airport express added to wifi 6 network??

Just a quick note to mention that there will be no advantage to using WiFi 6 as far as the AirPort Express(es) are involved. They will still connect at WPA2 Personal levels, as will all of the rest of your wireless devices that do not have specific WiFi 6 capability.

In other words, WiFi 6 is a two way street. Both the router and the connected wireless clients will need to be WiFi 6 capable in order to take advantage of the benefits of WiFi 6.

If the AirPort Extreme is in need of replacement due to age, then it would likely make sense to go ahead with a new WiFi 6 capable WiFi router. But, if the AirPort Extreme is still working well, and can deliver the speeds that your provider is sending to you, then there is probably no rush to get into WiFi 6 unless most of your other wireless devices are also WiFi 6 capable.

Just lately, since adding 36 wireless devices, over the course of the last three years, the poor thing seems to struggle with wireless bandwidth and devices dropping off the network

Things are going to get very sluggish at about 15-20 devices if you are using an AirPort Express to provide your wireless network. Yes, the Express is supposed to be able to handle 50 clients and in theory it might, but the network is going to be pretty much unusable at that point. Remember, the Express was designed in the 2011 timeframe, so it's not exactly latest technology.

If these didnt work, after the router upgrade, Id be VERY disappointed.. :-(

For what its worth, my neighbor bought a Netgear Nighthawk router about a month ago, and had no trouble setting up his two AirPort Express devices to "join" the Nighthawk wireless network. Of course, since the Expresses are only "n" WiFi capable, they will connect at much lower speeds than the main router is likely providing. Should be OK for AirPlay though.

Finally, the Expresses will not be able to "extend" the main WiFi signal, they will only be able to "join" the WiFi network.

In theory, Wi-Fi 6 networks will be backwards compatible to non-Wi-Fi 6 networking clients, including the AirPort Express base stations. This shouldn't be any different of an issue than for your other 36 wireless devices.

This is brief and messy.. but it works fine.

Sorry I just don't have enough ports to plug everything into at once.. but the Express connected to the EAP225 just fine.. I do not use smart connect so I selected the 5ghz and it works fine.

The error is just using older firmware as I find it more stable.

RSSI is a bit lower than it should be.. and I don't have the controller running to check the EAP side.

I am getting full internet speed (only 50/20 here) via ethernet to Express over the wifi bridge to the EAP and thence out to internet via main router.

Last Result:

Download Speed: 53761 kbps (6720 KB/sec transfer rate)

Upload Speed: 18726 kbps (2340 KB/sec transfer rate)

Latency: 5 ms

9/21/2020, 9:25:23 PM,53761,18726,5

Latency is also good as i get normally..

The AirPort Extreme will only be able to connect to a WiFi 6 router using a permanent, wired Ethernet cable connection. The Extreme cannot "join" a 3rd party WiFi network using a wireless connection the way that an Express can.

The Expresses can "extend" the WiFi network provided by an AirPort Extreme, but they cannot do so with a WiFi 6 network......they will only be able to "join" the WiFi 6 network.

Frankly, even if you connect the AirPort Extreme to the WiFi 6 router using an Ethernet cable connection, I'm not sure what it will actually do on the network, since the WiFi 6 router will be providing your WiFi network signal.

Already answered that an Airport Express can "join" the WiFi 6 network provided by a Netgear Nighthawk router. Since WIFI 6 is a "standard", you would expect that the Express would behave the same with another brand of WiFi 6 router.

Realistically though, there is no way to really know for sure if the Express will work with the WiFi router that you are considering unless you try it out yourself, or you post to tell us more about the specific WiFi 6 router that you are looking at.......so that another user who might have the same router and an AiPort Express could see your post and be able to comment.

Was considering the TP-Link WiFi 6 AX3000

They are good economy model. Very popular here.. Australia.

AX will give no improvement over AC wireless until you have AX clients but the price difference is ok now to buy AX.

Seriously considering upgrading to wifi 6, as I have 36 wireless devices and 6 hardwired.

The more important consideration is the number of wifi devices.. AC or AX.. makes no difference.. 36 is too many devices for one router to handle. As Bob has already explained 15-20 is a good rule of thumb.

You will actually do much better with Mesh products. A 2 or 3 router set of TP-Link Deco M5 will do a lot better than AX3000 in giving good coverage over your house.. Even better if you can afford the more expensive mesh which includes another wireless backhaul channel or wire your house with ethernet. (Big advantage if you already have ethernet to strategic spots in the house then M5 can simply plug into ethernet outlets).