Need help configuring new network

Hello Mike Demarco. Welcome to the Apple Discussions!

First off, Is it possible to run the base station at N ONLY while wirelessly sharing connection with older express that isn't N capable? I feel that the answer will be no

That is correct, the answer would be no.

so can i connect the express via ethernet , if so, how should i configure it. WDS / roaming / new network??

If your goal is to have 802.11n for "your" network, and provide 802.11g for your neighbor, the simplest option would be to connect the 802.11b/g AirPort Express Base Station (AX) by Ethernet to the 802.11n AirPort Extreme Base Station (AEBSn). Reconfigure the AX as a bridge and give it a different Network Name (or SSID) than that provided by the AEBSn. Since the AX is bridged and connected by Ethernet, wireless clients connected to either network will still get their Internet access via the AEBSn.

Since you will have two separate wireless network, you can configure the AEBSn's to provide "pure" 802.11n and leave your neighbor's non-"n" clients to connect to the slower network provided by the AX.

Message deleted.

Message was edited by: Bob Timmons

Tesserax may not be online this evening, so I will answer and he can offer additional comments.

I am also trying to wrap my head around WDS networking, from what i have found, it sounds like it will chop your bandwidth in half, (not good)

Not only will it cut the bandwidth in half with one "remote" device, the wireless will drop down to "g" levels on the entire network. So, you lose any advantage of having a faster "n" router.

So if i were to configure the base station and express the way you explained via Bridge, would i run into bandwidth issues , or therefore loose bandwidth due to the connection type.

The configuration that Tesserax suggests will provide maximum bandwidth on your wireless network...far better than any other type of "wireless only" extension method.

Bob has pretty much covered it.

When the goal is to extend a wireless network, wirelessly (i.e., where connecting them via Ethernet is not desirable or practical), Apple offers the option to do so via a Wireless Distribution System (WDS) configuration.

There are two "flavors" of WDS: static and dynamic. The pre-"n" AirPorts only supported the static method and the new "n" models provide both. In situations where you have a mix of AirPorts, you can only configure them for the older static version.

The primary advantage of the static WDS is that it would allow you to cover the greatest linear range as it allows for three types of base station types: main, relay, & remote. The greatest disadvantages of this type of WDS is loss of bandwidth. For each base station added to the WDS, the overall wireless bandwidth is cut in half. It doesn't take too many to make it pretty much useless ... especially for streaming video.

The primary advantage of the dynamic WDS is that bandwidth loss is less severe. The disadvantage is, unlike the static WDS, the dynamic version only employs a single "main" and multiple "remotes." Think of a wheel with the main as the hub and the remotes as spokes of the wheel. This would work well if your Internet source was in the center of the house and wanted to provide wireless to all the rooms around it ... but rather poorly if the source was at one end of the building and you want it provided to the far end.

Again, connecting the base stations by Ethernet eliminates the disadvantages of using a WDS.