Bestbuy.com Apple - Refurbished AirPort Extreme Wireless Base Station 5th Gen $89.99 Model RF-MD031LL/A

Spend the extra $$ and get a refurb directly from Apple.

Best Buy's warranty is garbage and with Apple you'll get a 1-yr warranty as if it was a new unit.

Also, note that if you have AppleCare on an Apple desktop/laptop, your Airport Extreme will be covered under it as long as it is purchased within 24 months of the computer purchase/registration date.

What would be the return policy on Refurb Items with Bestbuy?

Nearly 50% off.

Apple Care still active if it's within one year of purchase (stated on Apple forums and previous SD forums).


In the price-range for comparable Linksys dual-band routers. 3x3 antenna with some of the highest power/gain for a router. Anandtech approved.


Standard return and exchange policy.


No-brainer. My co-workers and I all bought one each. Hope we get working models with the right parts.

Ah, what the heck... I'll give it a shot and hope I get a good one. If not, I'll return.

Can the usb port take a 3TB drive?

Boycott Best Buy

Quote from Cerocool : Really good deal, esp from a reputable seller. Great dual 2.4ghz/5ghz access point

Having bought Apple refurbs from Best Buy, I wouldn't call them reputable. I've bought two Apple Airport Express refurbs from them and both were configured with the previous user's settings - Best Buy didn't even bother to reset the units, much less refurb them. Once I cleared the settings, one worked fine,and the other is unstable, dropping connections all the time - probably the reason it was returned to BB.

I have Verizon modem which is also a router. Can I also use this?

I purchased one in December as well. It works great, looked like new and turned out to a 5th gen router. This is a YMMV deal, but for the price, it's a deal worth picking up.

Quote from 3hrs : I was always wondering whats the "difference between $20 Linksys router & there sub $200 routers."

Higher end routers will have more prosumer/professional features. One example is Quality of Service, the ability to control if network devices are capped at a certain speed. This is especially useful if you want to prevent a certain user or certain device from hogging all of the bandwith. Higher-end routers will also have other fun features like USB ports (for mounting external hard drives to your network)

Another high-end feature is the use of "Hardware NAT" (NAT standing for Network Address Translation). In short, Hardware NAT is meant to reduce (and nearly eliminate) most of that "lag" experienced with going from one webpage to another webpage. Hardware NAT sounds hokey, but many folks have confirmed that the Hardware NAT does correlate with a better user experience. My Asus rt-n56u router has Hardware NAT built in, and I, too, can attest to its effectiveness.

Here is a blurb from Asus:

Quote : Gigabit Internet Surfing with Hardware NAT Equipped with a capable hardware NAT acceleration engine and built-in Gigabit Ethernet, it gives you full Gigabit internet performance, making its WAN to LAN throughput up to 2-5 times that of traditional software-based NAT Gigabit routers.

Even though all routers tout adhering to a certain standard (e.g. Wireless N), higher-end routers will be better at handling large volumes of traffic since it can reach higher levels of speed within your network. Wireless range is subjective, due to the number of variables that can hinder signal, but higher-end routers will typically exert better range. SmallNetBuilder.com [smallnetbuilder.com] runs a slew of speed and range tests on many common routers, and you'd be surprised at the differences even within a manufacturer's own line of routers.

Here's my turn to ask a question: What is the difference between Apple's routers versus other higher-end ones (e.g. Asus RT-n66u)?

Quote from ishareit : Is this covered by apple warranty?

It will depend on the original purchase date of the particular device that you get. You will have to check the serial number on it with apple.

Best Buy Apple Refurbs are not good. Had to return one as it got stuck on the UI and I could not even set it up. Apple refurbs from Apple are the way to go. At this price, you can try since the return can always be a trip to the store; if it works then it is a great deal.

I bought one from Best Buy on Thanksgiving day and received a 5th gen. I haven't had any issues so far.

Quote from okinawanmatt : Nearly 50% off. Apple Care still active if it's within one year of purchase (stated on Apple forums and previous SD forums). In the price-range for comparable Linksys dual-band routers. 3x3 antenna with some of the highest power/gain for a router. Anandtech approved. Standard return and exchange policy. No-brainer. My co-workers and I all bought one each. Hope we get working models with the right parts.

nice predicates. ever try using a subject in your sentence structure? i know they can be implied but Strunk & White would not approve.