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Airport Express, but not wireless

F

foosa

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 14, 2006
12
0
The guy who lived in my house before me wired every room with ethernet. So I never set up a wireless network. I have a Netgear router hooked up in my study where the DSL comes into the house and where a lot of my other gear is.

I have a standard ethernet jack right by my stereo system on the other end of the house. Can I get an Airport Express and not use the wireless feature or the routing feature? I'm looking for a way to play my iTunes on my stereo and I'd like to plug the Airport Express into the ethernet connection and stream my iTunes to it, but I don't get whether the ethernet port will work for that or if it's intended to plug into a hub.
 
foosa said:
I'm looking for a way to play my iTunes on my stereo and I'd like to plug the Airport Express into the ethernet connection and stream my iTunes to it, but I don't get whether the ethernet port will work for that or if it's intended to plug into a hub.
Click to expand...
I'm not sure I'm with you foosa but I'll give it a shot.....

If you've got a wireless card in your computer you'll be able to stream your iTunes to your AEx and then stereo without pugging it into your ethernet. That'll work fine - but i think this is what you don't want to do.

If you don't have a wireless card and want to stream via ethernet through your AEx I'm not sure if you can. I've actually never tired though. Your problem might be itunes not registering your AEx is there if it's not connected via wireless. If it's just on the network it might be invisible.
 
I too am a little confused by your question but will take a stab

Airport Extreme is basically a mini wireless router. Meaning you can plug it in, hook up an ethernet cord and have wireless. You do not have to have wireless before hand. It works the same with the stereo and printer. Just plug in the AE and then plug in the stereo cord and it wireless stream music into your stereo through your iTunes.

Hope this helps. If not, let me know what else you want to know.
 
For sure you can use it as a stand alone. Thats what I do in my house. But I am connect via the wireless card in my iBook. Do you want to do it over ethernet because I think that is possible, but I am not positive if it will work.
 
I don't have wireless at all and I don't want to install it. I have an ethernet wired house and all of my equipment (PC's, TiVo, etc.) use wired cards. What I want to do is have my iTunes available on my stereo. I can't run audio cables from my office to my stereo, but there's an ethernet jack by the stereo.

So I have my computer plugged into my wired network and I want to get an Airport Express solely for the purpose of sharing my music with the stereo. So I want to plug it into the wired ethernet network and play songs from my computer to the stereo.

Has anyone done that?
 
foosa said:
So I have my computer plugged into my wired network and I want to get an Airport Express solely for the purpose of sharing my music with the stereo. So I want to plug it into the wired ethernet network and play songs from my computer to the stereo.
Click to expand...

This is supported by the Airport Express.
 
mrichmon said:
This is supported by the Airport Express.
Click to expand...

that's going to take some time researching.

it was hard enough for me to get my AE to work with my Linksys router wirelessly, I'm not sure how it'd work attached to an ethernet connection.

where there's a will, there's a way though, i guess.
 
fowler. said:
that's going to take some time researching.

it was hard enough for me to get my AE to work with my Linksys router wirelessly, I'm not sure how it'd work attached to an ethernet connection.

where there's a will, there's a way though, i guess.
Click to expand...

Getting the AE to work wirelessly with a Linksys (or other non-Apple router) involves establishing a network link to the AE. Using an AE in a wired fashion is supported by Apple on any router and also means that the network connection already exists.

The AE Setup Assistant uses bonjour to find and configure the AE and this will work out of the box for a wired connection. The only thing to be careful of is that you disable DHCP on the AE, but this should be handled automatically by the AE Setup Assistant.
 
sort of related

i know w/ AE u can do some cool things
my house:

2 ae units
1) into the stereo & printer
2) into the wire from the hub that goes into the DSL router

3 laptops
1) 12 PB...w/ airport
2) some retarded PC
3) an old ibook w/o airport-

however- we plug the old ibook into the hub
and can not only listen to tunes on the shared network off of the PB - but can also 'send' airtunes to the stereo

so- short answer
it's worth a try
buying one AE unit- plug it in near the stereo
pop the eithernet jack into the wall there & into your computer
then under AirPort Admin Utility-
setup the AE unit- and set it up to run music...etc
ought to work

tinker w/ it
:) best of luck
 
Thanks for the info. One more minor question, although it won't affect my decision to buy. Can I turn off the wireless on the AE altogether? Since I won't be using it I'd rather not have it broadcast.
 
Sorry, I lied, one more question. Is there a better (or cheaper) way for me to do this? Since the main purpose of the AE is the wireless and I'm not going to be using it I was wondering if I had some alternative that I wasn't thinking of.
 
foosa said:
Sorry, I lied, one more question. Is there a better (or cheaper) way for me to do this? Since the main purpose of the AE is the wireless and I'm not going to be using it I was wondering if I had some alternative that I wasn't thinking of.
Click to expand...

There are other devices such as SqueezeBox but they are not cheaper.

Another alternative that some people use is to run the audio signal over the ethernet cables in the wall. Audio = four wires, ethernet cable gives you 8 wires. The only trick is finding an adapter cable for each end. Depending on how much of an audiophile you are, this might work for you.
 
You're right, and this quote:

Ability to disable the AirPort wireless interface - If you have your AirPort Express connected to an ethernet network for use with audio and printing features, you can now turn off the AirPort wireless interface if you do not wish to have a wireless network

seems to indicate that I can do exactly what I want. Thanks.
 
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