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Extend wireless network via wired?

D

Dopeyman

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 5, 2005
614
48
Los Angeles!
I currently have a 3rd gen time capsule in my room and a 1st gen airport extreme at my neighbor's apartment (neighbor with privileges ;) )

The extreme goes from fair to good connection and she often loses signal on her iPhone and MacBook. And when the connection is stable, it's very slow.

Anyway, I wanted to know if I can run a cat 5 or 6 cable from my TC to her AE to improve the connection?

At the moment I'm thinking of getting another AE and placing it in the middle to see if that'll strengthen the connection...

Or is there something else that can be done?

PS. My TC is setup as "create wireless network" and the AE is "extend wireless network" if it matters
 
W

waw74

macrumors 601
May 27, 2008
4,729
980
yes you can do use a cable, and it will work much better

you want to put the express in bridge mode (google bridge mode for more info)

set the express up with the same SSID and password as your main extreme. and then no matter which apartment you're in your device should connect to the stronger/closer base station
 
Altemose

Altemose

macrumors G3
Mar 26, 2013
9,189
488
Elkton, Maryland
Dopeyman said:
I currently have a 3rd gen time capsule in my room and a 1st gen airport extreme at my neighbor's apartment (neighbor with privileges ;) )

The extreme goes from fair to good connection and she often loses signal on her iPhone and MacBook. And when the connection is stable, it's very slow.

Anyway, I wanted to know if I can run a cat 5 or 6 cable from my TC to her AE to improve the connection?

At the moment I'm thinking of getting another AE and placing it in the middle to see if that'll strengthen the connection...

Or is there something else that can be done?

PS. My TC is setup as "create wireless network" and the AE is "extend wireless network" if it matters
Click to expand...

You cannot have an AirPort extend an AirPort that is already extending. For instance, you can not have your Time Capsule (A) creating a network, with AirPort Extreme (B) in the middle of the two apartments extending, and finally a third Extreme (C) in her apartment. In that situation, both Extreme (B) and (C) would connect to Time Capsule (A) rather than each other. The reason for this is the overhead which causes your bandwidth to be halved when wirelessly extending. For example, if you get a connection of 100 Mbps between the Time Capsule and Extreme, you will only see 50 Mbps of throughput.

That being said, you can run an Ethernet cable between the two. You would connect one end of the cable into a LAN port on the Time Capsule and the other to the WAN port on the Extreme. If you factory restore the Extreme, and begin to reconfigure it, it will show "Extend 'Network Name Here' Over Ethernet". This essentially sets it to "Create a Wireless" network with the same information as the Time Capsule and sets the routing portion to bridge mode. If your neighbor wants a separate network name that is fine as well, but you must keep the Extreme in bridge mode.
 
D

Dopeyman

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 5, 2005
614
48
Los Angeles!
waw74 said:
yes you can do use a cable, and it will work much better

you want to put the express in bridge mode (google bridge mode for more info)

set the express up with the same SSID and password as your main extreme. and then no matter which apartment you're in your device should connect to the stronger/closer base station
Click to expand...

Altemose said:
You cannot have an AirPort extend an AirPort that is already extending. For instance, you can not have your Time Capsule (A) creating a network, with AirPort Extreme (B) in the middle of the two apartments extending, and finally a third Extreme (C) in her apartment. In that situation, both Extreme (B) and (C) would connect to Time Capsule (A) rather than each other. The reason for this is the overhead which causes your bandwidth to be halved when wirelessly extending. For example, if you get a connection of 100 Mbps between the Time Capsule and Extreme, you will only see 50 Mbps of throughput.

That being said, you can run an Ethernet cable between the two. You would connect one end of the cable into a LAN port on the Time Capsule and the other to the WAN port on the Extreme. If you factory restore the Extreme, and begin to reconfigure it, it will show "Extend 'Network Name Here' Over Ethernet". This essentially sets it to "Create a Wireless" network with the same information as the Time Capsule and sets the routing portion to bridge mode. If your neighbor wants a separate network name that is fine as well, but you must keep the Extreme in bridge mode.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info.... I think I'm gonna go the cable way/route to extend the network.

Would this cable be a good choice? If not, can someone recommend one? Thanks!!
 
D

Dopeyman

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 5, 2005
614
48
Los Angeles!
Altemose said:
How far is the distance? It may be cheaper to get a 250 ft. spool of Cat5e and crimp it yourself rather than connect multiple cables.
Click to expand...

I think that pre-made cable should be sufficient and cheaper. If not, I'll go for the DIY kit like you suggested. Thanks!!
 
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