How check Airport Extreme is in working order?

[Sawday]

I recently switched to FTTP broadband so my Airport Extreme (and modem) became redundant when I installed my new Fritzbox router. While packing the Airport and modem ready for an eBay sale I found an old Airport Extreme from several years ago. I cannot now remember why I have this second router. Is there any way to test whether it is still working as I cannot now use it to connect to my broadband? Should I just offer it very cheaply 'as found' or dump it in recycling?

 

[Raz0rEdge]

The Airports were discontinued by Apple many years ago and is no longer supported by them. Which means no firmware upgrades and no updates on technology. It should not really be sold or bought, just recycle it.

 

[Sawday]

The Airports were discontinued by Apple many years ago and is no longer supported by them. Which means no firmware upgrades and no updates on technology. It should not really be sold or bought, just recycle it.

True, but lots still selling on eBay so there is obviously a demand. It's been working perfectly well for me and only taken out of service when I got FTTP installed free.

 

[Raz0rEdge]

If your SSID for your new access point is different than the Airport Extreme, you can plug the Airport Extreme into your broadband router and then use Airport Utility to confirm that you can see it. You should then be able to test that it can access to the Internet and allow other devices to connect to it. That proves that it's functioning.

 

[Sawday]

If your SSID for your new access point is different than the Airport Extreme, you can plug the Airport Extreme into your broadband router and then use Airport Utility to confirm that you can see it. You should then be able to test that it can access to the Internet and allow other devices to connect to it. That proves that it's functioning.

Not sure how I test whether I can access the internet through the Extreme. Connect it to my new router and to my iMac? If that's works won't the new router actually be doing all the work re connection. Sorry, comms are not one of my strengths - even though I was married to an IBM Systems Programmer for over 10 years nothing filtered through

 

[Raz0rEdge]

If you are connecting your iMac to your new router over a cable, disconnect it. If you are connecting over WiFi, check the SSID of the network.

If cable connection, then plug into the Apple Extreme once it's connected to the broadband router to check connectivity.

If using WiFi, then set up the Airport Extreme with a different SSID than your current network, and connect to it to test connectivity.

In the end, if the router was working very recently until you switched, there's no reason to believe that it isn't still working. My only suggestion is that this router doesn't support the latest WiFi speeds, or more importantly, the latest WiFi security standards. So folks should always educate themselves and not use old technology to protect themselves.

Generally, folks seem to be pretty smart about protecting themselves on public WiFi's with VPN and what not, but they implicitly trust their home network and don't add any additional layers.

I had this router myself before I upgraded my system, and I recycled my set since I felt it was irresponsible to have someone else use this router.