I have an airport extreme I use for WiFi through our the home but was wondering if I could connect a ethernet cable to it and go directly to a laptop to hard wire it rather then use wifi?
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Airport Extreme Question
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Yes, the AE is after all a router. You didn't mention which generation AE you have but it does have 2 Gigabit LAN ports and 1 Gigabit WAN port.
Sorry I have the most resent on. 6 gen I think
[doublepost=1466540370][/doublepost]Is all I have to do is plug a ethernet cable into back of airport extreme LAN port to in to laptop or is there something else I need to do?
You also have to check your Network prefs to make sure the ethernet interface is at the top, or your computer will still use wifi despite the fact the ethernet is connected. Either that or turn off wifi when using ethernet.
3 items to know about Ethernet Cable -
1) don't go beyond 100 meters (in case you are traveling through a large home from end to end)
2) most Ethernet cables work well but the end "plugs" (RJ45) connectors are the weakest parts so be careful
3) Ethernet comes in different types. Most popular are designated "cat 5e" and "cat 6." Cat 5 should be avoided when using faster Internet and/or communications between devices.
When you connect to your AE, one port is for your connection to the Internet and the others are for what you are attempting to do. Don't confuse which is which.
Learn the interface to the AE as you may find you need to release the IP address and renew it under certain circumstances. There are basics to using routers that people should learn and it really is not very hard. You don't need to know the details just how to "manage."
1) don't go beyond 100 meters (in case you are traveling through a large home from end to end)
2) most Ethernet cables work well but the end "plugs" (RJ45) connectors are the weakest parts so be careful
3) Ethernet comes in different types. Most popular are designated "cat 5e" and "cat 6." Cat 5 should be avoided when using faster Internet and/or communications between devices.
When you connect to your AE, one port is for your connection to the Internet and the others are for what you are attempting to do. Don't confuse which is which.
Learn the interface to the AE as you may find you need to release the IP address and renew it under certain circumstances. There are basics to using routers that people should learn and it really is not very hard. You don't need to know the details just how to "manage."
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Gigabit, I think you'll find. But on the other hand plain cat.5 is almost getting hard to find nowadays.
Thank you for the info.
Could you take a minute and give me your opinion on my situation.
We have Time Warner Internet with Turbo package 20/2 which is 20 download and 2 upload I think.
My wife works from home and connects to her company remotely. She has a PC laptop connected thru Wifi. We also have 2 iPhones, 3 iPads, smartv, 3 directv genies, iMac and wifi thermostat. Family of 4.
They aren't all going at the same time.
She complains about dropped wifi on her PC. Mostly when I connect to wifi on iMac. I am only surfing the net.
I can't see why he surfing the net would cause Internet drop but I see connection issues at times also.
I have a Motorola SB6141 modem with a Apple AirPort Extreme router.
Time Warner has been here a few times since we moved in on 2014. Can't find issue. They were here 2 days ago. Changed cable from outside of house to modem. She still noticed Internet drops as usual.
I bought Ethernet cable and connected it to AE directly to her laptop thinking this will end all issues. But still seeing dropped connects.
Could it be the AE and the SB6141 not getting along?
Anyone else having issues with SB6141 and AE combo?
If so what should I replace modem or router?
Any advice, feedback would be appreciated.
If you are getting drops while connected by ethernet, the problem is likely with the ISP.
How long is the ethernet cable between the modem and the Airport Express? It is possible that it is a bad cable and you could try replacing it.
Also try unplugging the AE from the modem and connect a laptop directly to the modem to see if you still get drops. If you do, it is definitely the modem or a problem downstream of the modem (i.e. the cabling to the modem or an ISP problem.)
How long is the ethernet cable between the modem and the Airport Express? It is possible that it is a bad cable and you could try replacing it.
Also try unplugging the AE from the modem and connect a laptop directly to the modem to see if you still get drops. If you do, it is definitely the modem or a problem downstream of the modem (i.e. the cabling to the modem or an ISP problem.)
Not likely. I used that exact combo (Time Capsule which is the same router hardware) for ages with zero issues. If she is getting drops even over ethernet, it sounds more like an issue on TWC's end.
Next time she has drops, click this link. It will take you to the modem's status page. Once there, click over to the modem's event log tab. Do you see a bunch of T3 and T4 errors in the log that coincide with the date time of her drops? If you do, TWC has an issue between them and your modem causing the drops and only they can fix it. Note the modem's times will be in GMT and off some hours from your local time.
I went through this for two months with TWC in late 2007 and they finally found a bad connection in a junction box a couple miles from me that fixed it for good.
http://192.168.100.1
The Ethernet cable is brand new. She was getting drops so I connected the modem direct to her computer at 12 pm est when she was on lunch from work.
