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airport A1521 - what does it do?

i picked up one of these (white tall tower) and i am not sure if it is an airport or an "airport extreme". but can anyone tell me what this does?


i mean i have a Time Capsule in the office (where the DSL comes in) and i have an airport type base station in the living room.


i also have a wifi type modem in the office (again where the DSL comes in).


can i use this in some way? does it have any hard drive capacity?


bought it for $5 and wondering if i should test it or if i can use it or if i should sell it.


THANKS for any help

iPhone 6, iOS 8

Posted on Feb 5, 2018 7:16 PM

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Posted on Feb 23, 2018 12:27 AM

right now of course it shows it shows a solid amber.

Actually it should never be solid amber except for a short time after power on.. blinking amber.. YES.. Solid AMBER.. NO..


If you bought from Apple or dealer. Return it as faulty.. and get a Time Capsule if you want something with a hard disk.


The extreme has no audio output.. But it is AC wireless and gigabit.


The Express is designed as audio .. it is old N wireless and old 100mbit.. so slow and very slow.. it is designed as a toy router that is to provide audio and some slight fill in wireless.

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Feb 23, 2018 12:27 AM in response to hotwheels22

right now of course it shows it shows a solid amber.

Actually it should never be solid amber except for a short time after power on.. blinking amber.. YES.. Solid AMBER.. NO..


If you bought from Apple or dealer. Return it as faulty.. and get a Time Capsule if you want something with a hard disk.


The extreme has no audio output.. But it is AC wireless and gigabit.


The Express is designed as audio .. it is old N wireless and old 100mbit.. so slow and very slow.. it is designed as a toy router that is to provide audio and some slight fill in wireless.

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Feb 23, 2018 8:00 AM in response to Rudegar

just bought it for $5. figures i’d see if it works and sell it. or use it in place of my mac wifi device and use the one i use now for travel. or have another device or something. i notice t has cable outlets if i wanted to lug my computer in. may be able to return it if i am not over a week or something...

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Feb 22, 2018 8:02 PM in response to LaPastenague

hey guys. thanks a lot!


so it looks to me like it is working. does it look like that to you?


but i am not sure i can continue here as it seems to want to take the place of my time capsule and somehow reset or wipe (?) the time capsule? right now of course it shows it shows a solid amber.


actually, i am a bit confused about these devices. i have a time capsule with my TIME MACHINE backup on it which means there is a hard drive in that device. on this device there is not a hard drive.


also, what does it do exactly that the Airport Express that i have does not do?


any idea if i need to do anything to know it is working other than what i see here?


THANKSUser uploaded fileUser uploaded file

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Feb 5, 2018 7:47 PM in response to hotwheels22

A1521 is an AirPort Extreme. There is more information about the product in these Apple documents:


Mac - AirPort Extreme - Apple

Mac - AirPort Extreme - Technical Specifications - Apple

AirPort Extreme 802.11ac - Setup Guide


A Time Capsule is virtually the same product, except that the AirPort Extreme does not have a built in hard drive.


The AirPort Extreme could be used to "extend" the range of the wireless signal of the Time Capsule.


If you bought the product for $5, it would be a miracle if it was in working order, but anything is possible, I suppose. If you have an Apple Store in your area, take the product in to let the genius types take a look.

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Feb 5, 2018 10:46 PM in response to hotwheels22

Plug it in power.. while holding in reset.. and keep holding reset for about 10sec until the front LED starts flashing rapidly.. It is now factory reset.


Open airport utility on a Mac (built in) or iOS device (you need to download the airport utility from itunes store).

Do a simple setup..


Then see if it works in your network.. or even for stand alone setup..


Any wifi analyser will give you some idea of outputs.. eg the wireless diagnostics built into any Mac OS since Mountain Lion.

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Feb 23, 2018 8:03 AM in response to LaPastenague

hi LP


so hard reset was flashing amber. now it is solid amber. it should be solid green meaning it is picking up a signal? or solid green meaning it is broadcasting a signal?


i couldn’t set it up because i got the prompts i posted saying that it wanted to replace my time capsule device (hard drive and wifi) and i have a time machine backup on the thing i don’t want to mess with.


i guess i can unplug the time machine temporarily and run a full setup on this one and see if it is solid green?! it IS being recognized...

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Feb 23, 2018 5:50 PM in response to Bob Timmons

hi bob,


thanks for the reply. for some reason i only see it in my email but not on the forum. anyway, i understand that the solid amber (in this case it is now blinking amber) is not working.


what i am trying to ask is that i have NOT gone through a setup for the device. i had to STOP setup because it is giving me a prompt that is confusing to me with respect to my TIME CAPSULE backup. i don't want to do something dumb with my data so i am trying to ask questions first.


in the first image i posted you can see the prompt where it says it is will REPLACE my time machine and the "base station" (associated with my TIME CAPSULE BACKUP) "will be reset to default settings".


so i have not gone through the full setup.


i am under the impression i need to do a FULL SETUP before i get the green light and that i won't get a green light until i set it up on the network.


i am thinking to simply remove my TIME CAPSULE from everything so the data cannot get corrupted and so i can SET UP this device but i am not sure if i am simply wasting my time.


does that question make sense? or was it answered earlier and i missed it?


i am wondering if i need to actually set up the machine before i evaluate what color the LED is or whether it is flashing...


THANKS

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Feb 23, 2018 6:40 PM in response to hotwheels22

We already explained in a previous post that the AirPort Extreme (assuming that it is operating correctly) could be used to "extend" the wireless signal of the Time Capsule to provide a stronger wireless signal in another area.


Is this what you want to do?

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airport A1521 - what does it do?

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