Airport Express to PS2

[cwright]

Ok, here's my setup...

3 computers (G5 Powermac, 2x G4 Powermacs) are networked to a cable internet via a D-Link 4-port router that also has a wireless connection. Using this, my dad's powerbook can tap into the same network via his Airport card.

So, we now have an airport express, and an ethernet adapter for the PS2. I assumed that the PS2 would work online using the Airport Express as a bridge to our existing network, but I can't get it to work. I thought this was possible? Does anyone know how to make it work?

Also, the 3 desktop computers do not have wireless cards in them, and they will not let me set up the Airport Express because of this. I thought this would still work since they are linked to each other via the D-Link router?

My dad is out of town with his powerbook, so I won't be able to test it for a few days.

 

[Gee]

Yes, it's possible. You need to get the airport express to join the network that the router is creating - search these forums for instructions on how to do that, as it's not as straightforward as if you were connecting to an apple basestation.

Once the express have joined the network, you should just be able to plug in the ps2...

 

[superbovine]

you need to buy a dlink wireless bridge.

you can't do this with an airport express because you and only "extend" a wireless network using buffalo or apple products i.e. you can't use airport express as a bridge with a dlink. search the forums there is a lot of post on this.

 

[cwright]

Gee: I looked around on the forums and haven't found any instructions on how to make this work... if you could give me a link to a thread that does, I'd appreciate it.

Now, I have my dad's powerbook here, and I can't even get the audio to network the way I want it. I have tons of music on my computer (connected to the D-Link 4port + Wireless router) that his PB can access via the wireless network. What I want is to be able to use his powerbook as a "remote" for the music on my computer. However, the D-Link router and the Airport Express have created 2 seperate wireless networks. At this point, I can play music to the Express, and access music on my G5 wireless, but not both at the same time.

Can anyone tell me how to merge the two wireless networks to make this work? superbovine, can you explain what the wireless bridge is? how is it different from the wireless router, and why would I need one?

Right now the music streaming is main priority, but I still need to get this setup to allow the PS2 online wirelessly as well.

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

 

[rtdgoldfish]

Check out this thread:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/105460/

I posted a whole thing about how I got my AirPort Express to work with my existing network. Basically, you have to make the AirPort join the other network. I don't know how to make another router join a network created by the AirPort Express but you could try to switch some steps around. If that thread still doesn't help, send me a PM and I'll see if I can help any more.

 

[cwright]

Thanks for your help!

I now have it set up and working correctly... sort of.

I managed to merge the two networks, and now I can connect to my G5's iTunes library and the Express at the same time via the powerbook.

However... I'm having dropout problems, and I think the D-Link router is to blame. Before we ever got the Airport Express, the router always gave us errors when connecting wirelessly from the laptop and many times it takes 5 minutes just to get the network to be recognised...but it works just fine for the wired ethernet ports. The wireless signal it sends is very weak, and I think that's why I keep getting audio dropouts.

Right now, when I play music from the Powerbook to the Express, I only get one or two dropouts per song, but when I use it to stream music from my G5 to the Express, I get closer to 15 dropouts per song.

And... those numbers are when using the Powerbook on the 1st floor, one floor below where the wireless router is located. When I go to the basement (where this needs to be installed permanently) neither option plays very well at all.

I'm pretty sure this a problem with the router. Do I need a different one with better range? Or can I get something that extends the range? Even then... I thought the Airport Express was supposed to do that as well, and it should be well within range of the router.

Do you guys have any other ideas how to fix the dropouts?

Thanks
Chris

 

[jlewis2k1]

why dont you just get this http://netgear.com/products/details/WGE111.php ?

 

[cwright]

Well, that looks like it would work just fine, but we already have the Airport Express, and it seems that with a little work, we can make it work just as well. Plus, with the Express, we get the added benefits of music sharing and the option of adding a wireless printer...

 

[Blurb]

CW-

Here's a short thread (from another mac forum) discussing this same thing, but a little more specifically. http://forums.dealmac.com/read.php?1,2013787

As to extending the range, if your Dlink router is on one floor and the AExpress on a different floor, that may be the best you can get, and the AExpress should extend the range of the Dlink for you. You want to set it to join and extend the range of the Dlink's network, and you have to use WDS. See the very last post, I think. However, if the range of your router is pretty minimal, you may have something interfering with it's signal (e.g., a nearby 2.4ghz cordless home phone, or something large and metal interfering --like the fridge or metal storage shelves??)

Hope this helps.