Connecting Aiport Express to Aiport Extreme to extend network - problems
I have an Airport Extreme that I purchased several years ago (thinking 3 years ago... honestly can't remember). For home network (iPhones, iPads, Windoms laptops, Apple TV, SmartTV's, etc.), works fine... except for one corner of my home (farthest spot from Airport Extreme device).
I purchased an Airport Express device to serve as a WiFi network extender, paired with the Airport Extreme, several months ago (summer 2016, don't recall month). Initial setup seemed to go OK... had to set it up connecting directly to the Extreme via ethernet cable, etc.
Recently, found that the signal strength, even with the Airport Express active, was poor, so decided to try factory reset and start configuration over (kinda the Ctrl-Alt-Delete reaction). I am now unable to get the Airport Utility to configure the Airport Express device. The only way the Airport Utility software (Windows, sorry no Macs in the house) even recognizes teh Airport Express device is if it is connected via ethernet cable directly to the Airport Extreme, and even then the configuration attempts hit problems I can't get past.
Airport Utility (Windows) = version 5.5.3 (Win XP), version 5.6.1 (Win 10)
Airport Extreme (5th Generation) = version 7.6.4 (firmware, I guess)
Airport Express (undefined Generation in Airport Utility) = version 7.6.5 (firmware, I guess)
Steps I followed this morning:
(1) unplug Airport Express, let sit for 30 seconds
(2) press the "reset" button on the Airport Express with a paper clip, hold for 10 secs, and while still holding plug power cord into Airport Express, then release reset button after a few more secs
(3) ** at this point, Airport Express is showing blinking amber light, but Airport Utility software does not recognize it as active **
(4) waited 2-3 minutes... no change
(5) connected ethernet cable from Airport Extreme (router) to the Airport Express "O" port... now the Airport Utility software recognizes the device, with "out of the box" configuration, and assigned an IP address by the Airport Extreme (internal NAT - IP 192.168.1.122)
(6) using Airport Utility software, click "Continue" to configure the Airport Express device:
- use default settings (detected device was reset), click Continue
- named device ("Sam's Airport Express") and set password, click Continue
- selected "I want to join my current network" (since I want this to be extender, not a new network), click Continue
- selected "I want to wirelessly join my current network", click Continue
- selected by network SSID, provided password info and security (WPA2 Personal), and checked "Extend the range of this network", click Continue
- now I need to select the wireless device I want to extend... I expected to see my Airport Extreme device listed as the only option available, but instead there are NONE listed (even though the Airport Utility shows my Airport Extreme as available to configure itself)... why?
- from here, I cannot move forward, since no device could be selected, I clicked "Scan Again" multiple times, no update
I decided to try a second approach in the selections for Step (6) above...
- instead of selecting "I want to wirelessly join my current network", I selected "I want to connect to my network using Ethernet to extend my wireless network", then clicked Continue
- I selected the device to which I wanted to connect via Ethernet (I selected "Jason's Airport Extreme"), clicked Continue
- now, it verifies the setup, but for "Wireless Mode", it says "Create a wireless network", even though I chose "join my network" earlier (I repeated the steps from very beginning to confirm)
- I tried selecting the Airport Express device instead, and it tells me it can't find the network to which to connect... when I type in the network SSID, it returns Error -6753 "An error occurred while trying to access the Apple wireless device. Make sure your network connection is valid and try again".
I've been down this same road for several days, and am just kind of stuck and out of ideas, at this point. Looking for assistance as to where to go from here. The Airport Utility will not even allow me to connect to the Airport Express device using the "Manual Setup" option (same error as noted above). If I try to restart the Airport Express in the Airport Utility, I get that same error.
I'm betting I will need to again reset the device to work with it, but suspect I will be in the same problem spot I am now with it after doing that.
Anyone have any ideas? NOTE: no Mac computers available in household... I've seen several posts on this topic presume that the user has a Mac available... all using Windows (Win XP and Win 10).
Thanks,
Jason
null-OTHER, Windows XP Pro