Orange Livebox and Airport Extreme

Hope that this post xmas lumch alcoholicly-tinged post is clear...

Your problem seems very similar to mine. Did you get it fixed? I live in France and am trying to link my livebox to an airport extreme so that i can have wifi internet access around my house and airtunes to two airport express units as well.

I can use the airport express units to extend the livebox wifi network. but as soon as i use the airport extreme to connect to the livebox by ethernet the new network becomes volatile. i can get a livebox-supplied internet accessible airport extreme WDS network to work, but only for short periods and only with one computer hooked-up.

Furthermore, i cannot use the airport extreme to extend the livebox's wifi network as i can with the two airport express units.

i have fiddled with all the available settings both with the livebox and the airport extreme, and my limited IT skills have let me down.

Any help greatly appreciated.

Hi. I'm having the same problem. I also live in France, and am trying to get Airport Express to work with the Livebox, which is proving a bit of a headache...

I've managed to configure the Airport to work with Airtunes, however I would like to be able to extend my wireless network as well (I have three Airport Express base stations!). So far I've had no success - the Setup utility detects my Livebox network, but doesn't seem able to connect, at which point the Express disappears off the radar (even with the Admin utility), necessitating a full reset. How did you get the WDS network to work?

I hope that this is possible, as it's an expensive way just to listen to music remotely if not!

Thanks.

Hi,
I am using my Airport Extreme Base Station with a LiveBox and I have actually two WiFi in my house, one by the Airport and another by the Libox, and both seem working correctly. I used to use the Airport station associated with another ADSL modem but to get the TV and telephone service, we are obliged to use Livebox.

Firstly you need to connect the WAN port of your Airport base station to the Ethernet port of your Livebox by an Ethernet cable, as the Livebox does not support WDS function. (be sure that the Videophone function is disactivated.)

Then set up the Airport base station using Airport utility as following.

-Connection using: Ethernet
-Configure IPv4: Manually
-IP Address: 192.168.1.2
-Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
-Router address: 192.168.1.1
-DNS server: 192.168.1.1

-Connection sharing: Distribute a range of IP address
-DHCP range: 192.168.1.x
-DHCP Beginning address: 192.168.1.3
-DHCP Ending address: 192.168.1.50 (as you want)
-DHCP lease: as you want

You can have both WiFi at the same time. If you don't want two WiFi, you can disactivate the WiFi of your Livebox by accessing the configurator at the URL 192.168.1.1.

I have not yet tested any Airport Express but I think it must work too with the Airport WiFi network.

Regards

DHCP can be off (bridge mode) instead of "Distribute a range of IP address". That is much simpler.

Thanks very much for your detailed and helpful response.

I have followed these settings exactly, and they have given me shortlived wifi connectivity through my airport extreme (shortlived being 20 mins or so, and with no other changes made by me to my knowledge). However, upon re-trying your configuration again this evening I have had had no luck whatsoever.

I have a couple of questions:

i. where you write "-Connection sharing: Distribute a range of IP address
-DHCP range: 192.168.1.x"
I do not have an option for such an entry on my version 5.2.1 of airport
utility. Does this make any difference?

ii. are there any esoteric settings within the livebox that i should be tinkering
with?

as for Mr Jeremy Davenport - have you got your wds network going yet? that seems to be the piece of the puzzle which i have no problems with. My problem is that it irritates me to be unable to stream music with wifi at the same time as surfing because i cannot get my airport extreme to talk with my livebox....

regards and thanks in advance for any help

Recently I also bought an Airport Express to extend my WiFi network. Now my configuration maybe almost same as yours, Livebox ~ Ethernet cable ~ Airport Extreme Base Station ~ Airport Express ~ Mac etc.

Airport Extreme Base Station setting:
<Internet>
Connect using: Ethernet
Configure: Using DHCP (you can chose "Manually" with IP address of 192.168.1.2 and subnet mask of 255.255.255.0)
DNS servers: 192.168.1.1
<Network>
check Distribute IP addresses
check Share a single IP address (using DHCP and NAT)
select Use 10.0.1.1 addressing
<WDS>
check Ennable ... and select main base station
check Allow wireless clients...
add your Airport Express MAC address

Airport Express setting
use WDS remote by adding your Base station MAC address
use same network name and same channel as the base network
use DHCP for getting IP address
uncheck Distribute IP address (bridge mode)


You should use WPA key instead of WEP key for the Airport wireless network, and the same network name for both base station and express (roaming mode). I don't know why but firstly I tried with WEP key and they Express WDS did not work.

Anyway, my airport network is working correctly.

Thanks for your post.

Indeed our setup must be nearly identical. Despite this, i still seem to be too dumb to follow your simple steps and get the livebox's internet connection streaming through my airport network.

To recap:-

I live in France, and have and adsl subscription with France Telecom. I have a new livebox that i bought about four months ago. I have a new airport extreme (the square one that looks a bit like a mac mini) which is plugged into the livebox by ethernet cable. I have two airport express units with which i have created a wds network with the airport extreme.

I can either get wifi from my livebox which gives me access to the adsl / internet; or i can get onto my airport netwok and print / play music - but no internet. I have had intermittent internet access from the airport network, but after a short period it stops not to return. Thus at least i know that the ethernet connection between the livebox and the airport express works.

I am using a macbook pro and am running version 5.2.2 of airport utility. I recently did a total reset on my livebox to get back to its original settings to try to get to your set-up by process of elimination.

Now - here comes the detail:-

In my airport utility programme i have followed your configuration as closely as possible...

the problems arise as follows -

second line " configure : using DCHP " I assume this is the same setting as "configure IPv4" as appears in my airport utility.

If i switch from "Manually" to "using DHCP" the three items below it (namely:"IP Address" "Subnet Mask" and "router address") remain with the manual selection listed but no longer changeable - this seems odd.

Where you write <Network> I don't seem to have such an option on my airport utility. In the tab settings in the "Internet" section of the airport utility, i have "internet Connection", "DHCP" and "NAT" (assuming that i select "Share a public IP address" in the "Connection Sharing" drop down box). But no "Network" (unless you are talking about system preferences and not airport utility.).

WDS - all working - no worries there.

Sorry for long winded post - but this is something that i would love to get sorted out...

My explanation was for an old version of Airport utility. But it doesn't matter.
Configure IPv4: in fact, normally you can use either "using DHCP" or "manually". The difference is if you know the usable IP address, router/DNS address or not. If you select "using DHCP", you cannot touch the first three addresses. This is quite normal. Anyway this should not make any important difference.
Connection sharing: here again, you can select all options as you want. The easiest is to switch off this function. (bridge mode, using the router function of the livebox)

In order to find out where the problem is, please try without WDS using only one Airport connected to the livebox by ethernet cable. Check if you can see two WiFi on your Mac, one by the Livebox and one by the Airport. If you can access to the internet through the Airport, the problem should be the WDS configuration with the other Airports.

I live in the UK and last night I connected my Airport Extreme Base Station to my Orange Livebox. I used the information above but it took hours to get it working. The problem it seems is that I chose to plug the AEBS into the yellow ethernet port. Before I started I upgraded the Livebox firmware, and it now supports streaming media on the yellow ethernet port. I tried everything above and all sorts of variations but it just wouldn't work until I used the red ethernet port. The above settings just work, and seem to work well - thanks!

I also plugged in my Freecom USB2 external network drive (the reason for buying the AEBS)and it works nicely - seems quite fast too. Only question now is, "Does anyone know if there is a way to power down this device after a certain period of inactivity?"

The only thing I haven't done yet is accessed the drive from one of my Windows machines...