I use an older 2nd generation airport extreme on the 2nd floor of my house and needed another to cover another portion of the house and recently bought a 2nd gen airport express to extend it.
My question is, which is better(more powerful) to use as the main wifi hub: the 2nd generation extreme or the 2nd generation express?
I'd use the extreme.
The 2nd Gen AirPort Express is a simultaneous dual band product, which will produce both a 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz network. The 2nd Gen AirPort Extreme cannot do this. For what it is worth, the 2nd Gen Express is capable of higher wireless speeds than the 2nd Gen AirPort Extreme as well.
If you use the 2nd Gen Express as the "main" router, you will have the benefit of dual band performance for devices that connect to the AirPort Express in the main area. If you have any 5 GHz capable devices, they will connect at higher speeds than other devices as well because of the dual band capability of the Express.
The 2nd Gen AirPort Extreme is not simultaneous dual band capable, so it will extend only one band from the AirPort Express, likely the 2.4 GHz band since it is the stronger signal.
It probably does not make much sense to use the 2nd Gen AirPort Extreme as the main router, since the Express will only be able to extend one band from the AirPort Extreme, since that is all that it can produce at one time. On the other hand, if you are happy with the AirPort Extreme as the main router, and you are not looking for higher speed capability in the main area, you could continue to use the Extreme as your main router. It does look more impressive.
As far as rated signal strength, you might be surprised to learn that Apple rates the smaller 2nd Gen Express as having just a bit higher signal output power than the 2nd Gen Extreme.
One question though....other than the modem, how many devices do you plan to connect using a wired Ethernet connection to your "main" router?
thanks for the info. what I meant by main router is the part of the house we use the most devices.
the house has a lot of concrete and is ethernet cabled. The main router/modem of the telecom company is on the 1st floor and the wifi coverage is adequate. The modem has 4 ports on it. The 2nd floor is the problem areas as far as wifi coverage. I use the airport extreme in bridge mode (with the LAN cable connected from the telco modem) to cover most of the 2nd floor. I also have a printer on the USB and the ps3 and apple tv cabled to the extreme.
The recently acquired express was setup on another part of the 2nd floor (also connected via LAN cable to the telco modem).
As per your advice. I will switch the new express(with the extreme) to the part of the house that we use the most devices on but since the express only has one extra LAN port, the PS3 will be connected to it and I will leave the Apple TV on wireless.
Sorry, but we were guilty of assuming that your AirPort Extreme was presently connected to a simple modem, and the Extreme was the main router in charge of your network.
The performance of the AirPorts is going to be limited to the speed of Internet signal that your modem/router can provide, so I doubt that you will notice any difference between the AirPorts since your modem/router is really controlling the network.
The Express will provide a bit stronger signal in terms of broadcast power, so I would use it where you feel that you need the slightly stronger signal.
If you need more Ethernet port capability for the Express, you can add a 5-port Ethernet switch to the LAN port on the Express.
which airport is better, 2nd gen express or 2nd gen extreme
