gadjosevilla
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Laura
Now sporting a new "squircle" design that's very similar to the AppleTV, the new Apple Airport Express Base Station is the perfect travelling companion to notebooks, tablets and smartphones.
Featuring simultaneous dual-band 802.11n Wi-Fi on the 2.4GHz and 5GHz wireless bands, every device on your network will connect using the band that provides the fastest speed and performance. The Airport Express Base Station is available from Future Shop for $99.00
I owned the original Airport Express which was ideal for setting up quickie WiFi hotspots when traveling, enabling wired speakers and printers to be accessed remortely and even extending the range of your WiFi network in areas of your office or home where the signal tends to suffer.
The original Aiport Express looked a lot like the power bricks that accompanied MacBooks. Some clever design elements of that device included a built-in plug, an audio jack and a USB port for printer. It also took up very little space. Future Shop still sells this little guy for $75.99.
The new Aiport Express is slightly larger, requires a power cord, USB 2.0 port and allows devices to connect to your network on the 2.4GHz and 5GHz wireless bands. Every connected device automatically uses the best band available for the fastest possible performance.
The new Airport Express also has an extra Ethernet port which is handy for setting up WANs (Wide Area Networks) and LANs (Local Area Networks) so this device is a viable option to larger, more expensive dual-band wireless routers.
It certainly makes sense for a $100 base station for use in dorm rooms, small apartments or makeshift offices. It does support up to 50 users simultaneously so it could also serve the needs of coffee shops or establishments that want to offer free WiFi as a perk.
Apple has also allowed a Guest Networking feature that gives temporary users access to mail and Internet without exposing networked servers and printers.
![airport4].jpg](/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/19072iFA6C795502ABAC10/image-size/original?v=mpbl-1&px=-1 "airport4].jpg")
Setup on a Mac with the included software is dead easy and even more straightforward than previous versions. You get all the basic options for network security and can get it all up and running in less than 10 minutes.
Apple seems to have designed this new Airport Express to accompany iPads and iPhones (as well as other mobile devices). It is a practical and elegant solution to getting a quick and easy yet secure WiFi network.
The newly re-designed AirPort Express Base Station is powerful to create a Wi-Fi network for your home, but small enough to fit just about anywhere. It supports simultaneous dual-band 802.11n Wi-Fi on the 2.4GHz and 5GHz wireless bands, so every device on your network will connect using the band that provides the fastest speed and performance.
Now with blazing 802.11n, the affordable AirPort Express is powerful enough to run a home Wi-Fi network, yet small enough to take on the road.
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