Airport Wifi future?

Since we're still here, I thought I'd take advantage and ask what the general opinion is about ongoing support for the Airport system. I'm thinking of upgrading my FIL's ancient wifi system to the Airport Extreme system I have in my house. It's been absolutely rock solid since I installed it well over a year ago. It's easy to monitor and make changes via the Airport app on an iPhone (which he has). My only concern is whether or not Apple will even continue the app for future iPhones. How would you configure or make change to an Airport base station if there was no iPhone app?

Thoughts?

You would use Airport Utility on your Mac or PC.

Right. But will those still be updated/available? Will a future version of MacOS or Windows no longer support the Airport Utility? My concern and question is, "Will Apple completely pull support for Airport?" Of course they will at some point hopefully long down the road, but I was wondering if folks here think that might be sooner rather than later. I don't want to set up an Airport system for my FIL and have it lose support in a year.

Apple can sometimes be unpredictable. One thing we do know is that Apple is out of the router business. No more airport routers and very likely no more updates to the airport utilities. It might be better to look for something else for your FIL. BTW, Apple is also out of the monitor business. No more cinema or TB displays.

I wonder if some third party will come up with a substitute for the Airport Utility. Such a shame Apple got out of it. The Airport system was so solid and dependable.

Apple has stopped making new network hardware, but haven't announced killing the software that supports the existing crop of hardware. When, and if, they decide to completely stop supporting the hardware, they will announce it. While you are attempting to using your existing hardware, realize that there are newer versions of networking hardware that employ newer technology and will be supported for many years in the future, so you might want to explore that as well.

It was ever just another router on the market. Plenty of choices.

Wow no more airports, this is news to me, been using them for years, still have 2 extremes running. Never even thought of the alternatives. Though most ISPs now give you models with built in routers w/WiFi in them, I had to disable the one on mine to use the airport which I preferred.

Groovetube said:

Wow no more airports, this is news to me, been using them for years, still have 2 extremes running. Never even thought of the alternatives. Though most ISPs now give you models with built in routers w/WiFi in them, I had to disable the one on mine to use the airport which I preferred.

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There were a bunch of rumors around 2016 that Apple would no longer be in the Networking game and while they still sell the Airport express/base station, there are no new product (or updates - hardware wise) to the existing products. There hasn't been any official word one way or other.

Apple may wind up supporting and even selling a third party router. They did exactly that with the Cinema and TB displays when they were discontinued. Apple now sells and supports the LG UltraFine 5K monitors. Guess who was making the display for the Cinema and TB? Yep, LG.

Makes me wonder how Back to My Mac will work. I bought Airport Extremes for myself and my Mom (who lives in another state). I put in her Apple ID on my Airport and her Airport and am able to screen share her computer to troubleshoot stuff. If I lose that, I'll be pretty bummed.

Unless I have misunderstood something in the requirements the features that you want do not specifically require an Apple brand router. They do require

• An AirPort base station (AirPort Extreme, AirPort Express, or AirPort Time Capsule) or other Internet router that supports UPnP or NAT-PMP, with the latest available firmware. AirPort base stations require firmware version 7.6.1 or later for Back to My Mac.

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See here
Since most decent, modern routers support UPnP you should be able to find something that works.