Airport Base Stations
September 30, 2011 Filed in:
Airport | UnboxingLike collecting vintage OS’s, Airport Base Stations have become another collection-within-a-collection. These are really cool. I always wanted to get one years ago when they were new tech, but I just couldn’t justify the money. Besides, in 2001 the only wireless device I had was a Dell laptop that used a Netgear WiFi PCMCIA card, so it probably wouldn't have worked anyway. I ended up with a cheap Netgear router instead.
Some time later I moved my Mac Pro from the living room (where the cable modem was) to the bedroom. Rather than run wires up through was, etc, I figured I’d just go wireless. I purchased an Airport Express. However, I returned it a week later because my Mac Pro was having connection problems using it. My MacBook worked fine, but the issues with the MacPro was a deal-breaker. It kept bumping me off the internet. I’d restart the Airport Express, but the Mac Pro wold randomly lose connection to the Airport Express. I ended up running a Cat-6 cable up through the attic and down into the bedroom. Now that I think of it, I should have kept that thing, but $99 was $99.
The first Base Station I picked up was a M5757 from 2000.
![Pasted Graphic 516](pasted-graphic-516airports.jpg)
![Pasted Graphic 517](pasted-graphic-517airports.jpg)
The box is in fairly decent condition, however, it’s actually for a M7601 from 1999. It came with the adapter and the wall mount, but no manual or CD. Kind of a crappy mix-up. So I guess I’ll have to keep looking. I’d really like to get all these in the box, as they’re fairly inexpensive nowadays.
![Pasted Graphic 518](pasted-graphic-518airports.jpg)
![Pasted Graphic 519](pasted-graphic-519airports.jpg)
Next up is the M8209 from 2001. This came in really nice shape with all the original contents. A nice find.
![Pasted Graphic 520](pasted-graphic-520airports.jpg)
![Pasted Graphic 521](pasted-graphic-521airports.jpg)
![Pasted Graphic 522](pasted-graphic-522airports.jpg)
There were several minor updates along the way, but only three major revisions: the original “smoke” model, then the white “snow” model, then the “snow” model marked “Airport Extreme”.
It’s a small collection, so it should be fairly easy to complete. I think once I have them all, I’ll mount them all up on the wall above the closet.