4 express's slowing down my network?

I was under the impression if you added an express to your network as a "music streaming & Printing" express (ie not extending the range of your network) it doesnt effet the overal speed of the network?

I thought every express added on the network that was added to extend the range, then it slows down?

Its just that i have 4 express's and an extreme, the exteme is the main base, 1 express extends the range and 3 express's are for audio only, so the 3 express's shouldnt slow my network down if music isnt streaming?

Thanks for any help

CoMpX said:

Back on topic, just be sure that those expresses are ONLY set up to stream music, and not to extend range. That could be causing a slow down.

Click to expand...

Well i thought if you set up an extreme ONLY to print and/or play music it would effect throughput? is this correct?

Well i thought if you set up an extreme ONLY to print and/or play music it would effect throughput? is this correct?

EricNau said:

Are you certain that they are not extending your range?

Do you have a notebook with Airport? If so, take the notebook to the Airport Express farthest away from the Extreme base station, and see what your signal strength is. (A lot of widgets do a better job of measuring actual signal strength than Mac OS X)

If it's reading full, then that Express is extending your range.

Sorry if this post seemed to only point out the obvious, but usually that is the best place to start.

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Hey

My furthest point from my main Extreme is my kitchen, and in my kithen i have very low strength but i have an express in the kitchen that will stream music

CoMpX said:

Based on that, it appears that they are not set up to extend range. I don't know off the top of my head if just having and express set up to stream music will use bandwidth, but by theory it shouldn't. How much of a slowdown did you notice and when did it occur.

A possible diagnosis, albeit tedious would be to disconnect the expresses from the network one by one to see if any particular one is sucking bandwidth for some reason.

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I think thats a good idea. My issue is i need a good connection as i stream music videos to my pool room, since i added the kitchen and bathroom express's i have noticed the slowdown and video's blip. And i didnt think this would happen if i only set the additional express's to stream music only.

Thanks for the help - i will have a play tomorrow - your right, prehaps one of them is causing an issue - maybe a reset may help.

Thanks again Guys

chaos86 said:

good lord! you can afford $130 * 4 = $520 just to connect to all the different speakers in your house to your network? theyre portable man! send me and the other poor posters here one AE each, keep one for yourself and carry it around like a normal person!

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LOL i dont understand why there are some people that have issues with having every room linked! I love the idea of having every room listed on my iTunes! especially not i can have all rooms playing at the same time (ok i only use 4 (bathroom, kitchen, pool room, lounge, as thats the 4 rooms people use when we have pool nights)

whats the big deal man!? if i can afford it whats the problem!!!

Back to the issue in hand, when i get back from work i will have a long play with the network, as i agree with a few guys here, settting up the router to play music should not extend range and therefore should not decrease throughput

Thanks guys

The problem was with the extreme - i have removed it from the network and everything runs great

mrichmon said:

The extreme should have been the root of your network. The fact that you were able to remove it and the network continues to function suggests that your setup was peculiar.

In general, a home network with the equipment you mention should look like:

Code:

---broadband----> Cable/DSL --->  Airport = = = = => Airport
   connection       Modem         Extreme            Express (extending & music)
                                          = = => Airport (music)
                                                 Express
                                          = = = => Airport (music)
                                                   Express

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sorry, i should have explained further

I tried removing express's thoroughout the house and it stayed the same, so i decided to remove the extreme and have an all express network, i had to reconfigure the entire network with an express as the main router, with other expres's running of it.

All is now running amazingly.