Home > Consumer Reviews > Apple AirPort Express Base Station with AirTunes M9470B/A

The airport express is a great piece of kit. Ironically I found it easier to set up from a PC rather than a Mac.

To make it really sing get a copy of Airfoil. Excellent Mac software that lets you stream any sound source - Realplayer, Firefox, BBC radio - from your Mac to the Airport. Fantastic if you use it with the BBC Radio listen again feature.

It's a very cost effective way to create a multi room hifi system.

The Airport Express is a great idea that works really well FOR AS LONG AS IT LASTS. However, mine having died after about 15 months did not provide me with a satisfactory return on my investment. When it died, I did a Google search and found that the internet is littered with references to dead Airport Express devices all seemingly suffering the same fate. I cannot bring myself to either buy another one nor recommend it to anyone based on my own experience and what I have read of others. Maybe if they had a 24 month warranty on them it would give me more confidence.

Typical Apple product, works like really well, but is really quite expensive for what you get (really just remote ITunes for most users in a Windows network I expect). I expected the sound to be a bit poor in comparison to my CD player, but was pleasantly suprised.

SOMETHING TO BE WARY OF: The setup wizard you get with this product is not very good if you want to add it into your existing wireless network. I just followed the instructions from the star review on the amazon.com site and was up and going in about 30 minutes (including time spent messing around moving around my stereo). I have cut and pasted these steps from Mr Mark Conway's review below for the good of all...thanks Mark!

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If you have the typical Windows wireless network setup (computer, router, laptop, access points, etc.), then follow these easy steps to get your AirPort up and running.

1. Before you go wireless, physically connect your AirPort to your router with an Ethernet cable. Plug in the AirPort, and wait until the LED turns solid green.

2. Start the AirPort Admin Utility for Windows. You now want to configure the AirPort to join your existing network "wirelessly". You should see the AirPort Base Station appear with its IP address in the Base Station Chooser.

3. In the lower right-hand corner, click on Configure... Click on the AirPort tab. In the "AirPort Network" section, Use base station to: "Join an Existing Wireless Network". Underneath that, type in your existing wireless "Network Name". You will be asked to change the password as well.

4. Click "Update" in the lower right-hand corner of the Configure window. Your AirPort will be restarted, and the LED should turn solid green again.

5. Finally, disconnect the AirPort from your router, and remove the connecting cable. You should NOW be able to plug in your AirPort anywhere to join your existing network.

I bought this product in order to fulfil 2 requirements:

1) Stream music from my PC to my stereo without having to physically connect the two and
2) To allow users on my WiFi network to share a single USB printer, again without having to use wires.

Having looked all over for a well-priced product that was capable of fulfilling my requirements, the Airport Express seemed to be the best option (Rather than buying a separate print server and media streamer).

My Network consists of a Netgear 802.11b/g ADSL modem/Router and there are a total of 5 users on the network, all using various wireless laptops (The printer is a Canon Pixma IP5000). It is important to check the compatibility lists with Apple before you purchase this product!

Anyway, upon receiving the product I went through the manual and the setup seemed to be fine. The Airport integrated into my network seamlessly and once I connected up my stereo, I was able to play my iTunes music wirelessly, with excellent sound replication. Issues arose when I attempted to configure the print server utility. The instructions were straightforward, but for some reason when entering in the IP address for the printer port (shown in the config. utility) did not establish a connection with the printer.

I spent 20 minutes or so attempting to edit IP addresses and try different settings, but to no avail. Then I came across some help on Apple's website, describing my exact problem.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=108090

I had to download a program called 'bonjour for windows', which is a tool that configures the IP Printer port automatically. Once I had this downloaded the whole thing came together. Now I can surf the net, listen to my music wirelessly and print wirelessly all at the same time from the same laptop - excellent!

Once working as it should, this device represents excellent value for money (although it soes not come with any cables!), and being an Apple product it is compact and looks great.

One of the reasons why I migrated to the Mac was that I wanted to move to ADSL and a home wireless system without too much pain. The AirPort Express in fact proved so fantastically easy to install that I still don't really believe it is actually working. Thank God it stops communicating with my Mac's occasionally if only to highlight how fantastically simple it is to re-install. Just pull it out of the socket, switch off the ADSL, and then switch it on again, plug back in the base station, and wireless is back without doing anything. Other reviewers mention the simple instructions - who needs instructions for something as easy as this! I use it with 2 different Mac's, and I also connected it to my USB printer without problems, but I have not used it yet with my stereo system, nor have I connected it to a PC. It works over quite a distance, at least enough to cover 2 floors of a largish house. Couple of reviews mentioned it braking down - I have had mine about a year and if it does stop I'll just buy another one - it's that useful. It would be even better if it had several USB ports.