Airport Express setup

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Level 1

4 points

Airport Express setup

I just bought a new (but Apple-remanufactured) AirPort Express to extend my home wifi as we have pretty weak signal in places with my AirPort Extreme base station. I want to use the Express as a wired roaming access point. My Extreme is set up with my existing network in DHCP mode. When I start the APU "wizard" with the Express WAN port connected to an Extreme LAN port , it sees the Express as a WiFi device, but when selected, it hangs at the first screen "Gathering Information about your Network ..." with the spinning wheel and the word "Preparing" below the little image of the APE. I have re-set the Express several times and have waited 30 minutes with no progress. I'm using a known-good Ethernet cable. FYI, when I first powered-on the Express, I was prompted for a password even though I had just taken it out of the shrinkwrap. Also, the hardcopy docs plus most of the Apple online stuff is useless.

Thanks - dman56

MacBook Pro (13-inch Mid 2009), OS X Yosemite (10.10.2)

Posted on Mar 29, 2015 10:20 PM

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Answer 1

dman56 Author

Level 1

4 points

Mar 29, 2015 10:23 PM in response to dman56

By the way, I have the Express directly cabled to the Extreme with a short cable for setup but when I move it to its final location, it will be through house network cabling and a switch.

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Answer 2

Mar 30, 2015 4:06 AM in response to dman56

Yosemite is Apple's least acceptable networking OS .. perhaps ever.

Do you have an ipad or iphone to do the setup with?? Just download the utility for iOS and use that.

Otherwise do it manually .. there is no need with roaming to setup the express using automatic setup.. this is not hard at all.

Plug the Express LAN port into the Mac ethernet port. But in full isolation to the rest of the network. I don't have an express to show this to you but I will use a Gen3 TC which is pretty much the same.. however this is also not Yosemite which I would class as Alpha release (at least on the network).

So factory reset the Express.

Make sure the computer has both wireless and ethernet on.. it is just easier to run both.. but we will do it with ethernet.

In both the ethernet and wireless setup on the computer make sure you have IPv6 set to Link Local only.. this is important.

After a reset the ethernet should show an IP exactly as shown below.. 10.0.1.2 with the router setting 10.0.1.1

Now select configure other..

A screen will come up.

Enter the address.. 10.0.1.1 and no password should be required at this stage.. if it is needed you have not factory reset correctly.. but it should be public.

Then you will get the full setup .. all manual..

Go to base station and give it a suitable name.. all names should be short, no spaces and pure alphanumeric.. and passwords the same but longer.

eg Express1

Go to the wireless tab and give it the identical name to your existing wireless AP.

Identical security settings and password.

And finally the network tab.. select bridge..

Click on update at the bottom and you can then plug the express in where you need it.

Any issues give me the screenshots.

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Answer 3

dman56 Author

Level 1

4 points

Mar 30, 2015 6:16 AM in response to LaPastenague

Thanks - this all worked though the IPv4 address was 10.0.1.13 not 10.0.1.2 as shown. I ended up using my MBP and not my iPad and I think the key was using the File ... Configure Other pulldowns rather than letting the wizard run on its own. I now have functional roaming and great signal strength throughout my not-large, but well shielded, older house with metal lath and plaster walls. Thanks again LaPastenague; thumbs-up to Apple for providing this support community service; but huge thumbs-down to Apple for appallingly poor documentation ... not just lack of content, but what content is there is contradictory and dumbed-down to make it look simple, and thus omitting key information.

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Answer 4

Mar 30, 2015 2:47 PM in response to dman56

Glad you got it all working.

I do have to say Apple have tried hard to avoid documentation by making the airport utility wizard extremely proficient at handling the setup.. when I compare the v6 to v5 airport utility it is amazing how much better it works.. however when things go wrong.. they do go seriously wrong. And Yosemite is less than great.

Understanding exactly what you are doing allows the fully manual setup.

You can configure it under any circumstances.. that is hugely beneficial.. learning how to do it is a matter of trying every possible option though. Apple is way behind documenting this.

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