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Airport Express for the Road Warrior

S

ScottFitz

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 3, 2007
666
0
Silly application, but well worth the 99 bucks for me...

I travel a lot and many of the hotels I stay at don't have wireless. I get anchored to the desk with the RJ45 cable. So, I'm using the Aiport Express to create a secure private wireless network in my hotel room.

I guess I could just have bought a really long RJ45 network cable. But who wants to travel with a 25' cable.
 
ScottFitz said:
Silly application, but well worth the 99 bucks for me...

I travel a lot and many of the hotels I stay at don't have wireless. I get anchored to the desk with the RJ45 cable. So, I'm using the Aiport Express to create a secure private wireless network in my hotel room.

I guess I could just have bought a really long RJ45 network cable. But who wants to travel with a 25' cable.
Click to expand...

I just stay at the desk. That way I have room for the comp'ed wine & nuts, my notes, and I'm close enough to the tube so I don't have to wake the guy in the next room while I watch Law & Order for hours & hours & hours...

Life on the road is pretty pathetic, ain't it?
 
I've used the Airport Express for the same task. No adapter to carry around is a real plus with it. There are very few routers like it.
 
jalagl said:
I've also used it when sharing a room with somebody, or when you have to pay for access.
Click to expand...
It does have that router in your pocket feel to it. :p

I sold my old Express g ages ago and the new n one is somewhat tempting but I already have a nice n Buffalo Router. :D
 
I've had the Express since it first came out and have used it at home to extend my network and to print and play music wirelessly. I have never taken it on the road. If I did, would I have to reconfigure it every time I went somewhere else?
 
sleepingworker said:
I've had the Express since it first came out and have used it at home to extend my network and to print and play music wirelessly. I have never taken it on the road. If I did, would I have to reconfigure it every time I went somewhere else?
Click to expand...

Setting it up was completely independent of the hotel high speed access. I just set it for DHCP and off it went.


Dude, it's an Apple product. It's simple to use. It just works.
 
sleepingworker said:
I've had the Express since it first came out and have used it at home to extend my network and to print and play music wirelessly. I have never taken it on the road. If I did, would I have to reconfigure it every time I went somewhere else?
Click to expand...

You can set up different location profiles in the airport setup utility (One for home, one for hotels, etc).
 
This is exactly how I use the AE unit; for hotels that only supply a wired connection in the room, I use the AE once I have configured the connection. I can roam around the room without seeing if the cable can stretch. Big advantage comes when I am travelling with my wife who has her own laptop, then we can share connection easily (yes there are ways of doing this without spending $99, but hey)

cheers,

-p
 
This is good to know as I will be doing a lot of traveling coming up and since I'll be taking my Macbook Air, I have to have a way to wireless connect at hotels. I was thinking of getting the usb dongle but then again, I would much prefer to be wireless the way God intended. :D
 
Can someone help me understand this better. At my house I have the news airport base station with the computers/ gadgets in my sig, so will it extend the range of my network?can I just plug it into an outlet connectthe printer/stereo and off it works. To me it seems like a cool thing but I am still confused.

ChrisN
 
ChrisN said:
Can someone help me understand this better. At my house I have the news airport base station with the computers/ gadgets in my sig, so will it extend the range of my network?can I just plug it into an outlet connectthe printer/stereo and off it works. To me it seems like a cool thing but I am still confused.

ChrisN
Click to expand...

Chris you can either use it to extend your current network or create a new network. When I'm in my hotel, I'm creating a new wireless network that is used only by me. I tie into the hotels high speed network. All I'm doing is untethering my laptop from the hotel CAT5 cable that is now plugged into the airport express.

Another cool use of this gizmo is to use it to add a printer to your wireless network at home. You can also plug it in near your home stereo and then plug in an audio cable to your stereo and stream your itunes library/playlists directly through your home stereo.

It's just a very flexible wireless port device. What is nice for me now is that I can use my ipod touch wirelessly in my hotel room now that I have set up my private little network.
 
ChrisN said:
Can someone help me understand this better. At my house I have the news airport base station with the computers/ gadgets in my sig, so will it extend the range of my network?can I just plug it into an outlet connectthe printer/stereo and off it works. To me it seems like a cool thing but I am still confused.

ChrisN
Click to expand...
YES WE CAN (hehehe) ;)

From the manual: "You can also connect AirPort Express as a client to an existing network. Connect Airport Express to your stereo or powered speakers and use AirTunes to play music from iTunes."

Additionally you can extend an existing airport network.
 
brn2ski00 said:
The AE is not a router. It is a wireless access point.
Click to expand...
What is your definition of a router? Mine is: "route an internet connection to one or more clients" and that is exactly what my AEX is doing. I connected my cable modem to the ethernet port of the AEX and I am typing this on a MB via a wireless connection. :rolleyes:
It even does port forwarding AFAIK
 
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