Airport Extreme as a modem?

[mkaiser1]

Right guys, I know that this question will have been asked somwhere before, but I need to ask again.

I live in the UK and get my broadband provided by Sky. I also use their free wireless router as my modem. This is the only device I use for networking in my house. However, it's bloody useless! I want to invest in an Airport Extreme and use it as my wireless router/modem. I intend to plug it into my telephone/network socket directly and allow everything (iMac, 2 PC laptops, a Wii and an Xbox (and in the future 2 iPhones and an Apple TV/Mac Mini)) to connect to it. FYI, I would connect the iMac and Xbox with a cat5 cable and everything else would use wi-fi.

Will this work? IE, Can the Airport Extreme be used as a modem in this way?

Thanks in anticipation everyone.

 

[liketom]

APE is not a Broadband router - Sky broadband uses BT ADSL to connect so you will have a dedictated router just for that -

just plug in an ethernet cable from your sky router into APX and use APX as your wifi

EDIT See below post i made a (*)(*) of my self

 

[JNB]

APE is not a Broadband router - Sky broadband uses BT ADSL to connect so you will have a dedictated router just for that -

just plug in an ethernet cable from your sky router into APX and use APX as your wifi

You have the terms backwards. The Airport Extreme is a broadband router (and firewall/DHCP server, etc.), but it is not a modem.

For the OP, it goes like this: ADSL ---> ADSL modem ---> Airport Extreme ---> Wired/wireless devices. Remember, you can access the internet without the router, but not without the modem.

Some modems do in fact have router functionality built-in, but that is neither standard nor required.

 

[liketom]

yep me bad - do not know if i'm coming or going today

getting my routers muddles up with my modems

 

[mkaiser1]

That's clearer now I think. So the little free 'router' I have from Sky (which is actually a netgear) has a modem built into it? But if I connect that to the Airport Extreme I can use the Airport Extreme as my 'base station'?

Also, if the above is the case, don't Apple make a modem or a modem and router in one?

 

[skorpien]

That's clearer now I think. So the little free 'router' I have from Sky (which is actually a netgear) has a modem built into it? But if I connect that to the Airport Extreme I can use the Airport Extreme as my 'base station'?

Also, if the above is the case, don't Apple make a modem or a modem and router in one?

Apple only makes base stations that are routers. No modems, sorry. However, you can always set it up as a bridge, so that the netgear does all the DHCP and NAT and the base station just acts as a secondary wireless access point. If you want, you can turn off the wireless on the Netgear so that the Apple's the only one broadcasting an SSID, or you can set up a dual band network where the Netgear doles out the 802.11b/g band and the Apple can be set up as an 802.11n only band.