AirPort Express - Buy Or Not?

***I apologize if this is the wrong section, I am new to these forums.***

So here is my issue:

My current ISP is Time Warner Cable and my family and I have our devices connected to a Belkin router. The problem is there are about 7-8 devices connected to it, including my laptop and iPhone 5. You can all probably guess that the connection that I get on my phone is pretty below average. When watching youtube videos for example, the videos would stop loading constantly and the only way for me to fix this (most of the times, not all), is to turn off the HQ option, which makes the videos look like a complete mess. And even when browsing the web, sometimes I would have to refresh the page or enter the link again because it takes FOREVER to load. At the university I attend however, the connection is FLAWLESS so it's not a hardware problem (just throwing it in there, haha).

I was thinking of purchasing an AirPort Express and to use that as a router in addition to the Belkin one I have in order to connect my devices. My question is, will it be worth it for what I do? Mostly I am on my laptop/phone browsing the web and little gaming here and there. I should also note that the current setup is in the living room and I am usually in my room, a good 30-40 feet away. Will the AirPort have good signal coverage?

To recap: basically I want to buy an AirPort Express and use it mostly for browsing the web, watching videos, and light gaming. Will the AirPort Express be worth it for my needs? Bear in mind, if I do purchase it, most likely I will be the only one connected to the network (good connection on my phone hopefully?), whereas everyone else opted for the Belkin router.

Thanks in advance for the advice/feedback!

Richdmoore said:

The first thing I would do is to run a Internet speed web site with your laptop on wifi when other people are doing their normal Internet use. After that, I would go to the router and using an Ethernet cable connect the laptop up that way as well and run the speed test again. (This is checking to see if your speed problems are poor wifi signal, or simply too many people using the Internet bandwidth.)

I am going to assume you already did this, and are positive it's just the wifi signal that is the issue. If it is simply too much use of the Internet by everyone, upgrade your time Warner plan to a better (more expensive) one.

I don't think apple's airport express can extend a non apple wifi wirelessly. I can think of three options:

Relocate the existing router to a better place in the house. If it is the far corner of the house, see if you can put it more centrally located position to get more coverage.

Get an AirPort Extreme (latest gen), let it do all the routing. The latest gen has beam forming, which helps aim the wifi signal to where it is needed (increasing range). It may help enough that you get good coverage in the entire house.

Get an AirPort Express/extreme, place it where you have signal problems, and run an Ethernet cable back to the belkin router to extend the network that way. If you can't run a wire back, look into Ethernet over power adapters to connect the two devices. Be sure to disable the routing function on the "remote" router to prevent double nat issues.

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Hey Rich, much appreciated for the response. I do believe that the issue is because of too many people connected. I ran a speed test just now with and without the ethernet cable. DOWN/UP was 15.92 mbps / 0.75 mbps, respectively without ethernet. With ethernet I was getting in the 30 mbps for download. To provide further information, at night, when everyone is asleep, when I use my phone, the speed is much faster (youtube videos work without buffer on HQ, etc, etc).

I was told by an Apple representative that if I buy a AirPort Express, it should be better since I will be the only one connected to this AirPort, as no one else will be using up the bandwidth since they are connected to the Belkin router. Or is this wrong?

And regarding your option #3, that was what I was planning to do. I was going to hook up an ethernet from modem to Belkin router (as it currently is) and then another ethernet from Belkin to AirPort, and use this AirPort for WiFi while others use Belkin for WiFi.

Thanks for both the feedback. I'm still looking more into this issue before making a verdict. Before this many devices in my house were connected, my Wi-Fi (namely on my phone) was fine.

My major concern in all this is more that my phone's (iPhone 5) Wi-Fi is affected more significantly than my laptop's Wi-Fi. The main reason (and it might sound ridiculous to some people) that I am considering an AirPort Express is so that my phone can have better signal/bandwidth/connection usage. As mentioned earlier, when I use my phone at the university I attend, the internet there is amazing. Of course this may be a whole different story but has gotten me to believe that rather than a possible hardware issue in my phone (which I have heard about affecting others), that the source could be an overloaded router that's being used by many devices in my house.

