Connecting 2 Airport Extremes over ethernet

[octatonic]

Hi all,

I currently have one Airport Extreme connected to my cable modem.
I run a long (50m) cable to the back of my house so I can get fast (wired) internet for my Mac Pro.
That room doesn't get particularly good wifi given the distance it is from the AE so things like my iPhone and iPad don't work so well in that room.

I thought of adding a second AE and connecting the two over ethernet and connecting my Mac Pro directly to the second AE and everything else over wifi.
Will this work easily?
How do I set up the second AE so it works properly?

Thanks.

 

[mulo]

I was in your situation and ended up moving my AEBS to the middle of my house and pulling a cable - now i have great signal everywhere

 

[blueroom]

Could you put a wireless card in the Pro and enable sharing?

 

[Jolly Giant]

assuming both airport express (AX) units are the newer "n" version, the second AX can be configured to extend the wireless range of the 1st and have its ethernet port active for a wired client.

the AX creating the network must be configured to allow this network to be extended and the 2nd unit must be configured to extend the network created by AX 1.

if this works depends on possible sources of wireless interference. obviously AX 2 needs to receive a clear signal from AX 1.

also, instead of running a 50m cable, you could use a pair of powerline adapters such as these.

 

[octatonic]

I was in your situation and ended up moving my AEBS to the middle of my house and pulling a cable - now i have great signal everywhere

Unfortunately that won't work as I have a few things plugged into the AE over ethernet (Xbox 360, TV, Apple TV).

I really don't mind buying another AE provided it will work in the room where my Mac Pro is as fast as it currently does.

 

[octatonic]

Could you put a wireless card in the Pro and enable sharing?

It already has one.- but this solution will not work for me.
My Mac Pro is my main audio computer and I don't want it doing anything else other than running Logic and email.

 

[octatonic]

assuming both airport express (AX) units are the newer "n" version, the second AX can be configured to extend the wireless range of the 1st and have its ethernet port active for a wired client.

the AX creating the network must be configured to allow this network to be extended and the 2nd unit must be configured to extend the network created by AX 1.

if this works depends on possible sources of wireless interference. obviously AX 2 needs to receive a clear signal from AX 1.

also, instead of running a 50m cable, you could use a pair of powerline adapters such as these.

Thanks for the response- ok, looks like I should be able to give it a go.
The main thing I need is to have the Mac Pro continue to be connected over ethernet whilst getting a decent amount of wifi in that room, ideally connecting the two Aiport Extreme's over ethernet- everything else can connect over wifi in that room.

FWIW, the powerline thing won't work as that room has its own power circuit that it completely isolated from the rest of the house (it is my recording studio).

 

[octatonic]

Ok, so this is annoying.

I bought the new Airport Extreme and set it up in my studio.
It seems Apple in their wisdom have made you choose either to have it work as a wireless device or to work as a wired device.

Why is that?

I can connect the two Airport Extremes over ethernet ONLY if I disable the wifi.
I have my Mac Pro and Apple TV 1 in the studio connected this way at the moment but it means I cannot extend the wifi network.

OR I can use the new Airport Extreme in wifi mode- wirelessly linking the two.
The problem with this is the wifi network is MUCH slower than then wired network.

I have a 50MB internet connection.
What I want is to be able to connect the two Airport Extreme's together using ethernet and extend the wifi network at the same time?

Fortunately I have an Airport Express kicking around so I can extend the wifi network with that.

It does seem a bit stupid to have to have 3 devices in order to get fast internet in my studio and extend the wifi network as well.
Oh well.

 

[skorpien]

Try plugging in the Ethernet cable from the first Extreme into the WAN port of the second Extreme and disable DHCP on the second Extreme. To do so, you'll need to turn Connection Sharing to "Off (Bridge mode)" on the second Extreme.

This allows you to use the second Extreme as a wireless access point and the first Extreme will handle all routing functionality.

The only drawback to this is you will be unable to have a guest network using the bridged Extreme.

 

[octatonic]

I have it sussed.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4260 has a document on how to set up a roaming network.

I had to select 'create a network' in wifi settings of the second Airport Express and then duplicate the same settings as the primary Airport Express.
All sorted now.
Thanks for the help.