What Cool Things Can I Do with a 5th Gen AirPort Extreme (A1408) and 6th Gen AirPort Extreme (A1521)?

[HappyDude20]

I have the five and sixth generation airport wifi routers and I believe both are called AirPort Extreme. I also believe that although the sixth gen looks different and taller that it does not contain any sort of hard drive inside.

With that being said, I hear that both mode also allow for an external drive to be connected via usb and either use it as a server for everyone under the Wi-Fi network to access OR as a time machine backup drive. Either way I’d love to know how to set up both on my MacBook Pro running Big Sur.

I currently have my external ssd connected to the 5th gen A1408 model but doesn’t show up anywhere under the Disk Utility or AirPort Utility apps on my
MacBook Pro.

I know these two devices are capable
Of airplay 2 which is cool. Also know that the USB port can be used to connect any standard printer and it automatic becomes a wireless printer.

Wondering if there are any other cool things these devices can do. But even if they don’t the option of having a server or time machine backup seem great to me and would love how to go about setting it up.

 

[Boyd01]

I hear that both mode also allow for an external drive to be connected via usb and either use it as a server for everyone under the Wi-Fi network to access OR as a time machine backup drive.

You can connect a USB external drive, but the speed will be horrible. I have the sixth generation Time Capsule, which is basically the same but with an internal drive. An external USB disk only acheives write speeds of less than 20MB/sec. I don't know what your usage would be, but I find that pretty useless. See this

Time Capsule vs AEBS w/ HD

Since nobody else has stepped forward to post results, I just ran a test myself. I connected a USB drive to my new Time Capsule and these are the results. It is actually a USB 3 drive that clocks over 100MB/s when directly connected, so the bottleneck is clearly the time capsule USB interface. I...

forums.macrumors.com

I still use mine as a router, it works well for that with 802.11ac wifi, but I don't use it for backups anymore. For one thing, the internal disk is really loud and even though it's in the next room, it would bother me when it started up in the middle of the night. Of course, that won't be an issue for you since the Airport Extreme doesn't have an internal drive

 

[reukiodo]

I've replaced the internal hard drives with newer 8TB drives that are substantially more quiet than the originals... maybe it's time for an HD upgrade?

They still work wonderfully as TimeMachine backup storage.

 

[turbineseaplane]

I've replaced the internal hard drives with newer 8TB drives that are substantially more quiet than the originals... maybe it's time for an HD upgrade?

They still work wonderfully as TimeMachine backup storage.

Which drives?

Any particular specs important when doing this?

 

[Boyd01]

maybe it's time for an HD upgrade?

They still work wonderfully as TimeMachine backup storage.

Thanks. It was a nice device for its time, but very slow, not interested in tinkering with mine. I converted my 2012 quad Mini to a file and time machine server with 20tb of storage, that works very well for me.

 

[HappyDude20]

You can connect a USB external drive, but the speed will be horrible. I have the sixth generation Time Capsule, which is basically the same but with an internal drive. An external USB disk only acheives write speeds of less than 20MB/sec. I don't know what your usage would be, but I find that pretty useless. See this

Time Capsule vs AEBS w/ HD

Since nobody else has stepped forward to post results, I just ran a test myself. I connected a USB drive to my new Time Capsule and these are the results. It is actually a USB 3 drive that clocks over 100MB/s when directly connected, so the bottleneck is clearly the time capsule USB interface. I...

forums.macrumors.com

I still use mine as a router, it works well for that with 802.11ac wifi, but I don't use it for backups anymore. For one thing, the internal disk is really loud and even though it's in the next room, it would bother me when it started up in the middle of the night. Of course, that won't be an issue for you since the Airport Extreme doesn't have an internal drive

20mb a sec is horrendous. I have an external HDD that has read and write speeds of 200mb that's over 10 years old. I also have a newer SSD that has speeds of 750mb a second; will this SSD be better when connected to the 5th or 6th gen AirPort Extreme?

I don't have to use my AirPort Extreme as a time machine backup, but it would be cool nonetheless to see how to get an external drive recognized to macOS to do so, even if just to see how its done. As an aside, I recall when Apple announced the first Time Machine capsules and really wanted one, but am surprised to hear how loud and slow they are. As for the wireless networking capabilities, I get super fast internet on both of them so am happy. Will upgrade one day to Wifi 6 and a mesh setup but don't need that yet.

I've replaced the internal hard drives with newer 8TB drives that are substantially more quiet than the originals... maybe it's time for an HD upgrade?

They still work wonderfully as TimeMachine backup storage.

Thats cool that you can get in these Airport extremes and replace the Internal HDD. I'm not down to do that but am down to find a way to correctly format my drive in preparation to see how fast or slow a connected external SSD would perform.

OR at the very least would love to connect my Ex. SSD to the AirPort Extreme and use it as a family Server; however that works.

 

[Boyd01]

It doesn't matter how fast your disk is, I got 17MB/sec with a USB3 disk that clocks at 170MB/sec. I think the port must only be USB 2, but it doesn't even acheive that much speed (USB 2 should be ~30MB/sec). I doubt that you can put a disk inside an airport extreme, I was talking about the time capsule (which looks the same but is different inside).

The other annoying thing about the time capsule is that the internal disk "goes to sleep" almost immediately as soon as it stops accessing. This makes it seem even slower, because the disk has to spin up each time. Don't know if that would be the same with an external disk, I never really tested that. I suppose it wouldn't be an issue with an SSD... if you want to cripple your SSD with 20MB/sec performance.

However, you can use it as a slow network drive if you attach an external disk, assuming that you have a use for such a thing. Should be able to connect to it from Macs and PC's.

 

[HappyDude20]

It doesn't matter how fast your disk is, I got 17MB/sec with a USB3 disk that clocks at 170MB/sec. I think the port must only be USB 2, but it doesn't even acheive that much speed (USB 2 should be ~30MB/sec). I doubt that you can put a disk inside an airport extreme, I was talking about the time capsule (which looks the same but is different inside).

The other annoying thing about the time capsule is that the internal disk "goes to sleep" almost immediately as soon as it stops accessing. This makes it seem even slower, because the disk has to spin up each time. Don't know if that would be the same with an external disk, I never really tested that. I suppose it wouldn't be an issue with an SSD... if you want to cripple your SSD with 20MB/sec performance.

However, you can use it as a slow network drive if you attach an external disk, assuming that you have a use for such a thing. Should be able to connect to it from Macs and PC's.

You made me glad I got the AirPort Extreme and not the time capsule version.

I’d be willing to see how the network drive could work so I’ll look into that. I have an ssd with some media just to see how quickly or slowly it works.

These 2 generations are great and not slow for me at all. Streams to my 4K Apple TV and all Mac devices and even the newest Xbox for my kid. Glad AirPort utility still supports them.

 

[reukiodo]

Which drives?

Any particular specs important when doing this?

The flat abgn version has I believe a WD Green and the tall ac version has a WD Red.

The Green will try to spin down as much as possible, so really only recommended for backups, which is what I use that one for.

The Red is optimized to run all the time, so is much better for anytime file access. This is my file server of various files.

Both are pretty quiet, though obviously the Green stays spun down most of the time, so it wins on quiet.

 

[wilberforce]

The internal HD in my 6 gen time capsule started giving errors so I replaced it with a 4TB WD "Red Plus" NAS drive (that uses CMR technology for supposedly higher reliability). It is OK, not great, as a backup system.
I also had another backup drive connected to the USB port, and can confirm what others have said - it is a very slow interface, much slower than the read/write speed of the drive. I averaged about 10MB/s real world performance. I suggest lower your expectations if you plan to connect a drive to the USB port.