The default configuration of the AirPort Express Base Station (AX) is a standalone wireless router with AirTunes enabled. You should be able to just connect the AX to a power source, connect it to an audio system/powered speakers, and then, connect your computer to it either wirelessly or by Ethernet and stream iTunes.
So,
are you saying that I have to go thru and do a Manual setup of Airput Utility
and guess at the settings or does it auto-configure ? What am I missing ?
I'm saying that you will not need to configure the AX. However, you will need to connect your computer to the AX's wireless network in order to stream iTunes audio, via AirTunes, to the AX.
Hi:
I am still not clear on what I need to do.
You say that the AE will have its own ad-hoc network so that I can stream music to it wirelessly from my laptop using iTunes.
OK, then....How do I connect to it ?
Ino ther words...
To do this, I am not using my Linksys router.
I have just the laptop running iTunes and the AE connected to powered speakers.
No other hardware...right ?
OK..How do I connect the laptop to the AE wireless network ?
What do I need to do ?
Do I need to set anything up ... in Airport Utility ? ... in AirTunes ?
If so, what ?
Do I need to do a fcatory reset to the AE before trying this ?
To stream iTunes from your laptop, you would need to do at least two things:
o Connect your laptop to the AX's wireless network. Note that you will only be able to connect to one wireless network at a time. That means you will loose Internet connectivity (temporarily) from your Linksys while you're connected to the AX for streaming audio.
o Configure iTunes to play its audio output to the AX.
iTunes > Preferences... > Advanced > General
o Look for remote speakers connected with AirTunes (checked)
I made some progress yesterday.
I did as factory reset on the Airport Express (AE).
I held down the reset button for ~30 seconds (10 sec minimum) while it was disconnected from
everything, then plugged it into the AC power plug while
still holding down the reset button,and then released the reset button after seeing the AE's LED flash several times at the faster rate.
Note:
After releasing the reset button, the LED was slowly flashing amber.
Is this correct ?
Note: THE AE's LED gave an initial breif Green flash,
then flashed amber the rest of the time.
Once reset, the AE's LED coninued to flash amber at a slow rate. I then plugged in the 3.5 mm plug that runs to my powered speaker system.
Note: I also tried plugging the speakers into the AE before doing the reset.
I did not see any difference in the result of the two methods.
Note:
I did
not have an Ethernet cable running from the router to the AE.
In fact, I had my router powered-off, to avoid any potential problem.
I only had the laptop , the speakers, and the AE powered-up.
Once the AE was reset, and the was connected to the powered-speakers,
I clicked up the "network connections" icon in the system tray.
It looks like 2 computers connected to each other.
I saw a list of secured and non-secured networks to which I could try
to hook into. My typical Linksys router connection device was shown, but I did
see the Apple "ad-hoc" network to attach to. +You have to give it some+
time...after waiting about a minute and then refreshing the network connection display by closing and reopening it, low & behold , I saw the Apple ad-hoc network, hi-lited (Bold). According to *Apple's Airport Express Setup Guide*, the network name defaults to *Apple Network XXXXXX* (where X is a letter or number). In general loose terms this is correct,...
BUT ... what is really happening is this:
The ad-hoc network name is *Apple Network XXXXXX* , where XXXXXX are the right-most 6 hex digits (out of 12) of your AE's MAC (Media Access Control) Address for the Airport ID.
*For example:*
If your Airport ID MAC address is: ABDE102356BD , then
XXXXXX =
2356BD
OK...now, open Airport Utility. It will see your AE's wireless MAC address and connect to it...you don't have to do anything. Now open iTunes. Click on the speaker icon in the lower right corner of the iTunes window to get a drop-down menu of speakers to choose from. You should see a selection corresponding to your ad-hoc network connection name. Select it (click on it). Click on any song in your iTunes library, and then click the Play button (right-arrow). That tune should start playing out of you powered-speakers, wirelessly !
Note:
Even when the music is playing wirelessly, via Apple's ad-hoc network,
the AE's LED was slowly flashing amber. Is this correct ???
So, now you need to connect the wirless AE to you Linksys wireless router's network. **I am still having probelsm doing this.**
My Linksys 54G wirelss router is setup using WEP-64 encryption , but when I tried to connect my AE to +an already existing wirelss network+ , I did not see a choice for WEP-64 / WEP-128,only WEP (trans...) which requires you to use a 13-byte (character) password. I could not get my AE to connect because my router is setup using WEP-64, and a different password.
I have made progress in that I now have the AE playing wirelessly via Apple's ad-hoc network, but I still do not have it talking wirelessly to my router.
