Airport express as router

[comictimes]

OK, I know this is going to sound really stupid, but I have the only computer in the house with wireless, and this is rather important. I just wanted to make sure that airport express (what I have) can act JUST as a router, to connect multiple computer together, rather than only to broadcast wireless internet (and music, and all that good stuff).

 

[crazzyeddie]

It only has one ethernet port, so it can only act as a router for wireless computers, not wired.

 

[comictimes]

It only has one ethernet port, so it can only act as a router for wireless computers, not wired.

Yes, but could you simply plug it into the wall and then have five or six computers able to transfer files in between each other wirelessly?

 

[Logik]

Yes, but could you simply plug it into the wall and then have five or six computers able to transfer files in between each other wirelessly?

yes... it supports up to 10 clients on the express. anymore and you need the airport base station. it creates an internal network.. which can then use NAT and such to let them access the internet if the outside connection is detected or connected... you don't have to have it hooked to the net to use it.. otherwise it just creates an internal LAN

 

[peterj1967]

If you really need to make sure your one machine goes all the time, I would ay keep it wired or get a true wireless router or base station.

I use my AE as a wireless router for 2 computers in a studio apt in NYC. It took me a lot of fiddling to get it stable. There are 8 other wireless networks I can see so my machines would drop connections on waking from sleep and restart, it would drop a lot of music when playing things and was a pain.

What I did to fix it was, set the AE to one channel, reduce the level of security I had, turn on internet robustness, and to fix the music dropping set the QT settings to a much lower speed.

So far so good this morning, but I don't trust it fully yet

 

[comictimes]

yes... it supports up to 10 clients on the express. anymore and you need the airport base station. it creates an internal network.. which can then use NAT and such to let them access the internet if the outside connection is detected or connected... you don't have to have it hooked to the net to use it.. otherwise it just creates an internal LAN

Awesome. Thanks. I was basically positive that was the case, but I wanted to make sure before something important happened where I needed to use it just as a router.