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Question about adding a new Airport Express to my Airport Extreme N Network

sonictonic

sonictonic

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 25, 2006
954
11
San Jose, California
Hi Guys,

I've never used an Airport Express before and now that it's 802.11n compatible I wanna pick one up but had a question. My situation: I have an Airport Extreme 802.11 5GHz setup, but it's stuck in a pretty bad spot in my apartment (low to the floor kinda, and near a wall... Yes really that's the best spot I could plug it into). So, in the bedroom, my MacBook Pro gets very little or no connection, or it drops repeatedly. I was thinking if I put an Airport Express in the bedroom it could be added to the existing N network and give me full bars in the bedroom (it can do that, right?) so I really wanna know if that's an easy thing to do, and also how easy is it? Do you just plug an Airport Express into an outlet and it works? What is the Ethernet jack for on the Express? Will I need to use that?

A second benefit to having a new APExpress in the bedroom would also be to add some speakers to it so I could stream music into the room from iTunes.

Thanks in advance!




EDIT:
Light bulb in my head came on and I decided to call the 24 hour Apple Store and ask them! :D So thanks anyway. Mods, please delete my post if it's in the way. :)
 
@sonictonic

I don't have the n-version, i have the g-version, but here's how i did it.

Start Airport Utility (it's in utilities), select your Airport Extreme, and select "manual set up." Go to the wireless pane, and make sure "allow wireless network to be extended" is CHECKED.

Update that, then select your airport express, and press "continue", not "manual". It's easier this way. You will get some choices, one of which will be "extend my wireless network." Follow the directions and you should be good to go.

However, keep in mind that wireless-n is supposed to have very good range. I get good reception from mine through a few walls. Make sure you have your Airport Extreme set to wireless n ONLY.!!!

Which, coincidentally, these days, is the best wireless security around... ;)

Let me know if that doesn't work out....
 
I'm surprise my post finally got some replies. :p

It was so easy. All I did was plug in the Express in the bedroom, found it on my MBP in Airport Utility, and chose the option to "join an existing wireless network" - put in the name and password of said network, and boom, done!

The only quirky thing was it wasn't giving me the stability I hoped for, even though my Extreme in the other room, my network, was on 802.11n 5GHz only. Surprisingly. So, I changed it to 802.11n 2.4GHz, and it's solid now. I guess people around my apartment have a lot of crap on 5GHz because it looks like it was interfering but now that I'm on the 2.4GHz N it's working great.

Cheers! :)
 
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