Airport Express g on n Airport Network

[raco]

Hi all,

I was wondering what the outcome of the following scenario would be. I am aware that any peripheral on an 802.11n network that is not an n compatible (ie, lower speed), will bring down the speed of the network to the lowest common denominator.

I will be updating all peripherals to n speed, so now lets assume devices on my network can handle n speed. I noticed I can disable the wireless mode on the Airport express g that i have. So what I have done is disabled the wireless mode, and directly hooked up the ethernet port on the Airport Express g to ethernet port on the Time Capsule. I plan to use this mode just to stream music to my AV system. This will make the Airport Express part of the network, however it's ethernet port is only Fast Ethernet (100Mbs). Being that this is connected via the ethernet port, does that have any affect on the overall performance of the network for peripherals with n capability doing wireless transfers?. (ie, does transferring data between notebook and time capsule wirelessly get affected?). Or for that matter, would it affect peripherals with 1Gbs capability over ethernet connect to time capsule? I would like to continue using the AE g that I have, but if it is going to slow the network down even when wireless mode is off and connecting via ethernet port to time capsule, it does not serve me any good. Comments?

Thanks much for the help.

 

[flopticalcube]

It doesn't slow it down to g speeds by having a g device on the network but n speeds will be lower. For a start, compatibility mode is only 130mbps max vs 300mbps for n only.

If you have the Express not joining the network, it won't affect anything.

 

[Bear Hunter]

You can have your AEBS in 5Ghz, N only and bridge the AE (g), and it will not affect your N speeds (transmit rate=300). Your g devices connect via AE and your N will connect to AEBS.

 

[raco]

Thanks for the info. It is very much appreciated.

I am a bit new to the networking concepts. By "bridging" the AE g how exactly is the connection set up? (ie, does the AE g connect via ethernet to the TimeCapsule as I mentioned?). To be able to have any g devices connect via the AE g, I assume I need to turn on the wireless mode on the AE g. Does this mean setting up the AE g as a different network or is it some kind of special configuration to act as a bridging device? I like the idea and I am interested in any this arrangement that will not affect the N speeds. Is this the connection set up? How would the AE g be configured?

AE[g] <----- ethernet (100Mbs) ------>TimeCapsule<----- ethernet (1Gbs) ---> PowerMacG5

n-devices (Macbook Pro) connect to TimeCapsule (via wireless)
g devices (PowerBook G4) connect to AE[g] (via wireless)

thanks again