MacBook and Airport Express - no asnwers

[VSMacOne]

I work at a University and have access to the Wireless campus-wide network. I don't have an Ethernet plug in my house.
I purchased an Airport Express with the purpose of using it to play my music wirelessly.
I have spent the past 3 hours working on this and no search has been able to help me. For some reason, whenever I select the option to Join Wireless Network, after it resets, the AX will not show back up in the Airport Utility. The Light turns green, and the speakers are plugged into the AX, but nothing shows up in iTunes or AirFoil.

Any ideas?! I'd hate to think that this won't work. Thank you in advance!

 

[aristobrat]

So you're setting the AX up to be its own wireless network, saving the configuration, and after the AX reboots, it's not visible on your Mac when you click the thing on the toolbar to see all of the wireless networks around you?

 

[VSMacOne]

So you're setting the AX up to be its own wireless network, saving the configuration, and after the AX reboots, it's not visible on your Mac when you click the thing on the toolbar to see all of the wireless networks around you?

I'm trying to ADD it to the Existing Wireless network.

 

[aristobrat]

If you're adding it as a client to your university's existing wireless network, then there is always the chance that the university is blocking the ports required for AirTunes and Airport Utility to work properly.

 

[Scratch4]

I work at a University and have access to the Wireless campus-wide network. I don't have an Ethernet plug in my house.
I purchased an Airport Express with the purpose of using it to play my music wirelessly.
I have spent the past 3 hours working on this and no search has been able to help me. For some reason, whenever I select the option to Join Wireless Network, after it resets, the AX will not show back up in the Airport Utility. The Light turns green, and the speakers are plugged into the AX, but nothing shows up in iTunes or AirFoil.

Any ideas?! I'd hate to think that this won't work. Thank you in advance!

I know there's a general issue with Macbooks and Airport Express. I've had this issue that my new Alum Macbook would lose its connection with my AX (which I also use for iTunes) very randomly, and wouldn't be able to join the network. It was VERY frustrating... I would be surfing the web, then all of a sudden my Macbook would lose connection, and wouldn't be able to re-join the network. ANYWAY, I found a fix that seems to be working (no issues thus far, knock on wood). The fix is to change the Channel on the AX (I changed mine to #2) through the Airport application.

Maybe it's the same issue for you.

 

[kolax]

I'm trying to ADD it to the Existing Wireless network.

To your uni campus network..?

 

[VSMacOne]

I know there's a general issue with Macbooks and Airport Express. I've had this issue that my new Alum Macbook would lose its connection with my AX (which I also use for iTunes) very randomly, and wouldn't be able to join the network. It was VERY frustrating... I would be surfing the web, then all of a sudden my Macbook would lose connection, and wouldn't be able to re-join the network. ANYWAY, I found a fix that seems to be working (no issues thus far, knock on wood). The fix is to change the Channel on the AX (I changed mine to #2) through the Airport application.

Maybe it's the same issue for you.

I think it's set on 6 right now. I'll give it a shot with 2 and see if that makes a difference.

To your uni campus network..?

Yes.

 

[kolax]

If the light turns green, it means it is connected. It is strange that it won't show up under your AirPort Utility. Any other details you can give?

Just to let you know, I had a bit trouble getting all mine working, wireless channels, constant having to reset the Airport Express as it would no longer show up in my AirPort Utility.

Now that I have it working, I haven't touched the setup for over a year.. but I think one of the issues was I was naming the Airport Express the same thing as my actual network. Wireless channel might have played a part in it too.. I can't remember.

Sorry I can't be much help, but you aren't alone, I had to tinker a lot to get mine working.

 

[VSMacOne]

Yeah I tried changing the channel and playing with the DNS and IP address and all those settings... no luck. This is very frustrating!

I'm doing all of this wirelessly... I can connect to the AX after i reset it, and the light stays orange. but when i go in and change the settings, it restarts, the light goes green but it doesn't show up in Airport Utility anymore... This is a pain

 

[kolax]

Here's my settings.. for the record I'm using channel 11. What security is your uni using? WPA, WEP? That could be the reason why you can't access your Airport Express after you make it join their network, because it isn't properly connected to it.

 

[aristobrat]

I'm doing all of this wirelessly... I can connect to the AX after i reset it, and the light stays orange. but when i go in and change the settings, it restarts, the light goes green but it doesn't show up in Airport Utility anymore... This is a pain

So you connect your Mac's WiFi to the generic Apple Network that the AX creates after it's been reset, you configure the AX to join your uni's WiFi network, then it resets and gets the green "everything's OK" light. Nothing sounds wrong there.

After it resets, do you have to manually switch your Mac back to use the Uni's WiFi network again, or does it automatically pick it up when the AX network disappears (since you configured it to run as a client)?

And are you sure that your Uni isn't blocking any ports on their WiFi network?

 

[VSMacOne]

Here's my settings.. for the record I'm using channel 11. What security is your uni using? WPA, WEP? That could be the reason why you can't access your Airport Express after you make it join their network, because it isn't properly connected to it.

Yeah it's about how mine looks without the WEP.

So you connect your Mac's WiFi to the generic Apple Network that the AX creates after it's been reset, you configure the AX to join your uni's WiFi network, then it resets and gets the green "everything's OK" light. Nothing sounds wrong there.

After it resets, do you have to manually switch your Mac back to use the Uni's WiFi network again, or does it automatically pick it up when the AX network disappears (since you configured it to run as a client)?

And are you sure that your Uni isn't blocking any ports on their WiFi network?

After it resets, my Mac automatically disconnects from the AX and connects to the campus WiFi network, and the light on the AX is green but it doesn't show up anywhere on my Mac (iTunes, Airport Utility, Airport Networks).

My next step, if we can't figure anything out on here, is to go talk to the IT Department on Monday and see if they have anything blocked.