Possible to force Airport Express to connect to Extender not TC?

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Level 2

190 points

Possible to force Airport Express to connect to Extender not TC?

I use an Airport Express + Airplay to play music in my front living room, and everything runs fine when the device (C. below) connects to my extender (B. below) but I just had a power reset and when everything came back up C was connected directly to A, which causes frequent drops in audio playback. I have tried unplugging an plugging back in the devices in various order, but each time the Airport express always seems to connect direclty to the further away and weaker TC rather than to the Extender.

My question is: Is there a way to force the Airport Express to connect ot the Extender rather than the TC?

Short of a configurable option, any tips on how to get it to connect the way I want - I know it connects this way at times because I can see it on on the Airport Utility clearly connected to the Extender, and the music streaming never ever drops when it is set this way.

My system consists of the following:

1st floor:

A. Airport TimeCapsule 802.11n 2nd generation hard wired to Cable Modem

B. Airport Express 802.11n 1st generation set as extender outside of brick walled room where TC is located

C. Airport Express 802.11n 1st generation used for airplay in Living Room

D. Airport Express 802.11n 1st generation used for airplay in Den (although I don't think it's relevant here, including for completeness)

2nd floor (although I don't think it's relevant here, including for completeness)

E. Airport Express 802.11n 2nd generation - hard wired to downstairs TC and set as extender to cover all of upstairs

Here is how it is (incorrectly) configured now:

Posted on Mar 2, 2014 12:11 PM

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Answer 1

Bob Timmons

Level 10

187,832 points

Mar 2, 2014 12:30 PM in response to Lewis Pennock

My question is: Is there a way to force the Airport Express to connect ot the Extender rather than the TC?

Sorry, but no. Apple's "extend" feature works somewhat like the hub and spokes of a wheel. On your network, the TC would be the "hub", and the three Express devices that connect using wireless are all located at the ends of separate "spokes".

The devices at the ends of the "spokes" will try to connect directly to the "hub"......not to another device at the end of another spoke that is already setup to extend the signal.

However.....If you locate a device somewhat closer to another extending device, it may pick up the stronger signal from that extending device. If this does occur, the Express at the bottom of the chain will not "extend" the wireless signal......it can only "join" the network.

That would probably be OK if you only want that Express to provide service for AirPlay. It will not provide additional wireless signal coverage for the network if it connects to another device that is already extending the network.

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Answer 2

Tesserax

Level 10

158,724 points

Mar 2, 2014 12:31 PM in response to Lewis Pennock

A couple of things to note about your network configuration:

The upstairs Express connected back to the TC should be configured (with the TC) as a roaming network, NOT as an extended network. That is, it should be configured to "Create a wireless network," not "Extend a wireless network."
The Express used to extend the TC placement will be critical to properly extend the roaming network with enough bandwidth to be useful. Please check out the following AirPort User Tip for details.
I am assuming that both the Living Room & Den base stations are configured to "Join a wireless network" for the purpose of AirPlay. Is this correct?

To answer your question. No there isn't a way to "force" a base station to connect to either the "main" or "extender" base station in either an extended or roaming network. By theory, the base station will attempt to connect to the base station with the strongest signal ... but that does not alway occur in practice.

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Answer 3

Lewis Pennock Author

Level 2

190 points

Mar 2, 2014 12:45 PM in response to Tesserax

Bob - I understnad what you are sayuing, but I do know that it is at least possible to connect the Airplay Airport Express (C) to the Extender Airport Express (B) becuase I have seen it mapped this way on the Airport Utility Diagram. The signal of C should be much stronger than the TC, because TC is in a brick room, but B connects to the TC just the same.

Tesserax - you are right, the upstairs Airport Express hard wired to the TC is actualy set to "Create a wireless network" with the same name, not extend. I did not bother looking at it carefully before making my post since I am not sure it related to my question, and in my mind it is "extending," but it is configured correctly. At one point I had separate named upstairs and downstairs networks but you had to remember to switch between them so this configuration works best.

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Answer 4

Lewis Pennock Author

Level 2

190 points

Mar 2, 2014 1:05 PM in response to Lewis Pennock

Okay, by repeatedly restarting devices over and over I finally got it back to the way it was before the power cut, but again, I could not tell you what did the trick as I just did the same thing over and over again until it came up the way I wanted. So, problem fixed, until next time there is a power cut or something gets unplugged. Wish there were a way to actualy "configure" my network as it is now. Picture attached:

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Answer 5

Bob Timmons

Level 10

187,832 points

Mar 2, 2014 1:16 PM in response to Lewis Pennock

but I do know that it is at least possible to connect the Airplay Airport Express (C) to the Extender Airport Express (B) becuase I have seen it mapped this way on the Airport Utility Diagram

I did not not say that it was not possible.....what I said is the devices will "try" to all connect back to the main hub....unless the signal levels are such that the Express sees a much stronger signal from a device that is already set to "extend".

Wish there were a way to actualy "configure" my network as it is now.

Well, it won't help to say that there used to be a way to do this several years ago....but Apple unfortunately removed that option.

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Answer 6

Lewis Pennock Author

Level 2

190 points

Mar 2, 2014 1:20 PM in response to Lewis Pennock

Hi Bob, understand - sorry for misquoting. So, based on your explanation - perhaps next time this happens I will try and do my best to block the signal of the TC, maybe find a big metal plate to put in front of it, and with everything else running normaly I can restart the Livint Room Stereo Airport Express (C) above and it should have a better chance of connecting to the Extender (B) on the first go.

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Answer 7

Bob Timmons

Level 10

187,832 points

Mar 2, 2014 1:24 PM in response to Lewis Pennock

That would be a good idea. Another is to temporarily move the Express closer to the device that you want it to connect with and power it up so that it will "remember" the device.

Then, move the Express back to the desired location and it will normally look for the previous connection as a priority.

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