New Airport Extreme and Time Capsule

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Can anyone think of a reason for Apple putting only USB 2 on the brand new Airport Extreme/Timecapsule?

Perhaps they do not want to encourage use of Third Party Peripherals on their new AE?

Confused
DavidH
 
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Hi David - purchased the previous AP Extreme model a few months ago w/ a USB 2.0 port, but was curious about the speeds of these different USB vs. Wi-Fi protocols, so looked at a few Wiki articles - quoted below are the maximum USB 2.0 vs. 3.0 speeds and the Wi-Fi n vs. newer ac standards (on the Apple store site, the rates stated are somewhat different).

If a printer were attached to the USB port and prints 'wirelessly', the USB type would make no difference since the printer speed would be the limiting factor. Now if an external HD were connected and an 802.11n network was being used, then again probably no difference.

Time Capsule I believe is also a 'wireless' backup option for multiple computers (correct me if wrong?), so again w/ USB 2.0 vs. Wi-Fi n, likely similar to an external HD. So, I guess the only advantage of having the USB 3.0 port would be if combined w/ 802.11ac - I would suspect an update in the future to USB 3.0 as Wi-Fi ac becomes more of a standard. But just my 2 cents - Dave :)

USB 2.0 - 480 Mbps
USB 3.0 - 5 Gbps

Wi-Fi 802.11n - 54 - 600 Mbps
Wi-Fi 802.11ac - 0.5 - 1 Gbps
 
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DavidHH
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Ethernet Connection

Thank You RadDave,

Your make an interesting observation.

What about an Ethernet connected computer (thru the Airport Extreme) trying to access the External Hard Drive connected to the AE? The WiFi speed would not be the limiting factor?

DavidH
 
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........What about an Ethernet connected computer (thru the Airport Extreme) trying to access the External Hard Drive connected to the AE? The WiFi speed would not be the limiting factor?.......

Well, those are Gigabit ports on the new AP Extreme (quote from Apple below), so presumably equalled by USB 3.0 or Wi-Fi ac (guess more theoretically for the latter). Amazing how many much 'faster' options exist whether wired or through the air! Dave :)

AirPort Extreme includes three Gigabit Ethernet LAN ports for fast wired connectivity with a desktop computer, network drive, DVR, or other device.
 

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