I'll keep you up dated
I meant the ethernet cable between the modem and the AE, not the one between the AE and the computer. Also, how long is the cable between the modem and the AE?
The modem and AE are beside each other. The Ethernet cable was bought this week and is 100 feet long.
I haven't change the cable from modem to AE.
After connecting via LAN, it still drops when your iMac connects via Wi-Fi or at any time?
Is her iMac the only one losing connection?
Is her iMac the only one losing connection?
It happens more often when I am on my iMac.
She is on a PC.
I notice the network slower while on iMac.
Her PC gets slower and she says she gets a message from her Remote Desktop she is connected to and your connection is lost and attempting to reconnect
A quick test would be to have her PC connect directly to the modem and see if the issue persists.
(Make sure a firewall is running on the PC as connecting directly to the internet without a router can be dangerous. I believe Windows 10 has a setting to treat the network like a public network, which should be set first).
Glad others are here to help out with some great advice.
The catch with intermittent drop outs is that you have to go through (at times) many trial and errors to resolve.
What would help is to give a bit more details - when you say more than one device on WiFi causing issues, could you provide info if they are all at 2.4 or 5 access on your AE? Also are they all 802.11a or 802.11n or...
While an odd one, you may also want to check if you are suffering issues of double NAT as well, along with learning about MTU (check your PC to see if it is set to 1500 or auto or...)
As another said here, bypass the AE and directly connect your PC to your modem via cable. See if this resolves the drop outs. If not, then also you may want to dabble with some other parameters. Make sure your provider properly sees your modem (registers it) and btw, did they provide it or did you purchase it? Sometimes with respect to the latter, the provider cannot access firmware on the modem which leads to some challenges.
You may want to look up terms such as DHCP, bridge mode etc. Get yourself a bit familiarized with these terms. Also look up port forwarding which in some odd cases, makes a difference for VPN type connections.
Last - if there are any forums dedicated to your modem, you may want to search there for people with similar problems while using an AE. I do know that some modem have challenges on the provider side even though they say the modem is on their list of usable modems. In a kinder world, you would opt for another WiFi router to test with and if the problem continues, you would go back to your AE as you know the chances are the problem is elsewhere.
The catch with intermittent drop outs is that you have to go through (at times) many trial and errors to resolve.
What would help is to give a bit more details - when you say more than one device on WiFi causing issues, could you provide info if they are all at 2.4 or 5 access on your AE? Also are they all 802.11a or 802.11n or...
While an odd one, you may also want to check if you are suffering issues of double NAT as well, along with learning about MTU (check your PC to see if it is set to 1500 or auto or...)
As another said here, bypass the AE and directly connect your PC to your modem via cable. See if this resolves the drop outs. If not, then also you may want to dabble with some other parameters. Make sure your provider properly sees your modem (registers it) and btw, did they provide it or did you purchase it? Sometimes with respect to the latter, the provider cannot access firmware on the modem which leads to some challenges.
You may want to look up terms such as DHCP, bridge mode etc. Get yourself a bit familiarized with these terms. Also look up port forwarding which in some odd cases, makes a difference for VPN type connections.
Last - if there are any forums dedicated to your modem, you may want to search there for people with similar problems while using an AE. I do know that some modem have challenges on the provider side even though they say the modem is on their list of usable modems. In a kinder world, you would opt for another WiFi router to test with and if the problem continues, you would go back to your AE as you know the chances are the problem is elsewhere.
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I haven't had a PC in years so not to familiar with their network settings.
Wife has Windows 10.
Any suggestions on what I can check on her computer to verify it is set correctly
Try reading through these pages -
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/...1&v2h=win7tab1&v3h=winvistatab1&v4h=winxptab1
Don't fret as it is not really that hard to get through. Btw, did the PC come with Win 10 installed or did you upgrade it to Win 10 or...? I only ask as one thing I didn't think about was the network drivers may need to be updated (as well as whatever software is being used to connect from the PC to work etc. may not be fully Win 10 compatible).
BTW, what model/make is the PC? I know some models have had issues with network connectivity when upgraded to Win10. The culprit at times are related to the network drivers.
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/...1&v2h=win7tab1&v3h=winvistatab1&v4h=winxptab1
Don't fret as it is not really that hard to get through. Btw, did the PC come with Win 10 installed or did you upgrade it to Win 10 or...? I only ask as one thing I didn't think about was the network drivers may need to be updated (as well as whatever software is being used to connect from the PC to work etc. may not be fully Win 10 compatible).
BTW, what model/make is the PC? I know some models have had issues with network connectivity when upgraded to Win10. The culprit at times are related to the network drivers.
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