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daxdagr8t

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 1, 2004
68
0
will the airport express extend the range of any wireless router or you have to a an airport or ae base station?
 
At this time, it is not truly known whether it will work with any 802.11g router... BUT I'm guessing it will only work with other Airport Express or Airport Extreme units because of the setup utility that Apple uses for configuring the units to extended the range.
 
i found this in apple website "AirPort Express can extend the range only of an AirPort Extreme or AirPort Express wireless network." i guess it won't work.=, i guess my only option to extend the range of my wireless network is to get a directional antenna. :(
 
That's not necessarily true. When I called to order mine, I asked the sales rep specifically if it would act as a repeater for an 802.11b signal and if it would work with other brands of routers. He told me that Apple did not formally claim the compatibility, but he has seen it work most of the time. I did order this item on the day it was announced, so I dont know how much time a lowly sales rep could have to play with this new technology, but he sounded confident to me. I hope it works with my D-Link wireless router. It would be a shame if it didn't, thats one of the main reasons I bought it. :p
 
mrviga said:
That's not necessarily true. When I called to order mine, I asked the sales rep specifically if it would act as a repeater for an 802.11b signal and if it would work with other brands of routers. He told me that Apple did not formally claim the compatibility, but he has seen it work most of the time. I did order this item on the day it was announced, so I dont know how much time a lowly sales rep could have to play with this new technology, but he sounded confident to me. I hope it works with my D-Link wireless router. It would be a shame if it didn't, thats one of the main reasons I bought it. :p


thats a glimmer of hope!well can u update us if it does really work in extending the range or ur wireless network? :D
 
mrviga said:
That's not necessarily true. When I called to order mine, I asked the sales rep specifically if it would act as a repeater for an 802.11b signal and if it would work with other brands of routers. He told me that Apple did not formally claim the compatibility, but he has seen it work most of the time. I did order this item on the day it was announced, so I dont know how much time a lowly sales rep could have to play with this new technology, but he sounded confident to me. I hope it works with my D-Link wireless router. It would be a shame if it didn't, thats one of the main reasons I bought it. :p

Hmm...Very Interesting. When I called Apple, the day after the Airport Express was released, I got the exact opposite information. I was told that it works as a repeater through the Extreme and Expresses' firmware, and that it absolutely will not repeat a signal from a non-Apple router because it must have the Apple firmware.
 
Well, only 5 days until its released, and I'll definitely report back as to whether it worked or not. Either way, its an awesome device as I HATE wires with a passion, and now my speakers don't need to be plugged into my PB. Now, all I want is a 23" display and a bluetooth mouse and keyboard. :):):)
 
5 days...?

mrviga said:
Well, only 5 days until its released, and I'll definitely report back as to whether it worked or not. Either way, its an awesome device as I HATE wires with a passion, and now my speakers don't need to be plugged into my PB. Now, all I want is a 23" display and a bluetooth mouse and keyboard. :):):)

I was in an Apple store a week ago and one of the "key holding" employees thought that they might see them in by Friday (which was yesterday). I called but they said that they were not in but I was being optimistic.
We need one of these things now.
 
U2Rules! said:
Is the airport extreme card compatible with Netgear wireless systems?

I think it is. There's probably a compatibility list somewhere on Apple's site. You'd just need to configure it differently.

JOD8FY
 
theranch said:
I was in an Apple store a week ago and one of the "key holding" employees thought that they might see them in by Friday (which was yesterday). I called but they said that they were not in but I was being optimistic.
We need one of these things now.

My ship date is still the 15 July, I ordered as soon as they went up on the UK Apple edu store but fo some reason they didnt have them up on the UK store until a couple of days after they were released so maybe some people will get them sooner.

I guess we will soon see if this functionality is there, I sure hope it is.
 
We can hope.

I Hope it works with other routers, but I am not expecting it to. If it does not I will be investing in an Apple Airport. Dang 5 days... I can't wait.
 
I think we'll all be pleasantly surprised

The thing that makes me optimisitic about working with non-Airport units is that "Airport" is built around an open standard.

I suspect that Apple is only claiming Airport compatibility to avoid support issues for non-Apple models.

As I type I'm using a spanned external 19" LCD with a G4 iBook. The official specs state that the iBook does NOT support anything but mirroring, but that's only because Apple ARTIFICALLY crippled standard Mac OS X spanning support during their iBook setup routine.

The iBook hack merely changes the setup to allow for what the hardware and software can obviously suppport.
 
mrviga said:
That's not necessarily true. When I called to order mine, I asked the sales rep specifically if it would act as a repeater for an 802.11b signal and if it would work with other brands of routers.
same here. That's what they told me.
 
Can the airport express be used as your main wireless router? I'm hoping that it can be because that would be great to be able to carry it back and forth from school so I'm not restricted to wires at home.
 
Just a mini router

smurfsgonewild said:
Can the airport express be used as your main wireless router? I'm hoping that it can be because that would be great to be able to carry it back and forth from school so I'm not restricted to wires at home.

Sure - only limitation, I believe, is that it only supports up to 10 users at once.

It's not priced anywhere near the "bottom end" of routers. You can get a full feature wireless router, with 4 wired connections, for about half the express' price. But Apple is hoping that it covers the portable end, as well as the "linking your stereo to your iTunes collection" section of the market.

Here's the link to it's specs:

http://www.apple.com/airportexpress/specs.html
 
Yeah, I know that it's possible to get cheaper wireless routers but I love the fact that it's so small and won't be a problem to carry around. The AirTunes feature will be quite nice to have also.
 
so there isn't really a need to buy an airport extreme base station (without antenna), is there? one can simply get an airport express unit and enjoy all the benefits of wireless access.
 
m.r.m. said:
so there isn't really a need to buy an airport extreme base station (without antenna), is there? one can simply get an airport express unit and enjoy all the benefits of wireless access.
unless your a school or business, airport express is perfect for the home user & laptop owner.
 
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