extending a network with airport express

Hello,

New here and new mac user all together. I have looked quite a bit for an answer to this question but have not found one that applies directly to my situation.

My dilemma is that my apartment complex has free (unsecured) wireless but currently with my macbook pro, I can not register the signal in my living room. I just got Airport Express with the idea of extending the signal to all areas of my apartment. However when I go to "Join current wireless network", the apartment's signal does not show up (two other networks do show up though they are password protected).

I have read here that certain routers are not compatible with Airport Express (is this true?) and I am wondering if that's a possibility here.

Is there a fix for this? Do I need access to the router?

Any suggestions or ideas would be appreciated. I hope I won't have to buckle and pay for internet service...

Thanks,
BeauJest

I'm not sure what the router is set to. However I think I solved that problem; I plugged my express in a different outlet and it finally registered the correct network.

My question now is, do I connect to the original network (the one that is being extended) or do I connect to the Airport Express?

EDIT: actually the airport express is no longer showing up in the network list. It was earlier but maybe that was before it found the wireless signal. The question still stands though: do I connect to the original network?

thanks

stridemat said:

Does the router that provides you WiFi have a setting for WDS? If it does then it needs to be turned on. Is there an IT company who provide the service to you? Its worth contacting them.

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