asirport Express and AT&T 2-Wire Modem

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asirport Express and AT&T 2-Wire Modem

I need to extend the range of my 2 Wire wireless system. I'm on AT&T. Does anyone have any suggestions, horror stories of other advice re adding Airport Extreme to extend the wireless range?

PowerBook, Mac OS X (10.5.8)

Posted on Apr 14, 2011 1:16 PM

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Answer 1

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Bob Timmons

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Apr 14, 2011 1:30 PM in response to HoffDawg

Welcome to the discussions HoffDawg!

Unfortunately, the problem here is that none of Apple's routers are compatible with 2-Wire products if you are trying to "extend" using wireless only.

If you are able to establish a permanent ethernet connection from the 2-Wire gateway to the AirPort device, you do have some options to provide more wireless coverage with that type of configuration. Post back if you need more details about this.

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Answer 2

HoffDawg Author

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Apr 14, 2011 9:20 PM in response to Bob Timmons

Bob, Thanx a lot. My idea would be to run hard wire from 2-Wire modem to the Airport Express so I can access the internet from the "other end" of the house. As it is now, my wireless connection is intermittent at best and slooooow.

I really appreciate the assistance.

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Answer 3

Apr 15, 2011 7:15 AM in response to HoffDawg

If you are planning to use a permanent ethernet cable connection from the 2-Wire router to the AirPort Express, it will be a simple matter to configure the Express to provide more wireless coverage.

It will be very easy to configure the Express to provide a wireless network with a different wireless network name than the 2-Wire, but this would require you to log on to another wireless network if you walk your laptop from one end of the house to the other.

It is more difficult to configure the Express to provide the same wireless network name, as you will need to be able to get into the configuration settings on the 2-Wire to see exactly what type of wireless security settings it is using.

In other words, both the 2-Wire and Express must use the exact same settings for wireless network name, security and password. That's why we'll need to know what settings the 2-Wire is using to provide you with the correct information to configure the AirPort Express.

This type of setup will allow you to "walk" a laptop from one end of the house to the other and stay on the same wireless network.

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Answer 4

HoffDawg Author

Level 1

6 points

Apr 18, 2011 1:53 PM in response to Bob Timmons

Bob - Thanx for your time, knowledge, and info. I think I have enough info now to expand my home network. Hopefully, the Airport Express instructions will be clear.

I appreciate your help. Bob Timmons roxx!

HoffDawg

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Answer 5

Nov 11, 2014 6:01 AM in response to Bob Timmons

Hi Bob,

I'm in Canada using Bell's 2Wire 2701 modem. I tried hooking up a new Airport Express with an Ethernet cable and was advised it was a matter of following a few simple steps to extend and speed up my wireless coverage. I think that someone more tech savvy would agree but I was stumped. I have an Imac running Yosemite and it did recognize the modem and started a configuration process but I obviously wasn't feeding it the correct information.

Can you give me a step by step "connection for dummies" approach? I guess I'm not sure how to get the exact same settings etc from my existing network fed into Express.

Thanks in advance!

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