Help - airport extreme with N and G network

[plaidhippo]

Hi all,
I've got a few specific issues that I am trying to deal with on my home network.

airport extreme base station in N compatibility mode, with older airport express on the G network.

N devices: AEBS, macbook, macbook pro, apple tv
G devices: dell pc, old airport express with printer connected, wii
wired device: xbox 360

I can't get itunes on the dell pc (g network) to see the apple tv at all. How can I get it to stream to the apple tv on the N network? I'm sync'ed up with the mac, but I can't find any way to make the apple tv even become visible in the usual "devices" portion of the itunes main interface. For the macbook, I also don't seem to be able to see the apple tv as a device to which I can stream music/movies/photos. Is there a preference I'm missing somewhere?

I run a vncserver on the dell machine so I can just log in via the macbook pro. I can't seem to connect to that anymore either, even though I've given the ip correctly in chicken of the vnc. Can't seem to connect to the dell like I used to when I had everything on a B network.

Can the Dell PC open a mac formatted external drive connected to the AEBS? i see a pop up saying to connect to an airport disk, but I never see anything else or the disk pop up in any "my computer" area. Is this possible at all, or is it not workign due to being a mac formatted disk? Would Macdrive address this issue for a networked disk?

Sorry for the large number of questions. Any help would be much appreciated! I would be happy to answer more questions if this is too complicated.

Thanks all,
Ashish

 

[aristobrat]

Are you running two separate WiFi networks? i.e. your N network has a different name than your G network?

Regarding your Dell being able to open a Mac-formatted drive via the Extreme, the Extreme should be able to "translate" for your Dell. That shouldn't be a problem.

Seems like devices on your different networks can't talk to devices on the other network.

The way I have it setup in my house is like this:

I have a 2.4GHZ b/g network called "GehWeg24" setup on an old Airport Extreme. My cable modem plugs into this Airport.

I have a 5.0GHZ n-only network called "GehWeg50" setup on a Time Capsule. The Time Capsule is connected to the Airport Extreme via an ethernet cable. The Time Capsule is set to "BRIDGE" the connection back to the Extreme. Having it set to "BRIDGE" means that it lets the Extreme do all DHCP and routing. This allows devices on either wireless network talk back and forth.

 

[stovetop6872]

I think I want a setup like yours. Currently, I have my modem plugged into my WAN port on my AirPort Extreme (N only). Out of my AirPort's LAN port, I have it running to a Linksys WRT54G5's WAN port. They are two seperte networks so I have a B/G (Linksys) and a N (AirPort). This is great for speed, but I cannot network with my Windows G only laptop. Is there a way to make it so there are two networks, B/G (Linksys) and a N (AirPort), but so I can communicate with the computers between them? Thank you for all of your help!

 

[plaidhippo]

Thank you kind sir (or madame!)

Thanks for the quick reply!

So let me see if I can get the steps down so I can try them out later...

cable modem -> airport extreme

airport extreme set up to n only network (non-b-g-compatible?)
airport extreme wired to airport express

airport express set up in bridge mode

Think that would help my bonjour issues and get all my devices talking to each other as much as possible? Is there anything else that I would need to do?

Is it possible to have the airport express set in bridge mode but without physically connecting it to the airport extreme? would i need to keep the n-b/g compatible mode enabled to achieve this? I was very confused by that option of wireless n when i got this device!

Any more assistance is greatly appreciated!
Thanks
Ashish

 

[aristobrat]

I think I want a setup like yours. Currently, I have my modem plugged into my WAN port on my AirPort Extreme (N only). Out of my AirPort's LAN port, I have it running to a Linksys WRT54G5's WAN port. They are two seperte networks so I have a B/G (Linksys) and a N (AirPort). This is great for speed, but I cannot network with my Windows G only laptop. Is there a way to make it so there are two networks, B/G (Linksys) and a N (AirPort), but so I can communicate with the computers between them? Thank you for all of your help!

I'm not the best at explaining this, so bear with me.

A router creates a local TCP/IP network, and devices connected to the same local TCP/IP network have no problems talking with each other.

In your current setup, you have two routers. This means your Airport has its own local TCP/IP network, and your Linksys has its own local TCP/IP network. Computers should have no problem talking to other computers connected to the same local TCP/IP network, but they won't talk to computers on the OTHER routers TCP/IP network.

The solution to this problem (and to get everyone talking) is to have just one router. One router means just one local TCP/IP network. If everyone's attached to the same local TCP/IP network, then everyone can communicate with no problems.

The way you do this is to configure one of the routers as a bridge. When acting as a bridge, it doesn't have its own separate local TCP/IP network. It simply passes the data over to the router.

I did a quick google for how to set your Linksys up in bridge mode and it didn't look easy. Since it's pretty easy to configure an Airport as a bridge, you could plug your modem into the Linksys WAN port, and then use an Ethernet cable to run between a Linksys LAN port and the Airport's WAN port. Use Airport Utility to setup the Airport in Bridge mode.

With the Airport running as a bridge, no matter which wireless network you select, you'll end up on the same local TCP/IP network (and shouldn't have any communication problems). Only when you have separate TCP/IP networks with routers between them do you have communication problems, especially with protocols like Bonjour.

 

[aristobrat]

airport extreme set up to n only network (non-b-g-compatible?)

I did N-only and chose 5GHZ because I didn't want my roommates to have the ability of "accidently" joining one of their G Dell laptops to my N network, slowing it down.

Think that would help my bonjour issues and get all my devices talking to each other as much as possible?

Your devices would all be on the same TCP/IP network (regardless of which wireless network they're using), so that should get them all talking to each other.

Is it possible to have the airport express set in bridge mode but without physically connecting it to the airport extreme? would i need to keep the n-b/g compatible mode enabled to achieve this? I was very confused by that option of wireless n when i got this device!

I've only ever done it with a physical connection. It seems to me that if you do it wirelessly, your N network would relay data via WiFi to the G network, and that fact alone (a G device on a N network) would slow the speed of the N network down. But .. I've never tried it, so I'm not sure if it'd work without a physical connection. Next time my roommates are gone for the weekend (and I can play around with the network without having to listen to them scream when I reboot a router), I'll give it a shot and see how it works.