AirPort Express Questions about a problem I am having

[swimlikehell]

I bought an Airport Express yesterday since my LinkSys router crapped out on me. I got it hooked up and everything last night, it is hooked directly to my cable modem with WPA security on it. My MacBook does not connect to my system automatically even though I have it set to, my thought is because it takes a while to locate it for some reason when I come out of sleep or startup. Also my internet in ridiculously slow compared to my LinkSys with the same security and it was a g not n. Finally I was wondering if I connected an external hard drive into the usb plug if I could access that hard drive from a different network, or do I need to get a time capsule for something like that? If anyone has any help it would be much appreciated. Thanks.

 

[waw74]

Apple Knowledgebase - Uses for the USB port

AirPort Express Base Station with 802.11n

* Single powered USB printer directly into the USB port, or several printers to the base station via a powered USB hub
* Additionally, you may use the Keyspan Express Remote. If you want to use the remote and a printer at the same time, it's OK to use a powered USB hub to make that possible.

you would need to get a time capsule or an airport extreme with an external drive.

Have you power cycled/reset the modem? sometimes they get cranky if you change what's plugged into it without doing that.

under advanced on the airport network settings panel on the macbook, is your new network at the top of the list? if there is "linksys" or something highter, your laptop may be trying to connect to that first, and not be able to.

even "B" is faster than a standard home cable modem/DSL connection, so you shouldn't see a difference no matter what flavor you're using, unless there are multiple clients, or non-internet traffic happening on the network.

what wireless mode is the express in?

• 2.4GHz B/G compatable
• 2.4GHz N only
• A Compatable
• 5GHz N only (with or without wide channels)

you might want to swap to the other ( 2.4 or 5 ) possibly there's interference from a cordless phone or something?