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Adding airport card to Mac Mini

I am ordering a mac mini with built in extreme, i am moving house so (i currently live in a flat so distance isnt an issue)

In my new house, my mac will be upstairs and i want to run my musin downstairs.

I currently have a aiport express base station, attatched to me modem and stereo.

If i get airport extreme on my mini, will it work with an express base station? and will distance be a factor? the lounge is at the front of the house, and the bedroom my mac will be in is on the next floor at the back of the house, if it will be an issue, what is the workaround?

Many Thanks
 
It depends on the type of walls and other interference you get marknicholls. I've got an Express (same range as the Extreme apparently BTW) which is downstairs, and about 30m away. The reception was pretty bad (not awful though) and since I use my AirPort for large file transfers, not just internet (which doesn't generally push the station to its limit) I got a second Express and set up a WDS network which was really easy.
 
A mini with Airport Extreme will work fine with an Express basestation. Distance is a factor on the quality of reception, as is interferance and the number/thickness/construction of walls between the devices. If you cannot get good enough reception you would need another base station of some sort inbetween and run with WDS.

Damn, Mad Jew said basically the same thing, just faster.
 
mad jew said:
It depends on the type of walls and other interference you get marknicholls. I've got an Express (same range as the Extreme apparently BTW) which is downstairs, and about 30m away. The reception was pretty bad (not awful though) and since I use my AirPort for large file transfers, not just internet (which doesn't generally push the station to its limit) I got a second Express and set up a WDS network which was really easy.
Click to expand...

Thank you. So the express will simply sit inbetween the mac and the first express and it would work as a go-between?
 
marknicholls said:
Thank you. So the express will simply sit inbetween the mac and the first express and it would work as a go-between?
Click to expand...


The second Express just has to be in range of the first one, set it up to do WDS, and it'll rebroadcast the wireless network another half distance away, if that makes sense. Also, it'll only be capable of half the speed of the first one for some reason. That shouldn't matter though. I'd try it without a second Express first, just to see if you really need it.
 
I cant wait to get it all set up in my new house :)

The only thing that is a bit of a worry is i currently use a PDA with salling clicker as a bluetooth remote to control iTunes, this is currently no a problem as my mac is near my stereo.

Is there anyway i can extend the range of bluetooth so my lounge can reach the bedroom on the net floor? maybe 15 metres away with all walls....currently i reach about 4 meters going through 1 wall!
 
marknicholls said:
Is there anyway i can extend the range of bluetooth so my lounge can reach the bedroom on the net floor? maybe 15 metres away with all walls....currently i reach about 4 meters going through 1 wall!
Click to expand...
Just hope (like i am) that Steve will show us a new airport express with BT @ WWDC
Congrats on the (purchase of the?) new house btw!
 
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