people_can_fly

Q: airport extreme as a extender and router?

I have a 5th gen airport extreme which is may main router. i used my 4th gen airport exterme as a wifi extender (setup was easy) on my basement for better reception. I have an old mac on my basement which dont recognize this wifi configration, but it can easily connect to internet via ethernet cable(with main router). I tried to connect my 4th gen airport and my old mac with ethernet cable but nothing happens. can anyone help me solving this problem.

Airport Exterme, Mac OS X (10.5)

Posted on Feb 21, 2013 9:00 AM

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Q: airport extreme as a extender and router?

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  • by Tesserax,

    Tesserax Tesserax Feb 21, 2013 9:37 AM in response to people_can_fly
    Level 9 (54,684 points)
    Wireless
    Feb 21, 2013 9:37 AM in response to people_can_fly

    I would first suggest that you verify that the 4G 802.11n AirPort Extreme Base Station (AEBSn) is configured properly to extend the wireless range of the 5G base station. Please review the following Apple Support article and post back your results.

  • by people_can_fly,

    people_can_fly people_can_fly Feb 21, 2013 10:12 AM in response to Tesserax
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 21, 2013 10:12 AM in response to Tesserax

    I have already set up the 4th gen Airport extreme, and it works fine. but i also want to use this as a router to connect with my old mac via ethernet cable. when i connect it with my old mac it simplly dont work

  • by Tesserax,Helpful

    Tesserax Tesserax Feb 21, 2013 10:25 AM in response to people_can_fly
    Level 9 (54,684 points)
    Wireless
    Feb 21, 2013 10:25 AM in response to people_can_fly

    The reason I am asking you to go through the trouble of verifying that both base stations are configured for an extended network is that, if by chance, you actually have the 4G AEBSn joining the 5G's network, the 4G's LAN ports would not be active.

     

    When extending, the 4G AEBSn would be in bridge mode and all of its Ethernet ports should be active. If that's not the case for your older Mac do you have another computer that you can connect by Ethernet to be sure it's not an issue with the Mac itself?

  • by ggxie,

    ggxie ggxie Jun 29, 2013 3:30 AM in response to Tesserax
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 29, 2013 3:30 AM in response to Tesserax

    Hello Tesserax, I am facing the similiar problem to use older version of Airport extreme as an repeater / network extender in the house. Our main router, however, is not a Apple product. We use Buffalo as router. No matter how we change config, we simple can not get it to work. For once, we did get connected, but there is no actual internet activity.

     

    Please let me know how this can work. Thanks!!

  • by Bob Timmons,

    Bob Timmons Bob Timmons Jun 29, 2013 6:26 AM in response to ggxie
    Level 10 (105,268 points)
    Wireless
    Jun 29, 2013 6:26 AM in response to ggxie

    Please let me know how this can work.

    Unfortunately, it is extremely unlikely that this will work.

     

    The reason for this is that Apple has designed their routers to only "extend" a wireless signal from another Apple router.

     

    Another way of saying the same thing is that you will need to have two Apple routers if you want to be able to extend the wireless signal wirelessly.

  • by ggxie,

    ggxie ggxie Jun 29, 2013 7:30 AM in response to Bob Timmons
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 29, 2013 7:30 AM in response to Bob Timmons

    Thanks very much for the quick response, Bob. I guess I wasted the whole afternoon then. What a disappointment.