Should I Return It? Or Is This Something That Can Be Fixed?

Question

Hi,
I'm extremely disappointed in this product. It has more problems than I can even count. So I'm wondering if these problems are problems specific to my unit or if they're problems that everyone is having. I basically want to know if I should return it or have it exchanged.
First, I've had several problems with the AirDisk feature-- as many people have had. I've been having a problem with files/folders not appearing. When I remove the drive and plug directly into my computer, it works and I see everything. I spent about a week messing with this and I found that most of my folders appeared if I removed the ampersands in folder titles. But that's not a complete fix. There are still a lot of folders still not appearing for whatever other reason.
The second biggest disappointment is the constant dropping I'm having between my computers (one connected via ethernet and one connected wirelessly) and the AEBS. I seem to frequently lose my connection to the base station. Sometimes I'm able to stay connected to the internet but I lose my connection to the AEBS (through the Airport Utility and AirDisks).
As I write this, for example, I am able to see the AEBS but at the moment I can't see my AirDisk. (500GB WD MyBook).
It's quirky. Sometimes I'll have one connection but not another, i.e. internet but no access to my base station.
I dropped $179 on this device thinking I'd be able to share my printer and my external HDD. That's all I wanted it for. And it won't even do that.
I've tried resetting, changing channels, etc etc. Is this a problem due to Apple's ****** business (rush release and fix later), or does this sound like something specifically wrong with my unit?
I'm using it currently on a laptop and a desktop both running Windows XP.
Someone please respond. I'm about ready to throw this thing out a window.

Answer 1

Thanks for responding. I really appreciate it.
My set up is this:
Motorola Broadband Modem --> AEBS --> Wireless + Ethernet Connection to two PCs running XP
I also have a USB hub connecting an HP Deskjet printer and a Western Digital 500GB MyBook External Hard drive.
The dropped connections... It's occurring on a hardwired ethernet connection as well as on the wireless connection. It's happening at the same time on both machines and the internet connection is up 99.9% of the time that this occurs. So I know it's not the internet dropping and it's not a wireless interference problem because it's happening while plugged directly into the AEBS.
The external hard drive...
I believe the HDD is already formatted to FAT. And you're correct, it did have files on it before it was connected to the extreme. But I should also mention that I moved files off of the HDD after connecting it to the extreme and then moved all of the files back onto the drive through the extreme's network. Which was ridiculously slow-- only 500kbps-1.5mbps. It took several days, and over the course of all of those days, I noticed that folders that were once visible became invisible as soon as the folders were copied over with ampersand in the folder names. The same went for other non letter/space characters, especially accented characters.
Any ideas?
It seems to do nothing that I need it to do.