extend new airport extreme with 2 additional airports

1. New Extreme is main router

2. Older 4th gen Extreme is extending main Extreme

3. Airport Express N (1st gen) is extending older Extreme

Apple's "extend a wireless network" feature can only extend a signal one time. So, the 4th Gen Extreme is extending the signal from the new Extreme.

But, the AirPort Express is not extending the signal from the older Extreme. Instead,the Express is "joining" the network....It provides no additional wireless coverage in this type of setting, but could be used for a remote printer at the USB port or for use with AirPlay.

I thought you could put more than 2

You can....but each extender must communicate directly to the main router. Apple's extend feature works like the hub and spokes of a wheel.

Your new AirPort Extreme is the "hub". The old Extreme resides at the end of a "spoke", and as such it communicates directly to the "hub".

You can have other extenders at the ends of other "spokes", but each one of them communicates directly to the "hub"......not to another extender at the end of another "spoke".

So even thought Extend is selected it just functions as Join?

Yes, if you try to make it connect to another extender.

Should I just change it to Join?

Up to you. it does not matter.

And now if I can only use the 2 Extremes since they are both dual-band there is no reason to really have separate names is there?

Again, up to you. Things are a lot simpler though, if you use just one network name.

in the Airport Utility overview sometimes all 3 airports are coming stacked on top of each other and sometimes my new Extreme is on top and the older ones are side by side underneath does this make a difference?

First, I hope you are not using AirPort Utility on an iPhone or iPad, because things do not always appear accurately on those devices.

The "new" Extreme" should be at the top of the stack. The old Extreme with a dotted line between the new and old indicates that the old Extreme is connecting using wireless and extending.

If the Express appears side by side with old Extreme, it is extending. If it appears under the old Extreme, then it is connecting to the old Extreme and it is not extending.

If you experiment with the location of the Express, you might be able to get it to extend the new AirPort Extreme. It will help if it is closer to the new Extreme than it is to the old Extreme.

So right now I have my old Extreme connecting with Good and when I hover it says data rate 26 mb/s (last night was 35) and PHY mode is 802.11b/g/n.

Pardon the bluntness here, but this is just awful. Your connection should look more like 100-130 Mb/s on 2.4 GHz.

Am I to understand this means the old Extreme is only getting the 2.4 band from my new Extreme and then it makes its own 5GHz band from that?

No, the old Extreme will extend both bands from the new AirPort. But, since your 2.4 GHz connection is so poor.....and 5 GHz signals are much weaker than 2.4 GHz signals.....my guess would be that the old Extreme is not receiving enough of the 5 GHz signal to even be able to extend it.

Do whatever you can to mimimize any obstructions in the direct signal path between the two AirPorts. If the signal must pass through 3-4 walls or a ceiling and a few walls, then wireless may not work for you if you want top notch performance.

It is always much, much better to connect AirPorts using a wired Ethernet connection than try to connect them wirelessly.

If you have a Mac laptop and don't mind spending about 5 bucks on a good WiFi Utility, we can give you some pointers on signal strength and placement for the AirPorts.

I recommend WiFi Explorer for this. Mac App Store - WiFi Explorer - iTunes - Apple

I have no interest in WiFi Explorer other than that as a customer.

Open up WiFi Explorer and wait for the display to appear.

The really important column heading here is SNR, which stands for Signal to Noise Ratio. That is by far the best measurement to evaluate signal quality.

Locate the SNR heading, then move down to find your network. You will see it displayed as a 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz band. If you have two AirPorts, you will see your network 4 times.

Start with the laptop very close to your "new" AirPort

Use this SNR Chart to evaluate the signal quality:

40+ Superior

35 Excellent

30 Very Good

25 Good

20 Fair

15 Low

10 Very Low

5 Not reliable

Temporarily, power off the old Extreme for now.

Your signal should be 40+ from the main Airport at this point on both the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands.

Slowly walk your laptop about 15-20 feet toward the location of the old Extreme and take a look at the signals at that point.

Continue to walk the laptop very slowly further away from the main AirPort until you see that the SNR is between 25-27 or so.

That is the location where the old AirPort Extreme should be located. Reason....the Extreme can only extend the quality of signal that it receives. It cannot make a slow signal go faster.

If you need to locate the old AirPort further away, the signal quality will drop very quickly, as you will see.

Once you locate the old Extreme and power it up, you can use the SNR reading to test the signal quality at various remote points.

You always want to make sure that you are getting at least 25 db SNR.....more is better.

If there is any way that you could consider connecting the AirPorts using a wired Ethernet connection, your network will operate much faster and more reliably with that type of setup.