The Apple AirPort Extreme is just about as different from your typical wireless router as it is possible to imagine. On the visual side of things there aren't any external aerials to sully the clean lines of the shiny white casing, which makes it look similar to the new Apple TV device.

It's a compact unit that measures 165 x 165 x 33mm. The back is unusual as you'll find three 10/100Mbps Ethernet ports instead of the usual four, along with a 10/100Mbps Ethernet WAN port. There's no ADSL modem so you'll need an external device to connect to the Internet.

The final port is a single USB port which is most unusual because it is dual purpose. You can use it to attach an external hard drive as network storage with the supplied AirPort Disk or you can plug in a printer. This isn't entirely straightforward as you will need network drivers for the printer and they may not be available in every case. You configure the printer with the strangely named Bonjour software which is the second of three pieces of software on the CD. The package is rounded out by AirPort Utility which is used to configure the router, instead of using an IP address in a browser like normal.

This reliance on the Apple software means that you have to fall in line with the system requirement of Windows XP SP2 or Vista, or Mac OS X 10.4 or later. Having a mixed network of Mac and Windows kit works smoothly enough.

Configuring the router reveals yet another unusual aspect to the AirPort Extreme. This Draft-N router can run on both 2.4GHz and 5GHz, however it only has a single transmitter/receiver so you have to select one frequency or the other with the Airport Utility.

On the plus side, this dual band facility means that it supports 802.11a, b, g and Draft-N but not, of course, simultaneously. The appeal of this support for 802.11a is clearly significant for the American market but less apparent for Europe, as we never really took to 802.11a. However, you may find that the 5GHz band is less cluttered than the usual 2.4GHz frequency.

As with all Draft-N hardware you will get far better connection speeds if all of the hardware on the wireless network uses 802.11n, as slower hardware will drag the network speed down.

As for security, there are the usual settings for 128-bit WEP and WPA2 wireless encryption along with a Stateful Packet Inspection Firewall and MAC address filtering.

Apple's take on 802.11n wireless is both interesting and unusual and holds plenty of appeal if you're mixing Apple and Windows hardware in an unholy alliance. It's a shame that you can't use the USB printing and storage features together, but presumably this would have increased the price. As if that has ever fussed Apple before.