Not All AirPort Expresses are Created Equal

It probably goes without saying, but Apple's naming conventions don't follow much of a pattern.

For the iPhone, we had the original iPhone (#1), iPhone 3G (#2, but with a "3" in the name), iPhone 3GS (#3), iPhone 4 (#4, makes sense!), iPhone 4S (#5, with a "4" in the name), and so on.

iPods were generally just called "iPod", with new names for the different lines (i.e. "Mini", "Nano", "Shuffle"). Different lines - and different generations within each line, looked so different that they could be easily differentiated, and were often referred to by nicknames. (i.e., "Nano Fat").

Then we had the iPad, the iPad 2, and the.... iPad.

Obviously, Apple doesn't want to get stuck in the "X+1 Integer" naming convention for succeeding generations of the same product. Eventually you have the "iPad 17", and it gets difficult to follow.

But when it comes to the used market Apple's networking devices, it's remarkably difficult to tell, at the outset, which particular generation or version you're discussing.

Case in point - I picked up an Airport Express last night for $30 on Craigslist. (They function as music streaming devices AND network extenders.... I'm going to need a bunch of these for the AirPlay project, and the more I can extend our wi-fi network, the better. Every stereo, in every room, will be AirPlay-selectable with one of these attached.)

There are 2 versions of the Airport Express. They're both identical in form factor - same shape, color, logo, same LED, same ports. The first Express (model A1084) was wireless A/B/G, and the new one (model A1264), obviously, is wireless N.

I had a feeling that my $30 Express was going to be the old model - but I held out some hope, based on the description. And at $30, I didn't care too much - it was a good price either way.

Even when I'd confirmed that it was, in fact, a A1084, I still bought it. After all, I still have some wireless G items on my network, and for music streaming, this would help more than it hurt, right?

But when I got home, I noticed some serious drawbacks to the Express A1084. Obviously, no wireless N. But more importantly, it doesn't interface with Airport Utility 6.0. At all. It can't be recognized by your network if you're running 6.0 - you'll just see the amber light.

If you intend to use an A1084, you have to download and use Airport Utility 5.6 to configure it.... which is not something I intend to do on my iMac - networking is confusing enough as-is without running parallel versions of the same utility. You also can't use it as an ethernet-to-wireless bridge.

Fortunately, I was able to flip the A1084 on eBay in about 10 minutes, for a buy-it-now of $35. Lesson learned, and I made $5 in the process.