AirPort Extreme Home Network

Hi John

Assuming the actual network map is correct.. they are not always 100%.. then your Family Room Station (FRS) will not work.

The issue is fairly common.

What has happened is the signal from Clock Station (CS) is greater than John's Wi-Fi Network (JWFN), so FRS has swapped to CS. As soon as it does this.. FRS will stop working. It will appear on the Map but will not actually pass packets. The Apple Extend wireless network is outdated.. the Gen5 AE is 6-8 years old.. and they will not work like mesh. Apple has no way to force the connection to a specific Airport.. it it based purely on signal level at the particular location FRS is sitting.

What you need to do is rearrange the locations of all the routers so FRS is closer to JWFN rather than CS. (Closer does not mean just physical distance.. but signal path loss) For example there could be a mirror or some wall with metal layer insulation between the two points.

It might be worth doing a proper wifi analysis of the house so you can determine signal in each location. Try it with CS off and how well FRS works in the current location.

The best way of course is to run ethernet to those locations.. but yeah.. that is messy and expensive.

Sometimes Powerline adapters can do a good job. Far superior to extend wireless which automatically reduces wifi throughput in half.

Newer mesh products are also worth considering.

I tried for a long time to make such a system work.

Even forcing the connection to 5ghz using different wifi names on the two bands.

In the end I gave up when I discovered the latency was so bad, voip systems would not work properly. Ran ethernet to all locations. Completely solved the problem.

Family Room Station is not extending the network at all. You can prove this yourself by locating a WiFi device or two very close to Family Room Station.

Open AirPort Utilty

Click on Family Room Station

In the smaller window that appears, look for Wireless Clients. You will not see any because the devices are connecting to another AirPort. They cannot connect to Family Room Station.

So, at the present time, Family Room Station is doing nothing except using using up electricity

If you want Family Room Station to extend the network, it will need to be located closer to John's WiFi Network than it is to any other AirPort.

You will know when Family Room Station is extending the network when you see all three AirPorts .....Bedroom Station, Clock Station, and Family Room Station lined up horizontally side by side so that each one of them is connecting directly to John's WiFi Network.

Another way to say the same thing......and this is confusing for some users......is that Apple only allows the network to be extended one time.....not two. Each Extender must connect directly to the main AirPort router, not to another AirPort that is already extending the network.

You can have more than one AirPort extending a network, but each one of them must connect to the main AirPort.....not to another AirPort that is already extending the network.

Unfortunately, there is a huge downside in trying to extend a network using wireless connections. That is that you will lose half of the potential speed on the network. And.....you are trying to do this with 3 devices.

Ideally, you would want AirPorts to connect to other AirPorts using a wired Ethernet cable connection......because there is no signal loss through the Ethernet cable up to 300+ feet. So, you avoid the significant loss that occurs when you try to extend a network using wireless.

Rather than try to mess with wireless connections to extend a network, you could make a huge improvement in the performance and reliability of your network if you can run Ethernet cabling so that the extenders will connect back to the main AirPort using a wired connection.

Even if a wireless extending AirPort seems to work OK, there will be a loss of at least half of the potential speed when you extend the network this way. With Ethernet, there is zero loss through the Ethernet cable, to extenders extend the same speed of signal as the main AirPort.

This would be true even if you are looking a newer mesh systems, since the best performing mesh systems are always the ones that use wired ethernet connections between the main router and extender(s).

Consider using Ethernet over powerline adapters to send the signals over the existing AC wiring in your home if you cannot run the Ethernet cabling. The theory with these devices is that you already have the wiring in place, you just need the adapters.

Not as good as regular Ethernet cabling, but always significantly better than wireless in my experience.

One of the extenders refuses to be edited - I'm changing the ID for a more relevant term because it is no long in the Family Room, but another. If I try to edit, it goes offline and I have to reboot it to rejoin the network.

Trying to edit / change a setting or two when a device is extending a network rarely works. Reset the device back to factory default settings and then set it up again with the new settings that you want to use.

I was about to get an assessment done at my home and have an eero system installed, but thought I'd give Apple another "go" before I spent the money.

If you can get the AirPort system working well, then it makes sense to keep using it for another year or two. But, all of your "flat" or "square" shaped AirPorts are at least 5 years old or older, depending on when the device(s) were placed into service.

5 years is about it as far as the average useful life of a router designed for home use, so an argument could be made that it is getting to be the time to think about replacing the AirPorts if you are looking at other newer mesh systems.