Question about the new Airport Extreme

does the new Extreme keep the G and N networks separated,

You can if you want. or you can allow N to mix with the G in the 2.4GHz band. It's all in the Wireless > Radio Mode option.

They can have different SSIDs. However, at least for the current firmware, you are stuck with the same password for both.

On top of that, it seems that after installing the latest Airport Client Update, my MBP can still join either my 2.4Ghz or 5Ghz network as it liked even though I have put them on different SSID and I have only added the 5Ghz one in my list. I think this is what apple calls "improvements in roaming between 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz network"...

I am wishing for more control, i.e. make the 2.4Ghz band b/g only, and make the 5Ghz band n only. But that is not possible with the current firmware.

The new Airport allows you to run 2.4GHz and 5GHz freqs at the same time. If your 802.11n devices do support 5GHz frequencies, you can set it for 802.11n only (instead of 802.11a/n), let 2.4GHz for 802.11b/g (no 802.11n here) and get rid of the old Airport.

1. The only way I know of without installing anything extra applications is to use Airport Utility, then connect to your Airport Extreme to see the statistics. It will show either "b/g/n" (2.4Ghz) or "a/n" (5Ghz).

2. Yes, 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz are actually two separate network on the Airport Extreme (and therefore separate collision domain if you know what I mean).

But then again, there is no way to set N-only network in the new Airport Extreme (I am using one of those now), let alone set N-only for 5Ghz or 2.4Ghz. This means that your 802.11a devices might still accidentally join the 5Ghz channel and slow downs everything. Unlike older models, you can not specify N-only on either of the channels.

Not a dealbreaker for me, but certainly should be improved on.

Message was edited by: jenius_s

Ok now I'm totally confused, because Alex HQuest is saying that you can have the 2.4GHz set to be the b/g only and so this will be the network that the iPhone will use, and then the 5GHz netwrok can be set to be n only and will be used by my Macbook Pro.
However jenius-s is saying this cannot be done and you cannot set either the 2.4 or the 5GHz network to be specific to n or b/g.
Both of you suggest you have the new devices so you both can't be right. I'm hoping Alex is cos I was going to go and order one online this weekend but if jenius is correct then I won't bother.
Which is it?
Thanks guys...

make the 2.4Ghz band b/g only, and make the 5Ghz band n only. But that is not possible with the current firmware.

Yes it's possible.

Hold the option key while click on the radio mode list, you will see one of the options:

"802.11n only (5GHz) - 802.11b/g"

That's also a confusing option, why is "802.11 b/g" tacked onto the end?
I think what some people want is to be sure that any b/g devices (like the iPhone) are restricted only to the 2.4GHz band so that they can't get onto the n/5GHz band and pull down the speeds there. This is achieved with my current set up of two separate Airport Extremes, linked by ethernet, each running separate networks. I was hoping the new Airport would do the same but now it's not that clear - it may produce 2 networks but will it keep the n devices on the 5GHz band only and the b/g devices on the 2.4GHz band only?

Hi,

You are right! Thanks for the tip~

jenius_s wrote:
1. The only way I know of without installing anything extra applications is to use Airport Utility, then connect to your Airport Extreme to see the statistics. It will show either "b/g/n" (2.4Ghz) or "a/n" (5Ghz).

You can hold down Option when clicking on the Airport icon on the top bar, and it will show additional information about the current connection as well as listing the available wireless networks. From this, the current connection speed between the Macbook and the access point is is shown, as well as the channel (channel number will tell you if you are on the 2.4GHz (channel 1-13) or 5GHz (channel 36 or higher) network).