Airport Express Bridge

[tanyeehou]

Hi all,

First up I've definitely done many searches on this subject and no one seems to be in my shoes.

I've also managed to do this in the past, but that was all luck. Unfortunately it all got undone when my dad's Dell couldn't handle WPA passwords so I had to revert. That was odd, but nevermind that.

My room is on the 2nd floor of the house, while my router/modem combo is on the ground floor.

What I would like to do is to have my Airport Express work as a bridge with my 3rd party Dlink DIR 615.

Right now what I've managed to do is get the AE to join my main network (in the manner that seems to allow AirTunes), but it does not allow the sharing of the network over ethernet.

We did not foresee problems with WiFi penetration and did not lay down LAN lines all over the house, and shifting the router is impossible.

I can't seem to replicate what I once did, even with lots of blind poking about. Could anyone with any experience in this assist? I don't mind having it work in WDS (not sure if it works with third party routers) or any other mode as long as it works.

Much thanks in advance.

 

[dXTC]

The Airport Express's Ethernet port is a WAN-only port. You cannot use the Airport Express to act as a WiFi-to-Ethernet bridge. Instead, in bridge mode it acts as a WiFi-to-WiFi bridge, repeating the Wi-Fi signal on your home's second floor.

Unplug the Ethernet cord between your MB and the AE, and you'll suddenly notice that the MB's WiFi connection to your wireless network has stronger signal than before. Your network throughput will have effectively been cut in half, but if you have less than 30 Mbps broadband Internet connection, you likely won't notice the slowdown.

 

[willieva]

As I recall you have to have a wireless router that is capable of letting you do this. I used to have a wrt54g that supplied the wireless signal, and an airport express in another room that had my xbox connected to it's ethernet port. The wrt54g created the wds network, and the airport express joined it.

 

[nebo1ss]

There is no problem with the airport express acting as a Bridge and there is an option in the setup to select this mode of operation. This is exactly how my system is set up I have a Router installed downstairs in the basement an ethernet cable that runs from the router to the airport express which is installed in my office. The dhcp address allocation is done by the router and the airport express shares these address with no problem.

If you want more specific information as to my configuration I would be happy to share. A key part of the setup is that you should not use a wireless device to set up the airport express but a hard wired device. If you use a wireless device it will attempt to extent an existing wireless network.

Edit: Use Manual setup: Select option at top Internet: Under Connect select option Ethernet:
Under Connection setting select Bridge mode: Under IPV4 select DHCP

It will not generate DHCP addresses but share those on the router.

 

[dXTC]

There is no problem with the airport express acting as a Bridge and there is an option in the setup to select this mode of operation. This is exactly how my system is set up I have a Router installed downstairs in the basement an ethernet cable that runs from the router to the airport express which is installed in my office. The dhcp address allocation is done by the router and the airport express shares these address with no problem.

This is an Ethernet-to-WiFi bridge, and will work in that case. However, this doesn't help the OP at all. He did not run an Ethernet cable from a LAN port on the D-Link router to the WAN port on the Airport Express. From his first post (emphasis mine):

...We did not foresee problems with WiFi penetration and did not lay down LAN lines all over the house, and shifting the router is impossible.

The OP is asking whether the inverse of your setup (WiFi from his main router to the Airport Express, then from the AE's Ethernet port to the Ethernet port on the MacBook) works. The answer, unfortunately, is no in the case of Airport Express.

However, in a more capable secondary router that has both WAN and LAN Ethernet ports, e.g. the Airport Extreme, the answer would be Yes.

 

[willieva]

The OP is asking whether the inverse of your setup (WiFi from his main router to the Airport Express, then from the AE's Ethernet port to the Ethernet port on the MacBook) works. The answer, unfortunately, is no in the case of Airport Express.

You absolutely can use the ethernet port on the Airport Exrpess in the way the OP wants to use it. I used to use a wrt54g for the wireless signal, and had my Airport Express as the WDS remote. My xbox was connected via ethernet cable to the Airport Express.

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1515

 

[dXTC]

You absolutely can use the ethernet port on the Airport Exrpess in the way the OP wants to use it. I used to use a wrt54g for the wireless signal, and had my Airport Express as the WDS remote. My xbox was connected via ethernet cable to the Airport Express.

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1515

It appears you are right. I stand corrected. According to the FAQ linked above, as long as it's in WDS bridge mode, the AE's port can be used as a LAN port for a single wired client.

If you could share your configuration/settings here, I'm sure the OP would greatly appreciate it.

 

[willieva]

Unfortunately I no longer have that setup. From memory:
connect to the AE using the airport setup program
under the wireless tab, set to "participate in WDS network"
then under the WDS tab, set at WDS remote
I think you have to set the mac address of the router for WDS main

There are probably a couple of other boxes to check as well.

 

[Alrescha]

It appears you are right. I stand corrected. According to the FAQ linked above, as long as it's in WDS bridge mode, the AE's port can be used as a LAN port for a single wired client.

The Airport Express's "Bridge Mode" has nothing to do with WDS Bridging. Yes, the AE can do both, but they are separate features.

An AE in "Bridge Mode" simply allows wireless clients to access an existing wired network. Wireless clients will get network services from the wired network (DHCP, DNS, etc) as if they were on the wired network - i.e. the traditional use of the word 'bridge' before WDS came along.

A.

 

[tanyeehou]

Hi everyone,

Thank you very much for your help!

I haven't had a chance to try any of your recommendations yet as I was away for a few days, but I'll take a look at them as soon as I clear up some work.

Fingers crossed!!

Once again thanks for helping a n00b out!

 

[tanyeehou]

Unfortunately I no longer have that setup. From memory:
connect to the AE using the airport setup program
under the wireless tab, set to "participate in WDS network"
then under the WDS tab, set at WDS remote
I think you have to set the mac address of the router for WDS main

There are probably a couple of other boxes to check as well.

Thank you willieva! I really can't wait to get back to using my computer upstairs as my nice external monitor's doing nothing but collecting dust.

Same goes for the nice boom boom sound system.