How to tell if airport express is actually extending my network?

[neilw]

I have an AirPort Extreme, and an Aiport Express set up to extend it. But I'm not sure if it's actually working that way, and am having a hard time making that determination.

When I stand fairly close to the Express, I often see only two bars of signal strength. When I open up Airport utility on my phone, it says that the only client for the Express is a TIVO that is connected via Ethernet. All other wireless devices are listed as being connected to the base station.

My thinking is that when I'm standing near the Express I should get a full 3 bars of wifi, and... well I'm not sure if Airport utility would show me connected to the Extreme or the Express.

Is there an easy way to confirm what mode everything is working in?

 

[LiveM]

So you've set it up in your Mac's WiFi settings to extend your exisiting network? And you've checked it has the same SSID amd password?

 

[neilw]

Found it, finally. The AE was set to "Join a network" rather than "Extend a network". Which is weird, because I'm pretty sure I initially set it up to extend a network.

Also annoying that the iOS app doesn't provide access to those settings (at least I couldn't find them); I haven't had access to my Mac for a few days to I had hoped I could do it all from my phone. I guess not.

In any case, it seems to be working now.

 

[DJLC]

FWIW, you can use Wifi Explorer (free in the MAS) to get a pretty easy idea of what's going on around you wifi-wise. Also helps with picking a channel and etc. since you can visualize the spectrum and avoid interference.

 

[neilw]

Thanks, I'll give it a look. Any equivalent on iOS?

 

[AliMacs]

Thanks, I'll give it a look. Any equivalent on iOS?

I have an older TC setup as an extender.
To see if it's working just use the airport utility and look for wireless clients section. You can see which device is connected to which base station. You can also change all the radio channels as well.

 

[Cordorb]

I have had better luck using the older version of Airport utility , not sure if the features are now hidden or just missing.