Airport Extreme Question

Hey guys, I've been looking at the airport extreme base station, and read a lot of positive review so i am currently cosidering purchasing this product.

I have a few questions i would like to ask

On the description of the product it says it increases performance by 5x. Is this only for wireless internet or does it include computers connected by the ethernet cable.

By performance, does it mean the time it takes to load pages and the download speed?

secondly, On the back there is a USB port, can i plug a USB hub in there and plug lots of stuff in.
eg. printer and an external hard drive, and can i customize it so that the all the computers can use the printer but only i can use the external hard drive? (for leopard time machine)

P.S. I am currently using a Belkin Router which is ancient (literally). So I'm hoping the Airport extreme base station will increase my performance by a lot.

thanks

I think by performance it means maximum capable wireless transfer speed.

can i customize it so that the all the computers can use the printer but only i can use the external hard drive? (for leopard time machine)

I believe your hd can be assigned a password to prevent others from gaining access.

Well right from apple's website:
"Up to 5x the performance, 2x the range
AirPort Extreme uses next-generation 802.11n wireless technology3 and features multiple antennas to deliver maximum speed and range throughout your home, classroom, or small office. You can enjoy up to five times the performance and up to twice the range of 802.11g wireless networks."

So it states 5x's the wireless speed, and 2x's the range over other wireless standards (a,b, and g). But you have to realize these are theoretical maximums. Also if you have any other wireless devices that use other then n, then it will downgrade to g. So to get the maximum speed you have to have all your computers set up for n.

Remember theiPhone is wireless g. I found this out the hard way when my Airport Extreme suddenly functioned much more slowly after purchasing my iPhone. I just turn off WiFi on the phone when I have a lot of data to transfer over my network wirelessly at home now and it's fine.

XJ-linux said:

Remember theiPhone is wireless g. I found this out the hard way when my Airport Extreme suddenly functioned much more slowly after purchasing my iPhone. I just turn off WiFi on the phone when I have a lot of data to transfer over my network wirelessly at home now and it's fine.

Click to expand...

How does that make any difference? If the Base station is set to b/g/n (so the iPhone can recognize the network)... The link speed is still capped at 130 Mb regardless if the phone is on or off.

Bear Hunter said:

How does that make any difference? If the Base station is set to b/g/n (so the iPhone can recognize the network)... The link speed is still capped at 130 Mb regardless if the phone is on or off.

Click to expand...

I don't know I'm not a network engineer. But, it definately seems to run more slowly when the iPhone WiFi is up and active on the network. Could just be my setup.