Ah, the humble wireless router: a staple of the internet age, something we’ve all got tucked away in our house somewhere (or worse, out in full view). They’re a pain, a thing that sometimes just needs to be rebooted for no apparent reason, whose errors can be mystifying, and whose troubleshooting and management can make even the most tech-savvy among us grit their teeth in frustration.
It didn’t have to be this way. Once upon a time, Apple was in the business of making wireless routers. The AirPort line debuted in 1999, at, the first consumer computer to offer built-in wireless networking. Over the course of nearly more than a decade, Apple made a succession of the devices, until it finally the line in 2018.
