but down the road I get another wireless router? Would it be possible to use it as an extender?
to extend via wireless, all of the base stations must be apple (it
might be possible to do with some others, but you need to know what you're doing)
by extend wireless i mean
Code:
base station 1 [COLOR="Blue"]--wireless-->[/COLOR] base station 2 [COLOR="Blue"]--wireless-->[/COLOR] computer.
also with this setup, base station 2 is using half of it's bandwidth to talk to the computer and the other half to station 1, so your speed will drop in half.
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since it sounds like your home is already wired, You'll want to use the express as a wireless bridge,
so
Code:
Main router
[COLOR="Red"]|||[/COLOR]
[COLOR="Red"]||+-wired-->[/COLOR] Computer 1
[COLOR="Red"]||[/COLOR]
[COLOR="Red"]|+-wired-->[/COLOR] Express 1 [COLOR="Blue"]--wireless-->[/COLOR] computer 2
[COLOR="Red"]|[/COLOR]
[COLOR="Red"]+-wired-->[/COLOR] Express 2 [COLOR="Blue"]--wireless-->[/COLOR] computer 3
which means your main router will handle all of the network basics (passing out IPs, firewall, etc...) and the express will just "bridge" the wired and wireless parts of the network. the express works like a basic network switch, except some of it's connections are wireless.
set up in this way, computers 1, 2 & 3 are all on the same network. This is helpful for things like apple's remote app where you want your iphone to be able to see your laptop.
also with this setup, if you decide that you need more coverage in another area, like the second floor, you can get a second express, set it up exactly the same, but a different channel, and your devices will switch to the stronger/closer base automatically without you even knowing. also in this way, you don't see the drop in bandwidth that comes from wirelessly extending. plus devices on the different floors are using separate available bandwidth.
*computer in the drawings also means iphone or ipad
