A few Airport Express questions

[calviin]

So far, I've done this. While this works for external drives, I was wondering if I could push it another step and move everything into an external cloud. Thus, the Airport Extreme. Would this same trick work? But since an Extreme is $180 or so, I'm going to get an Express first, which should allow me to expand my wifi range in my house in the future, when I do get an Extreme. Right? Basically, I'm asking if I can get an Express now to act as a standard router and get an Extreme in the future for iTunes. Thanks!

 

[skorpien]

I wouldn't recommend an Express as a primary router due to the fact that it doesn't have any LAN ports. If you want any wired devices to join your network, you'll need a more full-featured router.

Is there any particular reason you're looking to get an Apple brand router? I'd suggest a Linksys router for now, and when you want to move your iTunes library to your network you can get a NAS.

 

[calviin]

I bought a Cisco E4200 but it can't read the USB drive since it only reads FAT32 drives. I can't think of a situation where I will ever need more ethernet cables. If I get an Express now, it'll allow me to bridge later more easily with the Extreme. Or do you have other suggestions that could work?

 

[GGJstudios]

I bought a Cisco E4200 but it can't read the USB drive since it only reads FAT32 drives.

That's not true.

SMB/CIFS file sharing, FTP access and UPnP AV media serving from attached FAT, NTFS or HFS+ formatted drive

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wire...e-wireless-n-router-reviewed?showall=&start=1

I was able to successfully mount and test filecopy performance for both FAT and NTFS formatted drives.

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wire...erformance-wireless-n-router-reviewed?start=2

 

[skorpien]

Honestly I'd suggest getting a NAS and a wireless repeater. You'll get better transfer rates with a NAS, and if you get just an enclosure you can use the HDD you already have in there.

I have my iTunes library on a DNS-323 and it works perfectly.

Edit: But to answer your original question, yes it's possible.

 

[calviin]

Oh huh. Interesting. I tried setting up the external drive yesterday but it would work unless I put in a 8 gb thumb drive in the FAT format. I did share the whole partition and I couldn't find it. Any solutions?