airport express domiantes my network?

[andiwm2003]

ok, i bought an airport express today. i will install it at my girlfriends place. so to test it i set it up in my apartment. whenever i plug the POS in i can't see my airport extreme anymore. i have no intentiopn to use that damn thing. i just want to give it a name and that's it. why do i not see my own network anymore. WDS is off. even in management utility only this POS shows up as soon as I plug it in. and why does my mac automatically connect to the airport express. if my mac can't see the original basestation anymore shouldn't i have no network selected. and I pick then whatever network I want. there seem to be no setting in the prefs to say "don't join any network unless manually selected".


so is there something wrong with my airport extreme (old model, g) or did i goof up the settings or is apple like microsoft and decides for me?

i hate that thing. all i want isone computer to one basestation and nothing else.

andi

 

[mad jew]

On your Mac you can opt to not automatically connect to the new AirPort. This option is in the Network pane of System Preferences. Double click on AirPort and in the By Default Join menu, select Preferred Networks. Then remove the new AirPort from this list.

However, why don't you want to join the new AirPort to the old one with WDS? It sounds like they're interfering with each other and even if changing their broadcast channels helps, I can only see a benefit in connecting the two.

 

[andiwm2003]

On your Mac you can opt to not automatically connect to the new AirPort. This option is in the Network pane of System Preferences. Double click on AirPort and in the By Default Join menu, select Preferred Networks. Then remove the new AirPort from this list.

However, why don't you want to join the new AirPort to the old one with WDS? It sounds like they're interfering with each other and even if changing their broadcast channels helps, I can only see a benefit in connecting the two.

thanks, i'm gonna try to remove it from my preferred list. but i somehow think it simply overpowers my airport extreme althoug that is sending on 32mW.

regarding joining the networks: i'm planning to install the express at my girlfriends house to replace a linksys g router. i just wanted to set up the AE, give it a name and practice how to set up the router. during that time my regular airport extreme dissappears and i can't check the web anymore. since i have no clue what i'm doing there i need the internet to learn how to set up the network. catch 22.

anyway, setting up the airport express is easy (WPA, Password, closed network, list of MAC adresses that are allowed to connect and all that).

but i don't get any internet.

i connect it to my comcast cable modem via ethernet and select DHCP but no connection. could it be that i have to switch off/on the cable modem to accept the new MAC adress of the new airport express? can one spoof the MAC adress on an airport?

that would be an idea for a macrumors guide: setting up airport extreme/express on all the various internet providers and how to make them secure.

 

[mad jew]

Okay, you can only connect to one network at a time. Hence, if you're setting up an AirPort then you can't be connected to the internet through another AirPort. As for getting ti to connect to the 'net, I'm not sure what the problem is. Do the settings match your other AirPort's? Definitely try power-cycling the router/modem but if it's attached to a specific MAC address then I'm not sure what you can do.

 

[andiwm2003]

Okay, you can only connect to one network at a time. Hence, if you're setting up an AirPort then you can't be connected to the internet through another AirPort. As for getting ti to connect to the 'net, I'm not sure what the problem is. Do the settings match your other AirPort's? Definitely try power-cycling the router/modem but if it's attached to a specific MAC address then I'm not sure what you can do.

thanks, i never found out why i can't see the airport extreme anymore as soon as i switch on the airport express. they where only 10 foot apart so maybe the express just overpowers the extreme? i don't know. now the express is at my girlfriends apartment and everthing works fine.

i just wonder what i would do if I had my extreme in my livingroom connected to comcast cable for the internet and my express 6 foot away to stream music to the stereo. in that case i would lose the internet connection. doesn't make a lot of sense.......

 

[mad jew]

No worries mate. I'm glad it's all working now. If you bought an Express, you could connect them via WDS and they'd be a single network. You'd get the best of both worlds and even if they interfered with each other, it wouldn't matter so long as the routers could see each other and you could see one of them, if that makes sense.

 

[kwood]

thanks, i never found out why i can't see the airport extreme anymore as soon as i switch on the airport express. they where only 10 foot apart so maybe the express just overpowers the extreme? i don't know. now the express is at my girlfriends apartment and everthing works fine.

i just wonder what i would do if I had my extreme in my livingroom connected to comcast cable for the internet and my express 6 foot away to stream music to the stereo. in that case i would lose the internet connection. doesn't make a lot of sense.......

To be able to stream the content to your stereo and surf the internet you would have to join the base stations in WDS mode. What is happening with the express is that both your base stations are broadcasting at the same frequency. In this case the Express is more powerful and knocks the Extreme off line. If you want two networks in your house, to alleviate this issue you need to set the base stations to out put at different frequencies.

You can do that through the Airport Admin Utility or the Airport Utility (which ever you use). Set the Extreme on channel 1, and the Express on Channel 11. That should fix the problem.

EDIT: And mad jew beats me to the punch.