Connect airport express to current network?

[alpha752]

I don't know much about wireless. I have a linksys G router that I have some older hardware connected to. A combo of B and G. I have a hard wired pc that holds my videos and stuff. I want to stream video to my 2010 MacBook Air. The linksys works but it's slow and choppy.

As a cheap alternative I thought I could get an airport express, connect it to one of the ports on the linksys (using it as a switch) and using the airport in N mode to only my MacBook the linksys would still serve wifi to the rest of the house, and I would have a fast N connection for my MacBook on it's own wifi.

My question is, will I kill speeds by hardwiring the airport express into the linksys router? The pc I want to pull files from is hardwired into the linksys also. My thought was, since it doesn't go over the air in G mode, speed would be maintained until it gets to the N airport.

Can anyone else let me know if this is a good idea or if it will work at all?

Thanks.

 

[skorpien]

Hardwiring will not affect speeds. I believe you're thinking of having wireless repeaters, then the speed will be cut in half with every "hop."

The way you suggested works perfectly however and your only speed limitation will be that the Express only has a 10/100 Mbps port. However, your Linksys will probably only have 10/100 Mbps ports since it's Wireless G.

That said, you should notice an improvement in speeds if you connect the Express to the Linksys and set it up in bridge mode operating on Wireless N only. I'd recommend using 802.11n only in 5 GHz mode (as opposed to 2.4 GHz) as the speed will be even greater. Keep in mind that the range will not be as good as 2.4 GHz though, so if distance is an issue you may want to keep it on 2.4 GHz.

 

[alpha752]

Hardwiring will not affect speeds. I believe you're thinking of having wireless repeaters, then the speed will be cut in half with every "hop."

The way you suggested works perfectly however and your only speed limitation will be that the Express only has a 10/100 Mbps port. However, your Linksys will probably only have 10/100 Mbps ports since it's Wireless G.

That said, you should notice an improvement in speeds if you connect the Express to the Linksys and set it up in bridge mode operating on Wireless N only. I'd recommend using 802.11n only in 5 GHz mode (as opposed to 2.4 GHz) as the speed will be even greater. Keep in mind that the range will not be as good as 2.4 GHz though, so if distance is an issue you may want to keep it on 2.4 GHz.

Thanks! Range isnt a big issue, Its a small house.

And Using the Express in N mode will increase streaming from a PC and file transfers over the previous G network?

 

[skorpien]

You're welcome And it should, especially since your PC is hard wired.

 

[alpha752]

I went to the Apple store and picked up an Express, and so far its working great. I havnt played with it too much, but I did a file transfer test, and on the G network it took 3 minutes for a 300MB file, and on the Express N network it took 1 minute, so thats better at least!

Thanks for your help!

 

[skorpien]

Anytime. Glad to help. And glad to see it's working well.