What am I missing?

Go to my post in the thread linked to below. It may help with how to configure your routers and hopefully solve your problem.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3703370?answerId=17475933022#17475933022

Chapple wrote:

For instance if I am in the master bedroom and only 5' from an express,

That is the problem...

You don't want the Airport Express in that room.

You want to place it down the hall or approximately 1/2 way between the bedroom and the Airport Extreme.

Try placing it where suggested and you should get a much better signal and your wireless devices should connect to it instead of your main Airport Extreme...

Yes, you want some of your Airport Express units to "Extend a wireless network"....

If you just "Join" the network, you will not have any extended signals.....

There have been many discussions about this.

You need to try what I suggested.

Look at it like this.

Both the Airport Express and the iPhone, iPod, iPad, Compter, etc. are all wireless devices.

They all look for a signal.

Because your Airport Express is in the same room, your other wireless devices looks for a signal...

It finds your main Airport Extreme just as easy as your Airport Express does...

The Airport Express does not improve the signal strength of the main Airport Extreme...

It only relays the signal strength it is receiving....

See this diagram.... Note: don't pay attention to the WDS in this diagram as it is basically the same as extending the network in the newer versions of the Airport Express units...

http://homepage.mac.com/james.clay/iblog/B894479528/C2040813928/E20060831150103/ index.html

Again, I suggest you give it a try and then judge for yourself...

I think you will find you get much better signal strength around your MBR and whatever else is in that part of the house.

Something is not right here...

I do not understand your setup...

You can't extend the signal more than once from an Airport Express....

So, your main router is an Airport Extreme? correct.....?

Everything connects to the main router. Not any other device.. Only one... unless they are hard wired...

You can't connect one Express to the Extreme router and then another Express to that Express and so on...

You can Join a network with different devices but you can't keep on extending from one device to another to another in a chain..

My Extreme is in my office.

I have an Airport Express in the hall halfway between the office and the back of the house.

This Airport Express extends the signal from the hallway back to the back of the house...

Now, I also have another Express that extends the signal of my main Extreme to my outside buildings...

Main Extreme ---------> Airport Express 1 "extended" to back of house

Main Extreme ---------> Airport Express 2 "extended" to my out buildings

It can't be setup like this below unless some of them are hard wired...

Main--->Airport Express 1--->Airport Express 2--->Airport Express 3 in back bedroom

I can see why you are having problems...

I would try something different...

Use the Extreme as the main and then setup one Airport Express to extend that signal...

Place it in the hallway or somewhere central to your entire living area....

Unplug the rest of your base stations.... Just use the main and one extended...

Walk around with your iPhone and test it out...

For me, I can walk into the back bedroom and the iPod or iPad changes connection to Airport Express 1...

If I walk to the outside buildings, the connection changes to Airport Express 2....

When I walk back into the office where my main Extreme is, they connect to the main Extreme...

Of course you have to look at the Airport Utility for both base stations to see which base station the wireless device is connnecting to when doing this...

I also have another Airport Express but it is set to "Join" the network so this has nothing to do with the rest of the network. You can't connect to this one nor extended a signal from this one because it is set to Join and that's all it does... I use it for Music to a stereo in the Living Room.....

Works for me...

Good luck

Well, I don't want to argue with you but that is impossible...

They will not chain...

You only have one network....

You have the choice to Join the network which is not chaining.... A device that is joined cannot extend....

Or, you can extend the network to the Airport Express. You cannot extend the Airport Express after that...

You can have different Airport Express units to extend the one network in other directions from the main base station but you cannot extend the Express after it has joined the main base station.

Therefore, they cannot be chained.....

That is the problem...

Try setting up the Extreme and the main base station and then setup one Airport Express to extend that network.

Move the Express around the house and try your signal out.....

Disconnect all other Airport Expresses for this test...

Once you have tested this, I think you may find that all you need may be one Airport Express extending the network.

If not, then try another Airport Express in the extend mode and put it in another part of the house....

See this Apple doc:

You can only extend the signal from the main base station.....

Wirelessy Extended Network 802.11n

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4145

I quote from the doc:

"If another extended Wi-Fi base station ➋ is placed between the primary Wi-Fi base station ➊ and the extended Wi-Fi base station ➌, the extended Wi-Fi base station ➌ will not allow clients to join it. All extended Wi-Fi base stations must be in direct range of the primary Wi-Fi base station"

Maybe that is why you cannot connect to some of your extended units....

Two possibilities:

All of the Express devices are configured to "Extend a wirelesss network" (or some may be configured to "join" as well...and they are all connecting directly to the AirPort Extreme despite what the illustration might indicate. (There is not room for 4 Expresses on the same line)

Or

The Master Bedroom Express is configured to "Join" the Kitchen Express. In this case, the illustration would be correct. If the Bedroom Express is configured to "extend", it is connecting to the AirPort Extreme.

Why?

Apple's "extend a wireless network" setup works like the hub and spokes of a wheel. The AirPort Extreme is the "hub" and each of the Express devices are located at the end of a "spoke".

Each Express that is setup to "extend" communicates directly to the "hub", not to another Express at the end of another "spoke"....despite what their actual physical location might be.

This is easily verified with a more functional version of AirPort Utility by checking to see which device is a client of which.

Chapple,

That doesn't show us how the Airport Express units are setup.....

Joined

or

Extended

It also appears you have no Internet due to the orange light next to the top globe...

I still suggest trying what I said before.....

Unplug the Family Room, Kitchen, and Master Bedroom

Keep the Upstairs one plugged in and make sure it is in the "Extend a wireless network" mode.....

(I assume your Master Bedroom is upstairs)

Then give it a try...

What you have isn't working now from what you say so giving this a try isn't going to take 5 minutes of your time. You shouldn't have to reset or reconfigure anything unless your Upstairs one is not set to "Extend"....

See this Apple doc:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4259

Bob,

That is what I have been trying to tell him... These cannot be daisy chained.

I gave him a link to Apple in a post above describing this....

That is what I have been trying to tell him... These cannot be daisy chained.

I gave him a link to Apple in a post above describing this....

I understand.

The "hub and spoke" example seems to be a good way to explain this to users who do not seem to want to believe that there are no "relays" or "middle" devices in the "Extend" setup.

If they will not " chain" then why are they showing up that way in the diagram?

As I already noted, the size and layout of window does not permit the correct illustration. If the window were wider, you would see all four Expresses in a single horizontal line, all connected to the AirPort Extreme.

The mbr express is set to extend and very definitely is grabbing its connection from another express.

Although I doubt that you would be convinced, I suppose that we can do some tests to illustrate that this is not true. But, I think you are having fun and want to prolong this.