I don't understand the Airport Express

[mrmeister]

Hi,
I'm wanting to increase the range of my wifi signal as it doesn't always reliably reach my room because the house has thick walls. We're with TalkTalk at the moment and they supplied us with a Huawei Echolife hg520b. I was wondering if I bought the Express, can I plug that into the wall in my room, and it will pick up the signal of the Echolife wirelessly, and extend it, or does it have to be plugged into the Echolife via ethernet?
If that is the case (plugged in via ethernet), surely there would be no point in doing this because it would have to be plugged in right next to the router and I would still have the same problem of the signal not reaching my room?

I am also wanting the express because I like the idea of being able to sit on my bed and play music from my speakers, and to be able to take it across to the garage (separate from the house) and hopefully get a signal (provided it doesn't have to be plugged in via ethernet).

Any help is much appreciated
mrmeister

 

[tersono]

An airport express will extend the range of an airport base station but not all wireless access points are compatible with each other (they need to be running the same chipset).

 

[mrmeister]

So how do I check this?

 

[OllyW]

Sorry, I don't think it will work with your router.

It's only designed to work with other Apple wireless products...

AirPort Express can extend the range only of an AirPort Extreme or AirPort Express wireless network.

http://www.apple.com/airportexpress/features/sharing.html

 

[mrmeister]

Ok, so is the Airport Extreme a router? Could I replace the Echolife with that?

 

[OllyW]

Ok, so is the Airport Extreme a router? Could I replace the Echolife with that?

The AirPort Extreme doesn't include an ADSL modem so you would need to connect it to your Huawei Echolife hg520b by Ethernet to get your broadband.

 

[waw74]

having it plugged in via ethernet makes a lot of sense, if you have a cable run to the other end of the house. setting up in this way is more stable, and provides a faster connection than wirelessly extending.

if you don't have a cable pre-run, or it is not practical to do it. there are ethernet over power adapters (like these) that you can plug in to wall outlets and extend your ethernet that way.

once you get the connection to the other end of the house, plug in an airport express, put it in "off (bridge mode)", give it the same SSID & security settings as the main, but a different channel.
Then as your devices move around they will automatically connect to the stronger of your 2 bases. You won't notice any difference as you do though. just have a stronger signal where you didn't before.