Does the sixth generation airport extreme have better wireless network range (for wireless N) than the second generation? I have a second generation but it has trouble reaching all the areas in my house.
It is harder than you think to give an answer..
The result may actually give you the same coverage.. however you can then use the old AE to extend the wireless.
Much depends on the condition of the Airport.. it is very old.. and the wireless can deteriorate.
Using an AC model Time Capsule (same as the new AE) gave me slightly better wireless connection cf my gen4 TC or gen5 AE.. but not enough to worry over. It is faster however.. and that is the main point.. speed not range.
Does the sixth generation airport extreme have better wireless network range (for wireless N) than the second generation? I have a second generation but it has trouble reaching all the areas in my house.
I have owned both of these devices, and found the range to be about the same, so I would not recommend purchasing the newer AirPort if you are hoping for significant range improvement.
You would have significantly better range if you added an AirPort Express to your existing AirPort Extreme to "extend" your network.
I don't have AC clients unfortunately, and speed is not a concern for me. It's fast enough, it just don't reach far enough.
Thanks Bob. That's great (if disappointing) feedback. I already have an airport express and use it to extend my network. It does help a bit but not as much as I would hope.
It sounds like you are trying to "extend" the network using a wireless connection between your AirPort Extreme and AirPort Express. That is OK for some situations, but it has a number of compromises.
The correct way to do this.....which is not easy for most users.....is locate an AirPort Express in the area(s) where you need more signal coverage and then connect the Express(es) back to the main router using a wired Ethernet connection.
In my case, I have an AirPort Extreme located centrally in the home, with another Airport at either end of the house. The wireless is lightning fast and seamless wherever I am in the house. The decision to run Ethernet cabling was the best that I have ever made in terms of a performance improvement for the network.....far better than any new router or new computer.
Yes, you are correct. I've been extending the network using a wireless connection between my airport extreme and express. I think that reduces network speed (which is still fine) but doesn't seem to work very reliably, which is the bigger problem.
I understand that a wired ethernet connect is much better than any wireless one. I think running ethernet cabling would be ideal, but rather expensive in my multi-level townhouse. (I also get lots of competition from neighbours on wireless channels). I do have powerline adapters, so maybe I can get close to the same benefit of directly using ethernet wiring by using powerline adapters together with the airport express?
I'm not really sure how you configured your airport express in the scenario you described. Is it still configured to extend the wireless network?
Powerline might work, but there are always a lot of "if's" with these devices, one being that they tend to work very well when both adapters are on the same electrical circuit and not all that well when one adapter is on one circuit and another on a different circuit. A lot will depend on how the electrician wired the house and the circuit box, how much distance there will be to cover, and whether there are any high current devices like an air conditioner, refrigerator, etc.....something with a compressor that will be cycling on and off and possibly causing some disruption on the AC powerlines in the process.
If you want to try powerline, it would be best to set up a "test" first to see how they will work. So, you will have one adapter near the main wireless router connecting with a short ethernet cable. Position the other powerline adapter in the remote location where you want to install an AirPort to provide more wireless coverage. Connect a laptop or other computer to the remote powerline adaptor, turn off the wireless on the computer, and see if it will get a good, solid Internet connection over a period of several hours.
Post back with your results. If the connection works well, then the chances that the AirPort will as well are reasonably good. The AirPort will need to be reconfigured to work this way, and the setup is different than extending using wireless, but the setup wizard will take care of all of the settings for you, so you don't have to worry about what to change.
I've used powerline adapters to connect an Apple TV and Roku in different rooms to the main wireless router for some time now. It generally works reasonably well, although I do have to unplug them and plug them back in to reset them on occassion.
I'll try doing this with an Airport express and see how that goes. It may be a few days before I can test it. Thank you for your help!
Good luck! Be sure to perform a Hard Reset on the AirPort Express before you install and setup the Express, since you cannot simply plug the Ethernet cable into the Express in its current configuration.
Post back if you need some help with the setup.
Thanks for the reminder on the hard reset. I was about to give up, as I was getting an error after setting up the airport express to extend the network. The AirPort Utility appeared to join the airport express to the extreme base station until the final phase, when it said there was an unexpected error. I tried using it anyway (despite the error), but as soon I plugged the airport utility into the powerline adapter, it killed my internet connection (and my routers activity lights went crazy).
My mistake was having the airport express plugged into the powerline while I was trying to configure it to extend the network. Once I plugged it directly into an ethernet cable that was directly attached to my access point (i.e. no powerline adapter), the airport utility setup completed without any error messages. After the setup completed, I was able to unplug the airport express, move it to a different floor and plug into the powerline adapter. At this point, things worked. My network connection seemed faster, based on speedtest.net, and more reliable according to pingtest.net.
I'll have to test if further over several days, but early signs are promising!
Does sixth generation airport extreme have better wireless network range than second generation
