New Use for an old Airport Express?

You have to remember what we actually used that equipment for. I did lots of work with that SE/30 including programming and designing products that paid for that Mac many times over, but I also wasted lots of time playing games like Lode Runner.

Today we have plenty more ways of wasting time.

Well, I have configured such a thing today (using macOS Monterey).

I have done a factory reset, connected it directly with an ethernet cable to my MacBook and voila "AirPlay Utility" found the device and I could configure it to join my existing network using WiFi. Hope this helps.

In theory all capabilities should still work in 2022. I've already AirPlayed to it - and the network printer setup, etc. should also work I guess.

Btw, I ran into some AirPlay issues - described here: Why won't Apple Music stream to HomePod A… - Apple Community

Perform a "hard reset" according to How to reset your AirPort base station - Apple Support, and determine if it appears as an unconfigured base station in AirPort Utility.

That may be easier than attempting to read the faint grey lettering on the side — which absolutely needs to be A1264 as Bob Timmons wrote. Older models will not appear and will not work with any recent macOS version.

Look on the side of the AirPort Express for the model number. It is difficult to see.....gray lettering on a white background, so you may need good lighting and reading glasses to see the model number clearly.

It will be either A 1264, A 1084 or A 1088. A 1264 would be what you want to see. What does it look like?

😕

No one likes keeping perfectly good hardware in service more than I do, but the A1084 is unfortunately quite a relic. On the other hand the A1264 models are readily available on the used market for very little money... $10 or so, whereas you can't even give away an A1084.

Slide the "duckhead" adapter off and keep it. It's more useful than the rest.

I know it's disappointing, but the sad fact is the A1064's hardware is limited in such a manner to be incompatible with many websites or Internet services that require secure connections — and everything requires secure connections these days.

It started to become a problem with 802.11b/g - only devices many years ago, and is the reason Apple more or less abandoned them along with the original "round" AirPort Extreme fairly early in their lifespans. It took only four years before rapidly evolving wireless standards made them obsolete.

Fortunately the models that replaced them still work for all purposes to this day. They began production fifteen years ago — an eternity in the tech world. Eventually they too will become obsolete. I don't know when that will be.

You call it sad, Apple calls it their business 🙂

Nobody abandons old technology faster than Apple. I still have my SE/30 from the 1990s. It still works as well as it ever did (better in fact, having upgraded its RAM to its 32 MB limit), but it can't really be used for anything.