Airport Express - Will it play nice with a non-Apple network?

[noonard]

Hi,

I'm thinking of buying an Airport Express for several reasons. I currently have a Netgear wireless router serving the whole of the house, which has patchy coverage in areas.

What I would like to do is get an AE (probably the non-N model from eBay - as my existing router isn't 802.11n so there would be no benefit) and set it up with the Netgear wireless router as it is, and the AE extending that network wirelessly (using the same SSID, I forget what the term is for this sort of configuration but you know what I mean).

All OK so far - although this quote from the Apple Store worries me a bit:
"AirPort Express can extend the range only of an AirPort Extreme or AirPort Express wireless network."

Has anyone had experience of this?

The other things I would like to do are to use the AE to receive music via AirTunes (pretty standard I guess - that should work fine...) AND here's the crunch - if possibly I'd also like to be able to plug an xBox into the AE via the ethernet port. Can you use the ethernet port on an AE in this way or is it just for uplink/WAN connections?

Hope someone can answer all my long-winded queries, and with any luck just say "yep, that will work" !

Thanks!

 

[cyclingplatypus]

I've got mine set up with a D-Link but not as an extension, as an additional connection point. I use the D-Link for everything wired and game systems since I don't need wireless access to those and then I use the AX for wireless access but I still have access to my wired old school Replay TV to download from it. So you can use it and still have access to the thing off the other router you just need the IP address.

 

[noonard]

Thanks for that - but I'm still unsure whether I can use it to extend a non-airport network wirelessly or not... I assume yours is connected to your router via ethernet?

 

[cyclingplatypus]

Actually I use it wirelessly to connect, no ethernet cable. But it might be worth a shot to see if you can set it up that way because it does give you the option to join a wireless network.

 

[iOrlando]

pretty sure you can extend non-apple wireless network. Just google some reviews online. sometimes they try it out.

 

[noonard]

Cool - it sounds likely that it will do what I want then, I guess I'll just give it a try!

Thanks for the responses.