PAK325
Level 1
(0 points)
Q: Help with roaming network
Firstly, thank you in advance for your time, explanations, and patience.
My home is set up as a long rectangle with a garage addition to the front. It was made in a series of additions in the early 60's and was constructed with a lot of plaster, concrete, wood, and metal framing... a wifi networking nightmare.
About a year ago (February) I purchased an Airport Extreme and a pair of Airport Expresses to create a daisy-chained roaming network.
Recently, we've invested in some new devices, specifically upgrading our main computer from a Penryn MBP to a Mac mini and adding AppleTV 3's as our primary means to watch TV content.
Last night, I was frustrated with how often the AirPlay stream seemed to stop while streaming from my Mac mini to the Apple TV in my living room, as well as my iPhone 5 to that same Apple TV.
I made the mistake of messing with an otherwise functioning network, did a hard reset of the devices and--4 hours of lost sleep on it later--am still left without internet connectivity to my network.
It seems that however I am trying to configure this network, I am doing something wrong because I can get the Extreme and one of the Expresses set up to broadcast well and retain internet connectivity, but connecting the other Express creates an unstable network that I cannot even connect to.
Can someone walk me through, step-by-step, how I should set up this network again for optimal wifi and AirPlay support? I am open to (and understand that I probably will have to) doing another hard reset and totally starting over.
For reference, there is a drawing of my setup attached.
Tesserax
Level 9
(54,901 points)
Roaming Network Setup Basics
- Ref: See the following Apple Support article for reference.
- Setup the AirPort Extreme, connected to the Internet modem, to "Share a public IP address." AirPort Utility > Select the Extreme > Edit > Network tab > Router Mode: DHCP and NAT
- Setup both AirPort Express base stations as bridges. Network tab > Router Mode: Off (Bridge Mode)
- For each base station:
- Connect to the same subnet of the Ethernet network.
- Provide a unique Base Station Name.
- The Network Name (SSID) should be identical.
- If using security, use the same security type (WEP, WPA, etc.) and password. Note: It is highly recommended that you use WPA2 Personal for best bandwidth performance.
- Make sure that the channel is set at least three channels apart from the next base station to prevent Wi-Fi interference.
The following are the basic setup steps:
- Power all the base stations down.
- Perform a "factory default" reset on each of the base stations. Note: You may have to perform this more than once to make sure they "stick."
- Connect one Ethernet cable between the LAN (opposing arrows) port on the Extreme to the Ethernet port on the Express. Connect a second Ethernet cable to another LAN port on the Extreme to the Ethernet port on the Express.
- Power up just the Extreme. Configure the Extreme as desired. Be sure the Network Mode option is set to: Create a wireless network and Router Mode is set to: DHCP and NAT. Verify that you can get Internet connectivity with network clients either by wireless or by wire connections to the Extreme.
- Power up one of the Express base stations. Use the AirPort Utility to select it.
- Configure the Express with the Network Mode option set to: Create a wireless network. (Note: Do NOT set it to "Extend a wireless network."
- Set the Wireless Network Name, Wireless Security, & Wireless Password options to be exactly the same as that used for the Extreme.
- Set the Router Mode to: Off (Bridge Mode).
- Select Update and allow the Express to restart.
- Once restarted verify that you can roam with a wireless laptop or iOS device between base stations and still gain Internet access.
- Once verified repeat the last series of steps to configure the second AirPort Express.
