First a little background. While visiting my parents over Xmas, I gave them an iPad and also an Airport Express to get the most out of it. I set up the Airport Express with my own Macbook, which I brought with me, and in short order had the iPad and their two Windows machines connected wirelessly to it. It was really satisfying to see how much they enjoyed the iPad and using it to check their mail.
Then, two weeks ago, the Airport Express suddenly died (no light appeared with plugged in). I mailed them a replacement (since they live in a remote area), but before sending it off I set it up with the exact same settings (name, password, IP address, etc, etc) as the previous one, based on notes I made. It arrived today, but when they plugged it in, no dice. Not only did the iPad not see it, but the Airport Utility on both Windows XP machines can't see it either.
I spent 90 minutes on the phone today getting them to hard reset the Airport Express, and try a wired connection with an Ethernet cable. No luck there either.
Now, as a last resort, I'm thinking of sending them my wife's Macbook Air (which she's not using much) in the hope that they'll be able to use it to recognize the Airport Express and set up/confirm the Airport Network, and hopefully the iPad and their Windows machines will see it.
So, my question is, would this be overkill? Am I overlooking an easier solution to this?
Then, two weeks ago, the Airport Express suddenly died (no light appeared with plugged in). I mailed them a replacement (since they live in a remote area), but before sending it off I set it up with the exact same settings (name, password, IP address, etc, etc) as the previous one, based on notes I made. It arrived today, but when they plugged it in, no dice. Not only did the iPad not see it, but the Airport Utility on both Windows XP machines can't see it either.
I spent 90 minutes on the phone today getting them to hard reset the Airport Express, and try a wired connection with an Ethernet cable. No luck there either.
Now, as a last resort, I'm thinking of sending them my wife's Macbook Air (which she's not using much) in the hope that they'll be able to use it to recognize the Airport Express and set up/confirm the Airport Network, and hopefully the iPad and their Windows machines will see it.
So, my question is, would this be overkill? Am I overlooking an easier solution to this?
