Sonos Bridge Problem with Airport

[StarShot]

I have a no-name wireless router in my walk-in closet which is the entry point into my home. Works fine, but is a little on the weak side on the main floor. I had an Airport Extreme sitting on my hardware shelf. Another room on the other side of the house is plumbed with ethernet directly to my no-name. So I decided to hook it up the ethernet cable and thus, now have 2 wireless networks in the house.

My wife gave me a Sonos wireless speaker system that also came with a "bridge". The Sonos seemed to work fine by itself, but since I had the bridge I decide to hook it up to my Airport Extreme and it also works fine.

Enter my Airport Express that I bought for traveling. It's the latest model. I've tried several attempts to hook it up, but can't get to first base. Following the directions using Airport Utility on my iphone, I can "see" it, but it displays an error. When I go into "settings/Wifi", the Express doesn't show up like it does in videos (youtube).

I'm wondering if the Sonos Bridge described above is creating a conflict with my Express.

 

[waw74]

doubtful that the sonos is the problem.

I'm guessing it has something to do with you having 2 networks, You need to have the extreme in bridge mode, otherwise anything that connects to the extreme network will not be able to see the rest of the network.

you'll also want to have the same network name and settings on both the extreme and your other router. that way devices will connect to either one, and they'll automatically pick the stronger signal

Once you get everything set up correcly, even though you have 2 wireless base stations, they're really both part of the same network.

for setting up the express, you're better off plugging in an ethernet cable to configure it. Wireless will work, but there are numerous variables that must be correct for it to work. To make wired work, you just have to make sure it's plugged in. Once it's configured, just unplug the ethernet and you're good to go.

also (if you don't need the range boost) the express should join your existing network, not extend.

 

[StarShot]

Thanks waw74. After seeing your reply, I unplugged my Airport Extreme (ethernet and wall plug), thus taking it down completely. I then plugged my Airport Express into the ethernet port that my Airport Extreme was plugged into.

Same results, no connection information available on my iPhone in "Settings/Wifi". I'm guessing either there is some interference in the house or the unit is defective. Next time I'm out and about, I'll try it in another home. I do have one more option here in that I could try it in my the primary wireless router in our closet. Out of that router, an ethernet line runs internally to the location that the Airport Extreme plugs into.

Other than that, I think I'm out of business in this location.

 

[StarShot]

I did get a partial success in that plugging into my no-name router, I was able to get the following info with Airport Utility. Still don't see it in "Setting/Wifi". The screens below were with both networks operating. I'm unplugged now, but before I did that, I'm thinking I should have taken down the network from my Airport Extreme (2nd one in my "daisy chain").

 

[StarShot]

Finally!!!

After screwing around with my Airport Express for 3 or 4 days, today I finally got it configured and it works great.