Roaming network

[davidoloan]

In the latest Mac airport utility is the latest way to create an ethernet roaming extended network, just to simply plug in an ethernet cable between the first and second base stations, during the setup.

The support instructions are still the old instructions and a lot of that functionality seems to be removed.

 

[davidoloan]

View attachment 626102

This is the only notification you get that you have a wired extension rather than wireless and its at the end of the process. I used to think one of the great things about the apple routers was how easy they were to manage and setup for ordinary people, and I have got my head around the new system - its easy to use, but for a while I was scratching my head as to how to configure it for ethernet.

The older airport utility's used to be very clear and not overly complex. Now like disk utility they are trying to make it ultra simple, but I think its now confusing unless you have done it before with the newer airport utility. To set the extension up from scratch you have to select "other wireless devices", even though your new extension airport is connected by ethernet and then configure it without any mention of ethernet. It just knows that ethernet is connected and you are supposed to know that it knows.

 

[Altemose]

This is the only notification you get that you have a wired extension rather than wireless and its at the end of the process. I used to think one of the great things about the apple routers was how easy they were to manage and setup for ordinary people, and I have got my head around the new system - its easy to use, but for a while I was scratching my head as to how to configure it for ethernet.

Yes. That is the way that Apple has elected to do the configuration wizard in AirPort Utility. Let me know if you have any questions. I have done many AirPort roaming networks.

 

[davidoloan]

Yes. That is the way that Apple has elected to do the configuration wizard in AirPort Utility. Let me know if you have any questions. I have done many AirPort roaming networks.

Thanks, I prefer the old way where its clear what you have selected during the process, not after. This is a screenshot from Apple's support document which is still current. I think the new method is plain confusing, especially for people setting this up the first time using a newer Airport Utility.

View attachment 626200

I do have another query. I have an extra old model Airport Extreme as a result of buying a new model. I set it up yesterday to extend the network and I turned wireless off. So its now just a switch. I need to connect 3 large switches to my network and I want to connect them to the old Airport. The three Wi-Fi Airports will be placed in 3 inaccessible points along the roof-space and the old airport can be placed where I can easily get to it alongside the switches.

It might not make much difference, but what I would like to do is use the old Airport as the router in the system rather than a switch. The 3 large switches would run off it for multiple music Airport Expresses and multiple Apple TV's, plus iMac, printer, TV's, blu ray players etc.

I would like the 3 Wi-Fi Airport Extremes to do nothing except Wi-Fi.

Is there are good way to do this or is there zero performance / stability loss in having the first Wi-Fi Airport also doing all the routing and leaving it as it is as below? There are lots of wired connected devices.

View attachment 626202

 

[Altemose]

Is there are good way to do this or is there zero performance / stability loss in having the first Wi-Fi Airport also doing all the routing and leaving it as it is as below? There are lots of wired connected devices.

"Wi-Fi No. 1" should be set to DHCP & NAT mode and all others, including "Switch", should be in bridge mode. Setting "Switch" to DHCP & NAT mode will throw double NAT errors and also segregate the network out.

 

[davidoloan]

"Wi-Fi No. 1" should be set to DHCP & NAT mode and all others, including "Switch", should be in bridge mode. Setting "Switch" to DHCP & NAT mode will throw double NAT errors and also segregate the network out.

Thanks, airport utility does that automatically. It all works, but what I would like to do is use the one labelled "switch" as the main router so that the Wi-Fi No.1 doesn't do all the routing for everything wired to the 3 switches like Apple TVs.

I would like the 3 Wi-Fi airports to do nothing but Wi-Fi and the one currently "Switch" to do all the routing.

 

[Altemose]

Thanks, airport utility does that automatically. It all works, but what I would like to do is use the one labelled "switch" as the main router so that the Wi-Fi No.1 doesn't do all the routing for everything wired to the 3 switches like Apple TVs.

Why would you want "switch" to perform routing? There would be no benefit to making it perform routing and if you did it would complicate the setup significantly.

 

[davidoloan]

As explained above, I now have an old model Airport Extreme left over. I have a roaming network of 3 extreme's which will make and extend a wireless network. I have 3 large network switches, with many wired devices attached.

I would like to use the left over Extreme to make the network and be the router, so that the three wireless access Extreme's have no other function?

Does anybody know if this can be done? I want airplay, homesharing etc to work as normal on all devices.

 

[Altemose]

I would like to use the left over Extreme to make the network and be the router, so that the three wireless access Extreme's have no other function?

Does anybody know if this can be done? I want airplay, homesharing etc to work as normal on all devices.

If you have clients downstream of a router behind the main "Wi-Fi No. 1" router then it would break that functionality as they all must be on the same subnet.