Like 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.





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.





Next up is the M8209 from 2001. This came in really nice shape with all the original contents. A nice find.







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.