Q: Express to extend AT&T 2-wire...is Extreme needed?

I purchased Express n to extend AT&T 2-wire g modem.. While set-up was easy and the Express light is green, the signal strength is still weak in my long with brick walls.  I assume the 2-wire g is still the limitation? I saw this older post from Bob Timmons.  So I need to purchase a dual band Extreme? I don't need a guest network. I see it needs to be in bridge mode. Is this a simple open in set-up or do I need to use Extreme's address to change settings online?  my current Express uses the same wireless name and password. If the Extreme is in the LAN port of the 2-wire.  will the dual band wireless use same name or does it need to have a separate name and password? Thanks

MacbookPro (10.7.3), IMac G5 (10.4.11), iPhone 3GS, new iPad

Bob Timmons      Texas

Re: Airport Extreme Base Station (n) and 2Wire 3800HGV-B Gateway (AT&T

Jul 2, 2010 7:11 AM (in response to theirish11)

It is much, much simpler to use the AT&T gateway "as is" and configure the AirPort Extreme as a "bridge" on the network by connecting it to the AT&T router with an ethernet cable. We can provide step by step on how to do this.

But, you should understand what the AirPort Extreme (AEBS) can and cannot do in this type of setup. If you have a newer "dual band" AEBS, you'll be able to setup a dual band wireless network and your devices will connect to the faster wireless from the AEBS. But, if you were planning to use the Guest Network feature of the AEBS, it's not possible to enable this when the AEBS is setup as a bridge.

If you need a "guest" network, you could use the wireless network provided by the AT&T router. If you don't, you could ignore the wireless network from the AT&T device, or you could turn it off by going into the configuration settings for the router.

Would a setup like this meet your requirements?

MacBook Pro, iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.4), Time Capsule, AirPort Extreme, AirPort Express, iPhone

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