How To Choose The Best Wi-Fi Replacement For Your Apple Airport Routers

Amid uncertainty about Apple’s plans for its Wi-Fi routers, what other options work best for Mac, iPhone, and iPad owners?

- Glenn Fleishman

I remember a call from Apple PR in October 2000. The company wanted me to test its wireless AirPort equipment, and would loan me a spaceship-shaped base station and the associated plug-in card required for my Mac. I was dubious. I’d tested and been disappointed by previous “wireless” (infrared) technologies, and hadn’t heard great things about an earlier, slower version of what was being called Wi-Fi.

Nevertheless, I told Apple I’d take a look. I was blown away by the consistency and performance. And thus began a 16-year-so-far love affair with WiFi and associated technologies, and which led toa blog (wifinetnews.com) I wrote for a decade about Wi-Fi.

Now, according to reports that Apple never confirmed, Apple’s Wi-Fi road maybe at an end. While it will still include the latest and greatest WiFi technology in the radio systems embedded in its computers,mobile devices, and the Apple TV, it will apparently no longer release new versions of its base stations.

This comes as little surprise. As with other peripherals, like monitors, Apple has opted to exit markets that no longer offer enough exclusive advantages to its hardware owners, and in which it can’t have the high margins it prefers due to competition and commoditization. Apple last updated the AirPort Extreme and TimeCapsule models internals in 2013 for the802.11ac standard; the compact AirPort Express remains stuck in 2012.