802.11n Bridging Airport Extreme and/or Airport Express

[smartlamb]

Hi Guys

This is my first post here and I'm only a recent Mac convert so please be gentle with me!

I have a fairly good understanding of wired and wireless networks and I'm trying to confirm that the either an Airport Extreme and an Airport Extreme or Airport Express can work together in bridging mode. I have a set-up where I have one part of the house happily hard wired (all through a gigabyte switch) and the rest of the house covered by 802.11g but unfortunately I have a multimedia player in my bedroom but not Ethernet (hard wiring) in the room. The Media player only has an Ethernet port and I have managed to get 802.11g working in bridge mode using a Linksys WAP54g (v2.0) in Access Point mode connected to the switch and a Linksys WAP54g in client mode connected client mode (eg working as a bridge) but it on the border of the 802.11g range and changing in atmospheric conditions can stop it working (which is bloody frustrating when you're watching a movie and have to drag yourself out of a warm bed to try and fix it).

So essentially I know that 802.11n has greater range (and speed but that's not a concern as I'm only streaming Standard Def media) than 802.11g but none of the big vendors (Linksys, Belkin, etc) have a 802.11n product that is capable of bridging. After a lot of internet research I read that the Airport Extremes are capable of doing this. I went into my local Apple store to ask the guys here but it was something they thought might work but couldn't confirm and suggested I ask here, which the home of the Mac gurus according to these guys!!

So before I run out and buy 2 airport extremes or 1 airport extreme and 1 airport express can anyone confirm that they have managed to get 802.11n bridging working on either airport extremes and/or airport expresses?

Huge and many thanks in advance

S

 

[smartlamb]

I bought em anyway

I found a store with a good return policy will test an Airport Extreme and Airport Express and I will see tonight if Apple puts the competition to shame on wireless N bridging!

 

[smokestack]

the express can act as a bridge (dispite what a mac 'genius' told me)
i currently have an express as a bridge for use with a hardwired original XBOX media centre which connects to my wireless network from a WRT54G (again, dispite what a different mac genius said was impossible)

the setup with the express is, i imagine, easier than with the Linksys, but that wasn't too difficult either.

i cannot comment on the benefits of 'N'

 

[smartlamb]

It works a treat!

Thanks a million for the response smokestack and looks like great minds think alike as I use mine for my beloved 2nd XBMC (world's best media centre bar none and has a version that runs on intel Macs, for those who prefer HD content only, kick ass over frontrow). Oddly enough I'd just ported from Linksys WAP54Gs (one running as an AP and the other in client mode). I ended up running the Airports with WDS and putting the MAC address of the respective devices in each other's configs and runs soooooo fast compared to 802.11g it's not funny!

I ran with a Airport Extreme base and Airport Express in WDS and all I can say that Apple have the only working native N bridging mode compared with the likes of Linksys and Belkin.

Gawd bless yer Apple for good OSs and good networking equipment!

Smokestack if you feel game and wanna try the WDS check out:

The WRT54G from Linksys is able to make use of the Wireless Distribution System via a 3rd party firmware like DD-WRT, FreeWRT, HyperWRT, OpenWrt, Sveasoft, Tomato Firmware, Tarifa and X-Wrt. WRT54G also supports WDS as an undocumented feature with stock firmware.[2]