Is it possible to use an Airport Extreme to attach a NAS to a wireless network when the Airport Extreme is not the primary base station?

I successfully gotten the Airport Extreme to "join" my existing wifi network. Can I set it up to now make use of the LAN ports on the back of it?

Unfortunately, when the AirPort Extreme "joins" a wireless network, the Ethernet ports are not enabled on the device, so it won't be possible to do what you ask with the AirPort Extreme.

Surprisingly though, the AirPort Express can "join" a wireless network...and the Ethernet port(s) are enabled on the Express.

The downside of course, is that the Ethernet port on the Express is only rated for 100 Mbps, so you will be losing a tremendous amount of speed on the network if the NAS is using 1,000 Mbps or Gigabit Ethernet ports.

I have heard that power line adapters have made some vast improvements recently. That might be my way out of this dilemma.

Powerline could possibly work, but again with some significant performance compromises. The fastest powerline products are advertised to be in 500 Mbps range, but there are no industry standards for powerline performance, so it is difficult, if not impossible to compare the specifications of one brand to another.

Another factor to keep in mind is that most powerline manufacturers publish their speed specifications using ideal conditions.....the two powerline adapters are not too far from one another and they are on the same electrical circuit.

Things can change tremendously when the adapters have to jump from one circuit to another. In other words, the signal must literally go back to the main circuit panel from one adapter and then travel all the back to the other adapter.

So, if you decide to try the adapters, it would probably be a good idea to understand the store's return policy in advance. The reason for this is that you will not know how well......or even if.....the adapters will do what you want until you try them out in your home.

Good luck!

Guest network

Kids network

Backup network in case the main network is not functioning correctly

If you don't need any of these things, then you might want to donate the products to a charity, or try to sell them online.