Opinion: Buy Apple Airport or cheaper stuff?
One of the reasons I recommend the Airport stuff is the ease of configuration compared to similar products by other vendors.
I would consider myself reasonably adept at this kind of thing so find configuring Netgear devices reasonably easy, however I have had major issues with configuring D-Link and especially Buffalo devices. Don't even talk to me about Belkin....
However from a newbie's point of view these third party devices can be a real nightmare, so I think paying the extra for the ease of configuration is a price worth paying.
It sometime annoys me that after replying to a person on the Apple Discussions Forums who has specifically asked about Airport devices (or other Apple hardware) someone comes along and posts don't bother with Apple buy a third party device its cheaper... as though price is the only important factor.
If price was the only factor then no one would buy an iPod!
I remember one discussion when someone asked about Airport mentioned that money was not an issue and got loads of replies from people saying don't get Airport, buy Linksys it's cheaper!!!