help in setting up wired apple airport extreme wifi network

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Level 1

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help in setting up wired apple airport extreme wifi network

I live in a home with walls too thick to support a wireless wifi network. Thus I would like to set up a wired network with access points throughout the home.

I am using Windows 10, I have a DSL modem router (ZyXEL c1000z supported by CenturyLink with 801.11n) connected to the WAN port on a 802.11ac Apple Airport Extreme. With cat 6 cable I want to connect the Extreme to other Extremes at various access points in the home.

My question is can I hook up the Extremes using LAN from a single central Extreme or will I need a switch box?

Thank you.

Windows 10

Posted on Oct 11, 2015 8:22 AM

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Answer 1

Tesserax

Level 10

158,514 points

Oct 11, 2015 10:34 AM in response to bagwelljcb

I would suggest that you employ an Ethernet switch. Connect it to the ZyXEL's LAN or Ethernet port. In turn connect each access point to one of the available Ethernet ports on the switch. This, of course, would require that you run Ethernet cabling throughout your home between the switch and where the access point will be located.

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Answer 2

bagwelljcb Author

Level 1

8 points

Oct 11, 2015 10:59 AM in response to Tesserax

Thank you for the reply. Very helpful.

Rather than an Ethernet switch, would is be possible to connect the ZyXEL to an Airport Extreme using the WAN port, then connect the connected Airport Extreme to three other(additional) Extremes at various locations using the three LAN ports?

Thank you.

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Answer 3

Tesserax

Level 10

158,514 points

Oct 11, 2015 3:16 PM in response to bagwelljcb

Yes, that would work too. Just be sure to reconfigure all of the Apple base stations as bridges. You will have the basics of a roaming type network. Only the "main" router (in this case, the ZyXEL) would need to have NAT & DHCP enabled. These would be disabled when in bridge mode ... which is what you will want.

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