Weaselboy said:

I agree that may be part of the issue, but he says when nobody else is on at night he gets full speeds, so I do think the sharing is the main issue. Hard to say which is most at fault.

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Is there any other experiments I can run to narrow it down even more as to what the source of the issue is?

If this is of any help, recall that I am mainly considering purchasing an AirPort because my phone gets poor speed, I.E. youtube videos. On my laptop, even when everyone is connected, surfing the web and watching videos load fine without having stopping to refresh or buffer. Again, the purchase would go more towards my phone rather than laptop.

Even though I gained speed when using a plugged ethernet rather than wireless, my laptop is fine both ways. It is the phone that lacks.

I was hoping that maybe a router by Apple, even with Time Warner Cable, would have a more "compatibility," if you will, with my iDevice.

Weaselboy said:

What make/model laptop is it? So you are saying the iPhone 5 wifi slows even if the laptop is just on and connected to wifi even without necessarily downloading anything?

I have another idea. I suspect your Belkin router does not support "simultaneous dual band" wifi. So if say your iPhone5 connects at wireless N 5Ghz and is flying along, then another older device connects at 2.4Ghz... everything on the wifi network will drop back to the slower 2.4Ghz. I may be that this is what is going on with you. The new Airport Express does support simultaneous dual band, so might help your situation. Cn you get one somewhere local you can exchange it if it does not help?

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My laptop is one that I received from my uncle from Japan and is a Panasonic model on Windows 7. As for the Belkin router it is this one.

Here are the specifics to how devices are setup in my house:




I have sketched a very brief outline of where the computers are in the picture shown. L=Living Room, G=Grandparent's, M=Mine, A=Aunt's.

Currently the modem and Belkin router are setup in my living room, above a computer. We use two ethernet cables with one connected to the living room computer and then another to a laptop in my grandparent's room, which is in the room adjacent to the living room. These two basically use wired connection rather than wireless all the time.

Then we have another laptop in my aunt's room, adjacent to the living room as well. And then there is the laptop that I use which is in my room, which is the room across my grandparent's room. Both of these laptops are on wireless mode most of the time.

Now for the handheld devices, we have an iPad 4, iPhone 4, and iPhone 5 which are of course also on Wi-Fi. If I can count, I believe that is a total of 7 devices so far. Even my aunt feels that her iPhone 4 has been slow in terms of connectivity.

All of these devices are connected to the same network and same Belkin router that is currently in the living room. I notice that as soon as the devices are not being used, especially when both the computers in the living and grandparent's room are shut down, my phone loads much faster. In fact, this happened last night for verification.

Weaselboy said:

That Belkin router does not support simultaneous dual band wifi.

I guess we need to define "being used". If these other devices are connected to wifi but not actively downloading anything, and when that occurs you still have slow DL on your iPhone, that points to the simultaneous dual band scenario I mentioned in my last post, and a new router that does support simultaneous dual band would likely help.

But if by "being used", you mean these other machines are actively downloading, that is more likely just a function of you all sharing the same data pipe to your Internet provider.

You could kill two birds here by getting a newer router that has simultaneous dual band and also can handle QOS controls, then give your devices higher QOS priority. Something like this Asus model would do both.

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My grandma uses the computer in the living room and my grandpa uses the one in grandparent's room. Being the elders that they are, most of the times, they are streaming videos/movies on the computer as they have nothing else to do and so I might think this would consume a fair amount of connection.

As for my aunt, she also watches videos/listens to music from time to time on her devices.

Weaselboy said:

Yep... especially if they are streaming vids, that will eat up all the bandwidth in a hurry. What speed are you paying TW for 15/2? I still think if you got a router that can handle QOS and use that to ration out the bandwidth a bit, it would help. Heck, with a 15/2 connection you could have five of you at 3mpbs each and still get a pretty good experience with QOS enabled at the router level.

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I honestly have no idea haha. When it comes to bills and all that, including TW, I am not the one paying for it. I'm just a college student if you were wondering and not too tech savvy either.