubiqiti Unifi wireless APs with great uptime and success, and I will no doubt switch to a Ubiqiti Edgerouter Lite when my 4th gen AirPort Extreme router gives up the ghost. The Ubiquiti hardware has proved as bulletproof as the Apple Airport hardware over the last 4 years.
Excellent point. The modularity of the Ubiqiti hardware is a big win IMHO.
WiFi hardware with no software support can rapidly become a Very Bad Thing to use, security-wise.
(For instance, if Apple had killed AirPort last year, every AirPort router would still be vulnerable to KRACK.
Likewise at least some AP Extremes were demonstrably vulnerable to a Predictable GTK attack in 2016.)
Apple’s been pretty good about updates (they took a while to publish a KRACK fix, which was less vital since client-side fixes also existed and got out much faster for OSX), but they have to be doing them for that to happen.
I certainly wouldn’t want to be using AirPort systems with no security updates for five years – Apple’s statement guarantees hardware support, not software updates.
Check this out https://eero.com and it’s recommend from my friend who works for Apple. I asked b/c I am concerned about 3rd party hardware since Apple exited the Airport business. It’s either that or Google WiFi. I’d much rather have more “trust” product than “shady” product.
The most obvious problem I have with it is that if it’s even remotely a good password it’ll be hard to “speak” accurately enough to enter correctly.
(“Someone inside your house that knows you have an Alexa device and a Velop router and the skill enabled and the command to use can get your WiFi password” is not … a serious attack vector for most people.
It’s more of a “serious convenience for people who want to turn on the guest network without poking at buttons”, is my interpretation, since that’s also part of the Alexa skill for Velop.)
I looked at it. I don’t really need a mesh setup but I’d get that if it had some LAN ports on that back of the base unit. It doesn’t so requires a switch…
It does have LAN ports… the base router by itself looks like it might work as a direct replacement for AirPort Extreme. Have you tried it without the satellites? How much coverage can you get out of just the base unit? Thanks.
I have a slightly smaller 2400 foot two story house that a single AirPort Extreme has been covering. I won’t have a problem buying a second Amplifi if need be and I probably will just to have a stronger signal for future god-knows-what.
I’m excited to have found what looks like a decent replacement for AirPort. Time will tell. Thanks for your comments.
It has LAN ports on the back. I’m using them.
No reason to buy this if you don’t want the satellites. They don’t sell the base separately. They do sell extra satellites separately. You can get a much less expensive router if you don’t need mesh networking. I would suggest checking out wirecutter.com for their reviews of routers.
I do have an Airport base station (later model) just lying around, collecting dust. Anyone interested?
Wait, what makes you think there’s not going to be software support?
Actually, they do sell the base separately, just ordered it from amazon for $124. Not all retail images of the unit show the LAN ports on the back but once I saw them and found I could buy it without the satellites it seems to me like an excellent airport replacement. We’ll see what the range is… if I need more range I’ll buy another base unit and connect them with Ethernet which I have in the walls. A second base unit gives me ports lacking on the mesh satellites.
Thanks.
I think that lack of trust is not an issue if you choose the proper company’s product. For example, the company we’re talking about, Ubiquiti is a very highly respected WIFI provider for the Enterprise. And their new AmpliFi routers are a great choice for that very reason. And their support is superb. I don’t think something being from Apple guarantees you won’t have problems with a router, or that it not being Apple necessarily makes you vulnerable, if you do a bit of research you can find very secure trustworthy hardware.
Who would I not trust? Most certainly Google and their hardware/software. They want SMS to be replaced with a new protocol and is not secured. How evil is that? Zero credibility for security and privacy. Same with Amazon.
Well, heck, that’s great. And a great price. I would highly recommend it for that. They weren’t selling them separately when I pre-ordered mine. 🙂 And the base is so tiny it’ll go anywhere.
I think you’ll like it. It does have good range. Our house is a 4-bedroom 2,700 square footer on two floors with a pretty big yard. I get great connections (up to 200 megabits down and 125 up with the router in the upstairs middle bedroom. Downstairs in the living room it’s pretty good without a satellite, but double that with the satellite, with coverage out in the back yard that’s more than solid.
Well, the passwords are usually just printed on a sticker on the router anyway, that’s not much more secure.
Yep, and nothing else replicates the Express functions. I guess I’ll have to get more when and if they come up on the refurb store. Damn.
Thanks for the info, but it doesn’t address the trust and safety issue covered in the article, firewalled or not.
You can probably trust Ubiquiti as much as you trust Apple… this isn’t a fly-by-night company… you probably connect to a UniFI AP all the time or have your traffic go through an EdgeRouter and don’t even realize it.
If you are really paranoid, then you should accept nothing less than dd-wrt or pfsense on hardware you specify.
My experiences with wireless routers prior to getting an Apple Airport led to frequent rebooting of the router. This was through several brands. A geunine pain in the hindquarters.
I then coughed up for the more pricey Airports, and rarely had a problem. Months would go by without incident or any attention was needed, and most of those incidents were more about the cable provider’s service cutting out for a while.
It seems now that the opitons I see are either go back to the brands that failed me before, other brands that are all too well known for being cheap in every bad sense of the word, or shell out 3 times as much as I paid for a top of the line Airport for a mesh system when I never needed anything more than a single base…
My Airport will stay in service as long as it still works. (knock on wood)
I just picked up their new Teleport. It has a story in the booklet. The founder of the company actually designed the very first Airport while working at Apple.
Yeah, I’m into them now. Picked up a second AmpliFi router. Excellent equipment and mostly ex Apple dudes.