Airport Extreme wired AND extend network - Need Input

Why exactly are you using this switch?

Can you remove the switch and lets see if you still have this problem.

The switch provides the access to the wired side of the network from each location in the house (I have about 16 ethernet ports in different rooms). I'm going to plug the home run from the room where the Express is located directly into one of the LAN ports of the Extreme and see if that corrects the problem. The topology now is the Cable Modem->Airport Extreme (WAN port)->Switch (LAN Port of Extreme)->Airport Express.

16 Ports is making me think here. Express can only support up to 10 clients, and I'm wondering how much stuff you got there, that could be correlated in some way.

Clarification question.

We tried this last night at the office, we've got 4 Airport Extremes. One is the "main" one. DHCP, etc is handled by a cable modem that the extreme is connected to over ethernet.

We wired up each Extreme like the diagram, but had all kinds of trouble. One thing i wanted to be clear on. In this configuration, would you see X number of networks all with the same address (and of course varying degrees of signal strength) or would you simply see the one network and connect to the strongest where ever you are?

Thanks!

jwilker wrote:

Clarification question.

We tried this last night at the office, we've got 4 Airport Extremes. One is the "main" one. DHCP, etc is handled by a cable modem that the extreme is connected to over ethernet.

We wired up each Extreme like the diagram, but had all kinds of trouble. One thing i wanted to be clear on. In this configuration, would you see X number of networks all with the same address (and of course varying degrees of signal strength) or would you simply see the one network and connect to the strongest where ever you are?

Thanks!

1. Do you have Lion? 2. Did you ever set up iCloud? 3. If the answer is yes to 1 and 2, an easier way would be to set up Back to My Mac. 4. Get the main unit working - dont worry about the other units. Un plug them from the main unit. Once the Mai n Unit is working, Put the other 3 units where you want them. They will connect wirellessly to extend the main signal. Setting them up wirelessly is much nicer if you a. have Lion, b. have the latest Airport Utility 6.0 and c. the latest firmware for your extremes, d. have set up iCloud and Back to My Mac. 5. Open your airport utility find the other three units and extend the main unit.

If you feel wired is better then use the diagram above... and in some ways wired is better and easier. If you want wireless, then you have to set it up as wireless all the units. good luck.

yeah I'm on Lion, and that's the set up we're using now, but would prefer to set them up connect by ehternet (faster between devices). But i don't want 4 networks of the same name showing up, which is what I think the diagram would result in, yes?

umm no.

uh thanks?

Hello,

Quick question. Having the airport extreme as my DHCP base, is there a way to have more than 3 wired routers on a roaming network (there are 3 ports for connecting routers)?

Thanks in advance

Connect an Ethernet switch to one of the LAN <-> ports on the AirPort Extreme to add as many additional Ethernet ports as you need.

Ethernet switches come in 5-port, 8-port, 16-port, etc versions.

Excellent, Bob, many thanks. I guess I need to ensure the switch has gigabit ports, correct? Any other hint to ensure I don't loose performance with the addition of the switch?

Again, thanks for taking the time to respond.

Yes, since the AirPort Extreme has Gigabit Ethernet capability, you would want to have a Gigabit Ethernet switch feeding signals to other AirPort Extremes.

Make sure that all Ethernet cabling is rated for CAT5e or CAT6.

This is indeed a very helpful and clear thread. One additional question. My modem takes care of the DHCP as this can't be turned off. My AirPort Extreme is attached to the modem with an Ethernet cable. The AirPort Extreme creates the wireless network. I want a second AirPort Extreme upstairs. Will this work as described at the beginning of the thread even though neither AirPort Extreme do the DCHP?

I want a second AirPort Extreme upstairs. Will this work as described at the beginning of the thread even though neither AirPort Extreme do the DCHP?

You can have as many AirPorts as you want, as long as all of them are configured to operate in Bridge Mode.

In other words, except for the name of the device (to keep things organized), the AirPorts would all be configured exactly the same.

This didn't work for me. AirPort Utility said I needed to power down my modem for a bit and then continue.