Airport Extreme + 3x Express Roaming Setup

[stephenc92]

Currently, I have two Airport Express base stations acting as repeaters for the main Linksys router. I can roam from Airport to Airport fine, but can't do this once connected to the Linksys.

I am considering getting an Airport Extreme to replace the Linksys router, but I have two questions.

1. Will roaming work throughout the house perfectly if I switch to an Airport Extreme as the main router?

2. How do you go about setting this kind of system up? I believe it's similar to a WDS, but I want to use Ethernet on each base station because I can and it will be faster than relying on wireless.

 

[waw74]

if you already have wired connections to the 2 remotes it should work with the linksys.

make sure you have the same SSID and security settings on all 3 routers, you have to pay attention, since the security terminology might be slightly different and you need to make sure it's the same setting even if it's a different name.
also make sure you have the expresses in bridge mode.

your device will automatically pick the strongest signal.
also you won't be able to "connect to the linksys" as you will pick your network name, and won't know which of the 3 bases you're connected to*.

*you can figure out which one you're connected to by option-clicking on the airport item in your menu bar and looking at the BSSID and comparing that mac address to your airports and linksys.

 

[stephenc92]

if you already have wired connections to the 2 remotes it should work with the linksys.

make sure you have the same SSID and security settings on all 3 routers, you have to pay attention, since the security terminology might be slightly different and you need to make sure it's the same setting even if it's a different name.
also make sure you have the expresses in bridge mode.

your device will automatically pick the strongest signal.
also you won't be able to "connect to the linksys" as you will pick your network name, and won't know which of the 3 bases you're connected to*.

*you can figure out which one you're connected to by option-clicking on the airport item in your menu bar and looking at the BSSID and comparing that mac address to your airports and linksys.

Unfortunately it doesn't work quite so seamlessly at the moment. I can tell when I'm connected to the Linksys, because on that router the network printing and AirPlay do not work for some reason. The settings are as identical as I can get them, but as you say the Linksys uses slightly different terminology so maybe they just won't work together.