Airport Extreme as a WiFi Extender?

[CaptTCS]

Hi.. I am setting up the network for my new house, which is kinda big.

Is it possible to set up an Airport Extreme to use as a WiFi Extender, and on the same network as another WiFi router?

Thanks.

 

[Intell]

Yes, but only for other Apple Airport base stations.

 

[Mr Kram]

yup. no problem.

 

[CaptTCS]

Yes, but only for other Apple Airport base stations.

Hmmm.. What I had in mind was to get a Motorola Surfboard Cable Modem with Built-in Wireless-N WiFi, have that in the Living room, with the Apple TV, and have the Airport Extreme in the Office acting as a WiFi range extender, network bridge to my media server, and connection for network printer and drives.

Would that not work?

 

[blueroom]

To my knowledge the AirPort extender modes only work reliably with other Apple AirPorts.

 

[CaptTCS]

To my knowledge the AirPort extender modes only work reliably with other Apple AirPorts.

Thanks.

 

[blueroom]

Added problem with extenders is a fairly substantial throughput hit. Media servers won't be happy. Consider wired Ethernet where possible and Ethernet over power vs WiFi.

If you must go the WiFi route and don't want a throughput penalty, look into setting up the routers as a roaming network. You will have to wire all the routers together via Cat5e and not every router supports roaming (the Apple AEBS does).
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4260

 

[Apple Fan 21]

Added problem with extenders is a fairly substantial throughput hit. Media servers won't be happy. Consider wired Ethernet where possible and Ethernet over power vs WiFi.

If you must go the WiFi route and don't want a throughput penalty, look into setting up the routers as a roaming network. You will have to wire all the routers together via Cat5e and not every router supports roaming (the Apple AEBS does).
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4260

Is it possible to create a roaming network using Ethernet over power line adaptor to get Cat5 to the 2nd APE?

 

[blueroom]

Is it possible to create a roaming network using Ethernet over power line adaptor to get Cat5 to the 2nd APE?

Can't see why not. Ethernet over power is just going to look like wired Ethernet to a device. It will have less speed (~200Mbs depends on adapter) and more latency but if you can't run a wire it's the next best thing. Added bonus (or not) depending on your point of view is it should cover the whole house with ease, and might work on a few of your neighbors homes too. Don't worry the adapters are encrypted.

 

[orestes1984]

Can't see why not. Ethernet over power is just going to look like wired Ethernet to a device. It will have less speed (~200Mbs depends on adapter) and more latency but if you can't run a wire it's the next best thing. Added bonus (or not) depending on your point of view is it should cover the whole house with ease, and might work on a few of your neighbors homes too. Don't worry the adapters are encrypted.

Awesome, this is how I intend to wire in my Airport Extreme into the rest of my network. Thanks for the clarification and saving me having to create a new thread.