I have just set up a roaming network in my house and it is working perfectly. I would like to add another station to the network. Is it possible to use the Express as a ethernet bridge into another room or do I need another base station?
Thanks in advance
Geoff
iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.8), 27" i5
Not sure what you mean here. Would the second AirPort Express also be connected to the AirPort Extreme using an Ethernet cable?
Please provide more details on your proposed setup.
If you have an 802.11n AirPort Express Base Station (AXn), then yes, you can configure it as a wireless Ethernet bridge.
Sorry for not being clearer. I am talking about hooking my basestation extreme to the cable modem. Running an Ethernet cable to the 802.11n express about 150 feet away and setting it up as a "wired" roaming bridge. I have done it once from base station extreme to to basestation extreme in my studio and it works well. I need to do it in my library, a different part of the house, and am wondering if I have to buy another base station extreme or if I can build a wired roaming network with the express.
BTW, because of the layout of the house, the Expresses don't quite do the job in wireless mode.
Thanks
Yes, I have the 802.11n Airport Express Base Station, but I am looking to make it an wired bridge. The distance is too far for the wireless bridge and tried as I would, I couldn't get the correct configuration with multiple expresses without looseing 60% of my bandwidth. I think the only solution is a wired roaming network.
Both the AirPort Extreme and AirPort Express are base stations.
Just connect an Ethernet cable from one of the LAN <-> ports on the AirPort Extreme to the AirPort Express and configure the Express to "create a wireless network" in Bridge Mode.
If you want to configure the Express as part of a roaming network, assign the same wireless network name and use the same security and password as the "main" network.
If you want to set up a different network, assign a different name to the wireless network.
No problem, it can work as a WIRED bridge as well. A 150 foot Ethernet run between routers shouldn't pose any problems. It looks like you want to configure for a roaming network, so just be sure to give the Express a unique Base Station Name, but use the same Network Name & Security Type as the Extreme. Also, you may want to manually set the Radio Channel to be at least 3-5 channels apart from the Extreme, but the Automatic mode may take care of that for you.
Bob and Tesserax,
I just tried it and it is not working. I reconfigure the express to Create a wireless network, same settings as the Extreme, network name and security, set it to bridge mode, reboots and none of computers see it. It shows green, so I don't understand. BTW, Mac support says no it won't. I tend to believe you guys but I can't get it to work.
in fact, what I did was test it on the same line that I used to set up the second extreme. Removed the second extreme, put the express on that cable, made the same identical settings, updated and nothing. Hmmmm?
Any further thoughts.
Thanks for your assistance.
Geoff
The first thing to check is temporarily disconnect the Ethernet cable that plugs into the Express and instead plug it into a laptop. Turn off wireless on the laptop and see if you can connect to the Internet with your browser.
Results?
Ok, so what I found was everything was working but I had to restart my computer for the whole network to kick in. Not sure why, but there you go. You guys were very helpful. Thanks you very much.
I know have an ethernet network in the house with 2 extemes and 1 express all set up as a roaming network. 20 mg down all over.
Best
Geoff
Glad things are working. It is always a good idea to restart the entire network whenever you are adding a router or other network device.
Perhaps the Apple Support guys did not understand what you were trying to accomplish.
Airport Express as a bridge?
