If you want to keep your Apple devices around, you still can download the "old" version of the Apple AirPort Utility from Apple's Web site. The old and new versions can co-exist, at least on a Mac (haven't tested Windows).
The older version is better in just about every way, save the UI. http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1482 David Smith -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Phil Pennock Sent: Wednesday, October 03, 2012 9:43 PM To: LOPSA Technical Discussions Subject: Re: [lopsa-tech] Apple Airport Extreme? On 2011-01-06 at 20:17 -0500, Phil Pennock wrote: > On 2011-01-06 at 16:42 -0800, Tom Perrine wrote: > > Anyone want to share experiences with the Airport Extreme? I'm > > thinking of replacing an 8? year old first-gen WRT54. > I'm happy with mine and would only even consider replacing it with a > custom setup running open firmware and my choice of OS; no way I'd be > happy going back to any other vendor's stock image. For the archives, and anyone looking for advice, I am hereby retracting my previous endorsement of the Airport models. The "being tied to an Apple device for management" this year turned into a horrible breakage point: Apple produced a management tool for iOS and then reproduced the exact same UI for their _desktop_ management tool, forcing management to a lowest-common-denominator feature set. You can accept the updates, or fight them; if you take the update, you lose access to (going from memory) logs, SNMP management, visibility of DHCP clients (other than those on wireless) and probably more. In other words: the only stable supported management interface has turned these devices into toys, not manageable devices. They're probably fine for consumers (ie, not people on this list) but then so is a default firmware from any of the cheaper product manufacturers. If anyone's looking, I'm very happy with a Netgear WNDR3800 running openWRT; the vendor uses open Linux firmwares by default and make it easy to replace the firmware entirely, the unit chosen has plenty of RAM, is simultaneous dual-band with multiple GigE ports, and generally just works. With openWRT, I've got an IPv6 SixXS heart-beat tunnel running and Unbound as the DNS resolver, so I have a DNSSEC validating resolver between my home network and the world. Airport Extreme is $179, WNDR3800 is $100-$110 at reasonable vendors, with hardware that's at least equivalent and a default firmware which is probably suitable for most folks. -Phil _______________________________________________ Tech mailing list [email protected] https://lists.lopsa.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tech This list provided by the League of Professional System Administrators http://lopsa.org/ _______________________________________________ Tech mailing list [email protected] https://lists.lopsa.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tech This list provided by the League of Professional System Administrators http://lopsa.org/
