henrikvon
Level 1
(0 points)
Q: Problems with set up of two Airport Express (1st gen) for audio
Hello,
I've got two 1st gen Airport Express units that I want to set up so that I can play music in two different rooms. The modem/router is an Actiontec GT784WN (I know, it's pretty poor modem). I had one Airport Express (call it Unit 1) set up just fine. I powered off Unit 1, did a hard reset on Unit 2 and plugged Unit 2 into the ethernet on the router. I configured Unit 2 successfully and unplugged it. I then unplugged Unit 2, plugged in Unit 1 and went into the other room and plugged in Unit 2. At this point, everything goes south. The internet slows or stops, and computers/phones in the house have trouble connecting to the network. When I unplug Unit 2, and restart the router everything goes back to being ok, with the internet and Unit 1 working fine.
Am I experiencing an IP address issue? Every device in the house is an Apple product.
Unfortunately the router doesn't support DHCP reservations or else I'd just assign IP addresses to all of the MAC addresses of the devices in the house, and I'm thinking that would solve the problem....
It's not worth it for me to spend the $$$ to get a new router, but I'd like to get the two Airport Express units set up with functioning internet.
Any advice?
Thanks
MacBook Pro (13-inch Mid 2012), iOS 8.3
Tesserax
Level 9
(54,657 points)
- Do the 802.11g and the 801.11n look identical, or are they a different external design?
Yes, unfortunately, both look nearly identical from the outside. However, they have different model numbers. The 802.11g unit is: A1084 or A1088. The 1st gen 802.11n are: A1264
Are you saying that it is possible to assign static IP addresses outside of this range on individual devices and the network will still function?
Yes. Typically, non-Apple routers use a range of something like: 192.168.0.2 to 192.168.0.100. You should be able to verify this via the router's web-based administrator interface. You can then configure each base station with an IP address above this. However, do not use 192.168.0.255 as this is a reserved address. So, for example, configure one for: 192.168.0.200 and the other for 192.168.0.201.
You can configure the base stations for a static IP by using the AirPort Utility, as follows:
- Run the AirPort Utility.
- Select either of your AirPort Express base stations.
- Select Edit.
- Select the Internet tab.
- Change Connect Using to: Static
- Enter the desired static IP address in the IPv4 Address field.
- Subnet Mask should be: 255.255.255.0
- Router Address should be: 192.168.0.1 (or whatever your router's LAN-side IP address is)
- DNS Servers should be the ones provided by your ISP or the appropriate DNS servers if you are using Google or OpenDNS, etc. instead.
- You can leave the IPv6-related fields blank.
- Select Update and allow the base station to restart.
- Repeat the above steps for the other base station.
In the example below, I used 192.168.1.250 for the static IP address and used the OpenDNS DNS server IP addresses.
For some reason I thought that if I, for example, set a static IP on my desktop outside the DHCP range there would be problems. I am wrong about this?
Yes. Again, just don't use N.N.N.255.
