a theoretical airport express question

[absurdio]

I, like everyone here, have been drooling over the glorious airport express. I'm left with a couple questions though (one of which i'm pretty sure i know the answer to).

The easier question is this: I live in a house with a crazy intricate local network (including linux, mac, and windows alike), and right now there's just an ethernet cable running from the router to my room. So I'm hoping I can just plug that into the airport express (just like i'd plug it into my computer) and set up my own personal little wireless network. I suspect I can, partly because of this picture , which mentions "connecting to DSL or cable modems or a local network". If there's any reason to suspect I can't do that, though, let me know before I rush off and buy one.

Second question: do you think it'd be possible to hook a usb hub up to the usb port on the airport express and, through that, be wirelessly connected to a printer, a scanner, and whatever else? Or is that usb port strictly for printers somehow? Anyway, thanks, folks.

 

[Abstract]

Easiest Question: Instead of unplugging the cable that would normally go from the router to your computer, and into Airport Express instead, why don't you just plug the ethernet cable into Airport and get every computer a wireless card? And if you don't want to, then yes, you can connect a cable between your router and APExpress. APExpress doesn't work like a regular wireless router does. I'm not sure if you'd be able to do this with Airport Extreme.

2nd question: I think it would be possible, but I'm not sure. You're not doing all that stuff simultaneously, so I guess its not so draining.

 

[robbieduncan]

Second question: do you think it'd be possible to hook a usb hub up to the usb port on the airport express and, through that, be wirelessly connected to a printer, a scanner, and whatever else? Or is that usb port strictly for printers somehow? Anyway, thanks, folks.

I'm fairly sure this won't work as Airport Express is not exporting USB over the network. It's advertising itself as a network printer. Computers send print commands to it, not USB so it will only work with printers.

 

[absurdio]

mm. good point. And it doesn't suggest anywhere that it'd be possible, so I suspect you're right that it wouldn't work. But I can dream...