Another stealth upgrade from Apple yesterday: Its AirPort Extreme Base Station now features Gigabit Ethernet ports across the board. It’s still priced at $179.99.
The AirPort Extreme Base Station provides users with 802.11n-compatible wireless networking — up to five times faster than 802.11g. It’s also backwards-compatible with 802.11a, b and g networking protocols, so it can be integrated into an existing wireless network topology.
The device features a USB interface to connect a printer or USB 2.0-based hard disk for sharing on the network; it also features three switched Ethernet ports. When the AirPort Extreme Base Station debuted earlier this year, some criticized Apple’s decision to use 10/100baseT Ethernet connectors. Now it appears that Apple has remedied that issue.
All four of the Ethernet ports — the WAN port to connect it to the Internet and the three switched Ethernet ports used to connect wired computers, routers or other network hardware — are all Gigabit Ethernet ports.