AirPort Express won't connect to existing wireless network

Hi Ata,

...Right now I've setup a new wireless network for my AirPort Express but ideally I would like to have it join my existing network

If you already configured your AirPort to create a separate wireless network, it would be best to reconfigure it to "join" your existing network by starting over with a "hard reset": Press and hold the reset button and keep it depressed, continuously, about five to ten seconds, long enough for it to flash amber. Then, it will glow amber steadily for about a minute while it starts up, then it will flash amber slowly indicating it needs to be configured.

It will then appear in your Mac's Wi-Fi menu like this:

Select it. AirPort Utility will load and walk you through its configuration.

Be sure to select the option to "join" your existing network, and not create a new one. In that configuration, it will serve as a device for music streaming only, and cannot serve a wireless access point. For that, your router would need to be a genuine Apple AirPort Base Station.

Hi folks

I was having similar problems. My AirPort Express simply would not connect to my CIsco router over wireless.

Eventually I took a closer look at their respective wireless settings.

I noticed that the AE was expecting WPA2 Personal while my router was set to WPA2/WPA Mixed mode.

As soon as I flipped the router over to WPA2 Personal, everything came online as it should, with the minor side effect that my laptops needed their wireless turned off and on again to get friendly with the new settings... but that took all of two seconds.

It seems that the AE is extremely demanding in terms of the wireless security settings matching precisely.

That annoying and decidedly unhelpful message occurs when AirPort Utility is unable to communicate with the Express for reasons it cannot determine. As far as it knows, your Express used to be there, but now it's not. This usually occurs when the means used to communicate with it changes "unexpectedly".

In such cases I simplify things as much as possible: remove any network passwords - specify "none" for encryption, and try again with a "hard reset". Be sure the Express is in a location that receives a good wireless signal from the D-Link.

Multiple trial - and - error attempts that begin and end with a "hard reset" are sometimes necessary. It is possible that the D-Link simply does not want to cooperate with the Express, so deny it any excuse.

Make it work, then reconfigure the D-Link with a password. Momentarily pressing the Express's reset button removes any passwords for a period of at least two minutes, during which you can reconfigure it with a password as well.

You're welcome. Its crazy that things have to be so complicated. And why Apple can't answer these questions and, instead, leaves it to their customers to make the products usable is beyond me. Glad I could help.

Make sure the CHANNEL NUMBER for the Wireless router is the same as the Airport Express. This fixed it form me - my TP-Link router was set to channel 6 , the APE was set to 11.

Thanks for this - I've been banging my head against a wall for 24 hours trying to fix this exact issue, and this was the solution.

worked great, thnx John!