Rocketship Apple: Airport Extreme … online!
By Ben Robinson on Sunday, October 26th, 2008 at 12:11 PM PST In Apple, Ideas and rants, The Digital Life
So you may or may not have seen the post on moving over to pledge allegiance to Apple heart and soul, but ths is the first post in a series in the swapout of most of my tech over to the Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) brand. Simply put, I’m dog-tired of the issues that I’ve been experiencing as PCs and mobile devices have been failing to perform as I expect.
I definitely have high standards, but that doesn’t mean tech shouldn’t live up to them – be it in-situ in the home/office, or on the move. So I am going to defect over to Apple’s offerings – let’s see how the ride goes. First to get rolled out is the Airport Extreme 802.11n wireless access point, to be followed by iPhone, MacBook Pro, and then Apple TV (when they update it – more on that in another post).
I installed the Airport Extreme 802.11n wireless access point on Friday evening, under the assumption it would be easy… boy was I wrong. Now, before I continue, I should say the issues I experienced were with a Windows PC, but still, the installation process took HOURS.
You might be thinking “but I thought Apple stuff was installed in 10 or so minutes” – yep, as I thought too, from reading reviews on IT sites – but it wasn’t to be. The issue that transpired was that the Airport Utility (some access point configuration software installed on your PC before you turn on the Airport Extreme), once installed, needed a PC reboot to get it to play nice with the Airport Extreme!! Before the reboot, the utility just said “error -6753″, which wasn’t helpful in the slightest. Even googling this with other keywords didn’t give hits on how to solve the problem, until after 20 mins.
Suffice to say the PC has to be rebooted once you’ve plugged in the Airport Extreme to the mains – who knows why – but after that I’ve got to say the installation went without a hitch. Most of the settings (which I configured manually, by choice) were done in 2 mins, and we were up with wireless within 20 mins.
So what does this tell me? Well, for starters, Apple could improve their error handling in their utilities (I thought we left the days of “error codes” 10 years ago!), but mainly, you should use Apple computers to configure an Apple network – PCs just caused me more issues like the ones I was trying to avoid.
Now things are up and running, stage 1 of rocketship Apple launch is complete…. T-3 days until the iPhone arrives 
Ben
As you said, having an Apple Computer to do the set up would have alleviated your pain. Had you a Mac FIRST, you would have plugged in your Airport Extreme and your computer would have noticed its arrival (If Airport was active on the computer or if was connected directly through a direct Ethernet connection) and prompted you to either use the built in setup wizard or to set it up manually. Then Viola, it’s done in that same 2 minutes.
This sounds like a fairly typical problem. I’m not a tech but after years of Windows use, I’ve come to the conclusion that when doing any kind of hardware and often software changes, a reboot is advisable b/c it is often necessary. Likewise, I’ve had many problems with other types of problems with Windows computers that required a reboot…sometimes a couple of reboots before solving a problem.
Two months ago I bought my first ever Apple computer. It is an iMac (i.e. desktop for those who don’t use Macs…yet). I normally only purchase laptops but I decided this one would stay home and I wasn’t ready to plunk down more money for a Macbook. Interestingly, I bought this iMac while traveling (I reside in Mexico but am an American citizen). I was staying with friends in Texas when I bought this iMac so I unpacked it (very nice packaging btw) and turned it on. This home had a DSL connection through a wireless router which was connected to two Windows laptops. The iMac turned on and found their router and connected to the Internet immediately. I was amazed at this. I brought the iMac home and it found the wireless router at my home immediately. Didn’t even need a reboot to connect. I’ve never had any Windows machine connect so easily on a wireless connection…often not on a wired connection either.
I recently discovered the need to travel an hour away and give a weekly presentation using the Internet. I could either take my HP laptop and Dell projector and try and get these two devices to connect, and find a decent surface to project the image onto and hope that my laptop would connect to the Internet where I would be giving this weekly presentation. Turns out that I decided to also pack up my iMac into it’s original packaging and take that too just in case it would work. It actually is easier to pack up the iMac, keyboard and mouse than it is to unplug the many wires Ive got running into my HP. Then the trick is to connect the HP to a wireless network which may require a reboot to do…then to get the laptop to connect to the projector which may also require a reboot. Usually does for both of these operations. My HP laptop is fairly high end. It is running Vista Ultimate. Even with 2GB RAM and 2Ghz duo core processors, it takes several minutes to boot up and often several minutes to shut down. Just going through what would be a simple process of setting up my laptop and projector would likely take 30 minutes minimally.
However, I used my iMac…unpacked it from the box, hooked up keyboard and mouse…it always boots up in 65 seconds give or take a couple seconds, it immediately found the wireless connection, and the screen (20″) was plenty big and bright enough to give the presentation to a small group right on the table. This would have seemed crazy to me before I did it but it really works nicely and it is so quick and smooth. Never a problem. Oh and the iMac shuts down in less than 10 seconds every time…usually 5 or 6 seconds. Amazing.
I agree with KeenMSr in that I can imagine that if you were to have purchased the Mac first, you would most likely saved yourself hours of trouble. I too will not be buying any more Windows machines in the future and since in the last 9 years I’ve purchased 1 PC desktop and 3 PC laptops…that last being a year ago…thus an average of a new machine every 2 years. I’ve been told by Apple users that they often find that their machines work well for over 5 years. At that rate…I would have only needed to buy 2 Macs. That’s the plan from here on out.
Good luck to you on your switch to Mac. As a new switcher I can tell you that I’m totally satisfied and glad with my new iMac and very happy to be moving away from Windows. I too have wasted way too much time over the years dealing with Windows-related problems.
You ARE doing it the wrong way round!!! I have an imac, airport extreme, iphone, and everyone in the house has ipods.
The problem with using everything Apple is that you need to fill the gaps in the time you gain through not pratting around with windows!!, a positive.
Seriously though, I used windows pc,s for years and changed to a mac last year then brought everything else to go with it, sure they are no perfect, but if you do get any issues at least you can be assured of product support and that your using products designed to work together. what convinced me was an apple store workshop – switching from a pc to a mac.
Ben, I am working on the same process W —> A and I am so glad I found your write up.
I had the same issue last night and was ready to get the unit back to the store.
I will give the re-boot a chance tonight and hope it will go as smoothly as in your case.
Much appreciated!