APE wired to TC extending 802.11n

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Darren 2007 Author

Level 1

4 points

APE wired to TC extending 802.11n

I am not certain I have this setup correctly and am looking for guidance here. Incase I have the common notation mixed up, I am using "TC" for Time Capsule and "APE" for Airport Express.

My setup:
WAN --> TC --> Wifi
TC --> Ethernet --> APE --> Wifi

I am fortunate to have a long wire between two locations and am trying to have ONE wireless network using Time Capsule and an Airport Express device.

The wireless network currently is on 2.4Ghz for 802.11a/n, but I have considered 5Ghz a/n as well.

On TC, I have setup the Wifi to be extendable using the network name "MyNetwork". That works and I can connect to it... although my neighbors Linksys unit has a stronger signal in my house than the TC sitting next to me.

On APE, I set it up as "Extend a Wireless Network" with a network name of "MyNetwork2" and allow-wireless-clients checked. Note the different network name used in the setup (is this right????).

When ever I have set the network name of the APE device to "MyNetwork" rather than "MyNetwork2" it completely screws up the entire Wifi system and I need to reset the APE device to make the pain stop. The current setup using the name "MyNetwork2" does not appear to be working.

Should I be using the "Participate in a WDS network" option? What am I doing wrong here?

Perhaps I am daft or really poor at searching, but it seems to be a missing article on the subject from Apple or the Mac community.

Also, has anyone had issues running a 5Ghz network?

 MBP, G4, Nano TV, TC, AP Express , Mac OS X (10.5.2)

Posted on Apr 21, 2008 9:04 PM

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Answer 1

Darren 2007 Author

Level 1

4 points

Apr 21, 2008 9:40 PM in response to Darren 2007

I did find the "Designing Airport Networks 10.5 Windows" document among Apple's manuals. Unfortunately page 47 is rather confusing as it states to choose "Create a wireless network", yet the image shows "Participate in a WDS network".

Considering I had previously followed the written instructions and set the network name and password as the same on both devices and killed my WiFi network entirely, perhaps the image is correct???

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Answer 2

Jun 10, 2008 9:33 AM in response to Darren 2007

I have been having a similar problem with a very similar setup (the only difference is the my router is AirPort Extreme 802.11n instead of TC).

I don't have an answer for you, but I have a theory: I'm wondering if the Ethernet port on the Express cannot be used in this manner. I know that it can be used to allow a wired client (e.g.: a computer with no wireless but with Ethernet) to connect to the wireless network. In addition, it can be used as a Client (join a wireless network), which basically just provides printer sharing and AirTunes. Finally, I know it can be used to extend a wireless network by connecting wirelessly to the Base Station (WDS).

However, I have not found any doc or any posts here that indicate you can extend a wireless network by connecting Express to Extreme through Ethernet. So, I'm wondering if perhaps the configuration is not supported?

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