Apple AirPort Express Base Station review

When the AirPort Express launched, it caused a furore of excitement among Mac users everywhere.

This tiny white box, no bigger than an iBook power adaptor, is Apple's attempt to unwire your home. Using bundled drivers, it can stream music, make your USB printer wireless and extend your home computer network.

Your AirPort Express will most likely be hidden behind a stereo or printer, but it still has that typical Apple touch. The neat rounded corners and tiny size make it a product worth seeing. One of the main bugbears of wireless kit is the number of wires it entails, but Apple has removed one of these cables by making the power supply part of the AirPort Express itself. You'll appreciate this if you have a cable jungle behind your stereo or computer.

The AirPort Express has no display, but an LED flashes orange to indicate network problems; it's solid green when everything is fine. Underneath, there's a USB port, reset button, Ethernet port and standard audio jack in an arrangement that allows the cables to trail neatly downwards from a wall plug.

The AirPort Express Assistant is a typical step-by-step configuration utility. Changes can be made to setup and functionality. You can also increase the connection's security as the device is compatible with both Wi-Fi Protected Access and 128-bit WEP encryption. These technologies are more than capable of protecting your home network from prying neighbours and go a fair way to securing it from experienced hackers as well.

It has three wireless capabilities, the first of which, audio streaming, Apple is promoting heavily. Connect the AirPort Express to your wireless network or make it the main access point, plug in a stereo and start iTunes. The simplicity makes this a very attractive product, but it's not flawless. You can't skip, pause or search any of the content remotely. If David Hasselhoff comes on, there's no way to turn it off without going to the computer, by which time the neighbours will have heard, and your secret will be out. You can get around this by making sure you're happy with your playlist, but a basic remote-control would have been a welcome addition. A £29 extension kit from Apple will upgrade your audio connection to digital for optimal quality, but will require an amplifier or speakers capable of handling a digital signal. In this case, you may prefer to use a more standard 3.5mm-jack-to-phono adaptor.

When you open iTunes, you'll find a new option beside the graphic equaliser tab, which allows you to stream music to an AirPort Express instead of playing it through the computer speakers, and volume can be controlled directly from the iTunes slider. Further, you can stream music stored on other machines in the same way that they can be played on your local computer.

Printer sharing is the next port of call. Simply plug in your USB printer and use it as normal. You'll probably spend the first few times standing next to the printer 'just in case', but you soon get used to printing from the settee. We tried connecting a USB hard drive to the AirPort Express, but to no avail, so it can't be used as a wireless utility for network storage. However, the other features are more than enough to keep even the most demanding user happy.

AirPort Express can also be used as a standard base station for sharing a broadband connection. This means you get a more advanced unit for £50 less than a standard Apple Extreme Base Station. You can't connect as many users to AirPort Express, but that's unlikely to be a problem in a home environment.