Airport Express vs Other wireless routers

[farqueue]

Hello people, i am thinking of buying an airport express and just need some opinions from you lot.

Here are my concerns, is it really worth it to pay $129 for an AE or just go with 80 bucks with a WRT54G wireless router?

Whats the range like? any good? can i extend my existing network (belkin PRE N router)? i herd it can only extend the range of wrt54g

 

[PlaceofDis]

i'm not sure about extending your range but the key benefit of an Airport Express is that you can stream your music to it. if you have no use for this then i don't see much point in getting one to be honest with you.

 

[huggeee]

I previously had an airport express as my wireless router, however i just changed it to a WRT54GS and my network now seems to run much faster.

I am yet to work out how to use the airport express to extend the range of my WRT54GS, it might be possible but i'm not sure?

Personally I think the WRT54GS is much better value and a better bit of gear, unless you want to use the airtunes....

 

[generik]

I am yet to work out how to use the airport express to extend the range of my WRT54GS, it might be possible but i'm not sure?

Unfortunately no, you need a wireless range extender or perhaps 2 wireless routers connected to each other, supporting WDS.

Odds of the AE supporting WDS are much lower than a snowball's chances of surviving in hell.

 

[jaxstate]

On the apple site it says you can use a Airport Express to extend your current network. http://www.apple.com/airportexpress/ I dont know how true this is. Just read the little "*" by the extending. "AirPort Express can extend the range only of an AirPort Extreme or AirPort Express wireless network.
"

 

[rjgonzales]

I have 3 AEs that I bought refurbished ($99 down from $129) Now that airtunes supports multiple speaker playback, it was an easy way to get "whole house music" as I already had powered speakers in several rooms. It also allows me to have a wireless printer in my family room so I can print from my macbook without having to go to the study to get said printing.

 

[generik]

Does printer sharing work for Windows systems too?

And more importantly... would the AE integrate well into an existing wireless network as a "client" and not as a "router"?