Can airport express do this?

[gus6464]

I just put together a new home theater and I am wondering if anyone could give me some input on the following:

I want to build a small form factor pc with about a TB of hdd space so that I can rip all of my wife's music cds to apple lossless. Now the pc will be sitting next to the ht receiver. What I am wondering is how can I make it so that my wife can play the music that is on the pc out the ht receiver by using itunes on her macbook pro. Can the airport express allow me to do this is if its connected in the following way?

pc -> ethernet -> airport express -> digital (coax or toslink) -> receiver

Then the airport express would be connected to the wireless router so that she can see the shared music on the pc. The only thing that she would be doing wireless is selecting what song the pc will play through the airport to the receiver.

 

[benlee]

the airport express only has an input for ethernet. Therefore this would be your connection from your dsl or cable modem. i have my airport express connected to my receiver by way of a 50 foot mini-jack cord because its on the other side of the room but it is wireless from my mbp to the airport.

you would have to get a wireless card for the pc in order to do this and set up a wireless network.

 

[gus6464]

So the ethernet port on the airport express cant be used to allow a nonwireless pc be on the network? What im trying to explain is if it can work in some sort of access point mode where it will use the wireless to connect to the router and allow for the connection to be shared to the ethernet.

 

[benlee]

So the ethernet port on the airport express cant be used to allow a nonwireless pc be on the network? What im trying to explain is if it can work in some sort of access point mode where it will use the wireless to connect to the router and allow for the connection to be shared to the ethernet.

The airport is 100% wireless. Anything beyond that i do not know. you may be able to connect to your pc which is connected to a modem but i doubt it. You can buy a cheap wireless card for the pc and just set up a wireless network. sorry i cant help beyond that.

 

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

The AirPort Express has support for wired access (in fact I've turned off the wireless on mine completely after getting an Extreme for internet, printer and disk(s)) and connected it by wire to one of my Extreme's Ethernet ports, so it's a part of the network).

Just Enable AirTunes over Ethernet in the AirPort Utility.

Now, to control the "iTunes Server" from a Mac is another matter all together, but that might others help with...there are some ways, but I've not found any satisfying, yet...

 

[Mebsat]

Express works wired

I use an Airport Express as a connection for an older G4 tower that didn't have Airport built in. Instead of buying a used airport card (pre-extreme), I use the Airport Express to connect the machine via ethernet and get a range extender on the network too. It works great.

Reminder: Apple equipment has automatically adjusted for crossover/straight cables forever. Some cheap motherboards/ethernet cards don't, so if you run into problems use a straight cable.

 

[yetanotherdave]

I use an Airport Express as a connection for an older G4 tower that didn't have Airport built in. Instead of buying a used airport card (pre-extreme), I use the Airport Express to connect the machine via ethernet and get a range extender on the network too. It works great.

Reminder: Apple equipment has automatically adjusted for crossover/straight cables forever. Some cheap motherboards/ethernet cards don't, so if you run into problems use a straight cable.

So if I have a G4 mini without wireless, I can use the ethernet port to connect the mini to the airport express, which will then connect to the wireless network, and allow the mini to go online and share my speakers?

 

[killerrobot]

I remember reading somewhere (can't find it now) that someone used a networkable external for the same purpose. Instead of using a PC as the storage and then having to try to work between two operating systems, you're wife would only have to connect to the external as the iTunes library from her mac.

No idea if any of that would actually work, or if price would be an option but it's an idea.

Good luck setting it all up and I hope it works great for you.🙂

 

[aristobrat]

I use an Airport Express as a connection for an older G4 tower that didn't have Airport built in. Instead of buying a used airport card (pre-extreme), I use the Airport Express to connect the machine via ethernet and get a range extender on the network too. It works great.

I use an Airport Express in my roommates room (hooked to a hub) to give his non-wireless TiVo and non-wireless Windows PC network access.

I think this feature only works if your other router is also an Airport.

What I am wondering is how can I make it so that my wife can play the music that is on the pc out the ht receiver by using itunes on her macbook pro.

Never used it before, but check this out:
http://www.shirt-pocket.com/netTunes/netTunesDescription.html

 

[gus6464]

I went to the apple store 2 days ago and asked a mac specialist if the airport express could do what I wanted and he said that a cheaper alternative instead of having a whole new computer would be to just connect an external hard drive to the airport express' usb port. He said airtunes would recognize the drive and that the receiver could play the songs from the hard drive through my wife's macbook pro.