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wirelessly connecting to a computer upstairs without a wireless card

excalibur313

excalibur313

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 7, 2003
787
15
Chicago, IL
In my house i have a wireless hub upstairs that i have a powermac plugged in to. I'm forced to use a computer for work that isn't equipped with wireless but I would like to use it downstairs. Could i use the airport express or something else to plug the work computer into that could let me still be on the internet? Additionally could i make it passive so that it would have the same ip as the firewall that i normally plug it into upstairs?
Thanks
Stephen
 
Yes, you can use APEx for this. You would set APEx to join existing network and use an ethernet cable to attach to APEx and there you go.
And yes, when it joins an existing network it does not use DHCP on its own, its just like a wireless node.

If you do not like the costs (Amazon has it TODAY for about 119) you can get a LinkSys model that is 69 but has no Airtunes support.


excalibur313 said:
In my house i have a wireless hub upstairs that i have a powermac plugged in to. I'm forced to use a computer for work that isn't equipped with wireless but I would like to use it downstairs. Could i use the airport express or something else to plug the work computer into that could let me still be on the internet? Additionally could i make it passive so that it would have the same ip as the firewall that i normally plug it into upstairs?
Thanks
Stephen
Click to expand...
 
excalibur313 said:
What is the model by apex?
Click to expand...

AirPort Express

Edit: sorry to be so short before - kid crying. I saw a Linksys USB adapter at Circuit City for $30 (b) or $40 (g) which might work for you as well. Again, no iTunes support, but it's fairly inexpensive and portable (you could use your work CPU on other wireless networks as well).
 
johnkrz said:
this is so funny. you dont know what apex is lol.
Click to expand...
I know what AirPort Express is. I also know what AirPort Extreme is. Both would fit into "APEx". Neither is officially supported as a bridge. There is discussion in other threads that either will probably work that way, depending on the wireless hub already in use. However, it is not a given. It is especially not a given with the Express.
 
Airport Express is officially supported as a bridge with an Airport Extreme base, NOT any other brand.

However, as a node to the woreles, an Airport Extreme will connect just fine and do what the original poster wants.

I use the same set up to take a beige G3 and connect to my LinkSys wireless.
As for APEx, many message boards, including Apple's Discussions use this for Airport Express, and APE is for Airport Extreme.

In the APEx setup assistant if you choose JOIN EXISTING NETWORK you will set the unit up to be a node on the existing network, not as a bridge or 'extender;. YOu can also choose EXTEND MY WIRELESS NETWORK, and that makes it a bridge, thus extending your distance and signal - but only with an Apple basestation (or linksys with hacks).


jsw said:
I know what AirPort Express is. I also know what AirPort Extreme is. Both would fit into "APEx". Neither is officially supported as a bridge. There is discussion in other threads that either will probably work that way, depending on the wireless hub already in use. However, it is not a given. It is especially not a given with the Express.
Click to expand...
 
so talk about these hacks. What exactly do they entail and have users had much sucess with them or should i just stay clear?
 
If you have a certain linksys router then you can use APEx to extend it. See macworld.com fordetails. They have a nice article explaining it.
 
could you give me a link to this website? I was searching for a while on macworld and found no article talking about bridging a linksys and airport express router.
Thanks,
Stephen
 
excalibur313 said:
so talk about these hacks. What exactly do they entail and have users had much sucess with them or should i just stay clear?
Click to expand...

the hacks are posted previously in this thread. and i have used them with a linksys router. Even though apple only advertises that the airport express works with the extreme base station I did find in some obscure support file on apple's site that it does acknoledge that the express can be used as a range extender with any base station that has WDS (which is the protocol that most of the linksys hacks enable) I really like it b/c i can help to extend the range of my 12"PB which gets about the worst reception ever for wi-fi. (who would have known that the cool looking aluminium would actually interfere with radio transmision. . . aside from any engineer. )
 
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