Q: Why are two AirPorts failing to extend over Ethernet?
I have a large property with an AirPort Time Capsule in the house and an AirPort Extreme out in a workshop. I connected them via a 232-foot Ethernet cable buried in a trench, at great expense. (And yes, I confirmed that I get a good network signal through the cable.)
So I want my extended "Scenario" WiFi network to look something like this:
[Cable Modem] <—> WAN = [AirPort Time Capsule] = LAN <———————————————> WAN = [AirPort Extreme]
( ( ( ( ( (( • )) ) ) ) ) ) ( ( ( ( ( (( • )) ) ) ) ) )
Sometimes the radios will be within range of each other but mostly not. So, I need to make sure the "roaming" network is set up to use Ethernet — not wirelessly.
However, when you tell the "setup wizard" in AirPort Utility 6.3.6 that you want to set up your AirPort Extreme to extend your network, it will present as many as four descriptions of what it's about to do, and you don't have a way to specify which:
- Extend "AirPort Time Capsule". (What? Exactly how it's going to extend the hardware by name is beyond me—unless it means its going to copy its settings.)
- Extend "Scenario". (Yes, I want to extend my network using the same SSID and password.)
- Extend "Scenario" wirelessly. (No, I don't want this because I know it will be slow and it will fail eventually.)
- Extend "Scenario" over Ethernet. (Yes, please!)
Clearly #4 is the one I want, but it's very rare to see that description after resetting both devices and starting over.
What AirPort Utility will actually do most of the time is set the AirPort Extreme up in Bridging mode, but it will also be set up to create another network called "Scenario". So I have to go in later and change that from "create a network" to "extend a network." Otherwise I have two separate WiFi networks that just happen to have the same SSID and password. And that would suck, because if my wife or I roam around the house on a FaceTime call, the connection is guaranteed to get dropped versus transitioning seamlessly from one radio to the other supporting a single network.
If I go in and force the AirPort Extreme to extend my network, I can tell it starts ignoring its Ethernet connection because the connection is either very slow or non-existent if I move away from my AirPort Time Capsule. I know this because I expect to get 29 Mbps download speed from Comcast. I get that speed on a client of my Time Capsule, but a client of my Extreme will only get 0.1 Mbps! I assume that's because the radios are just barely intersecting and the Extreme is trying to extend my network wirelessly against all better judgment.
This seems like a major bug in AirPort Utility and perhaps the AirPort firmware as well. Is there any way to force the Extreme to use only Ethernet? If my Ethernet goes down for any reason, there's really no point in having my Extreme trying to serve anything up anyway.
Posted on Nov 20, 2015 3:44 PM

