UPnP

AirPort will never support UPnP; It is a MSFT hack.

You can use the Slingbox with an AirPort using "port forwarding"; It's a bit too involved to explain here, but is is spelled out in the Apple Airport documentation.


(The old AirPort Extreme would have worked as well...)

Well, Apple isn't supporting UPnP, because good ol' Stewart (of ZeroConf/Bonjour and Bolo fame) wrote up a nice and simple alternative for configuring a NAT router called NAT-PMP. Apple uses NAT-PMP in its router, which is gaining support in Mac apps just as quickly as UPnP.

My suggestion is to setup a 'reserved lease' (it will be under the DHCP settings tab) to give your Slingbox a fixed IP address, based on its MAC address. Then you can easily port-forward to this fixed IP without worrying about reconfiguring the Slingbox. 🙂

Well, that is one of the problems of Apple going against the grain of the multi-million dollar mega-spec known as UPnP for something simpler that still does the job. Sometimes, even though it is a technical win for Apple (and people trying to write UPnP/NAT-PMP aware software), it is a loss for those trying to use actual devices, like yourself.

Just to clarify, Apple's router supports something that is /equivilent/ to what UPnP on routers provide, however, it is still up to the devices to support this alternative.

The Linksys is easier than the AE because Linksys + Slingbox both use UPnP. Support for NAT-PMP has been growing pretty reasonably on Linux/Mac apps, but not so much on Windows-centric devices.

For the Airport Extreme, yes, it will either require: A) an update from Slingmedia, or B) Manual configuration of the router.

I will just comment on my experience with N hardware though... if you want an N router that works with the Mac, you won't find one out there besides Apple's. There are numerous performance issues still to be worked out among the draft-N devices (I have tried all the current brands, and HAVE pulled out hair over it).

Then again, I am not sure why someone would consider the new Airport Extreme if they weren't considering N.

The new Airport Extreme will talk N to Core 2 Duo and Xeon Macs, yes (once enabled). /However/, third party draft-N routers don't work. Trust me, I tried with my MacBook for the past week to find a brand that worked (mostly because I really, really, wanted gigabit ports), and have yet to find one. Linksys, Netgear, D-Link, all fail to work with the OS X 802.11n enabler.

The D-Link router messed with my internet speeds, AND crippled copying files from my laptop to my desktop.

The Netgear simply crippled copying files to my desktop from my laptop, just not as bad as the D-Link (about 5Mbps, not even b-speeds).

The Linksys has the opposite problem, slow transfers from the desktop to my laptop over wireless, similar to the Netgear.

Yup, stick with a G router.

Yes, UPNP is a nice and easy but consider, if you have any boxes other than macs on your network it's best to turn this function off. Essentially UPNP allows applications running on any UPNP able box make config changes to the router. In most cases without your knowlege. UPNP and unsecured machines on your network like an XP box can get hosed with malware and covertly make changes to your router possibly opening your network to the world exposing file shares and other critical services running inside your network.
Yes, manual config can be a bit technical but it is worth it. There is, as mentioned before alot of documentation on the net regarding sling box configs.
One of the first steps I take when I install a router in a small business or home is to disable UPnP. It's actually step number 2 in my mental check list.

MBP 15" 2.33-C2 2Gram 120Ghd 256vram and iMac 20" 2.0-C2D 1Gram 250Ghd 128Gvram IBM t22 p3 w/Ubuntu and Debian server w/Raid 5 for file share, radius, logging,