Q: i have an airport extreme and 2 airport expresses. my printer sees them as 3 networks vs just one. how do i fix that?
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Feb 22, 2016 11:09 AMby Tesserax,HelpfulAre all of your AirPort base stations interconnected by Ethernet or by wireless? Ideally to get them all to be on the "same" network you will want them interconnected by Ethernet and configured for a roaming network.
Let us know if you wish to pursue this method and we can help assist you with the setup.
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Feb 22, 2016 11:57 AMby Tesserax,HelpfulIf possible, you will want to used wired connections. But since this is not always practical we need to look a bit closer at your current set up to see if the extended network is configured properly.
First thing that is important to understand. The way the AirPorts extend each other is it think of an old wagon wheel. You will want the base station that you want to extend at the hub of that wheel and the extending base stations along the spokes.
That being said, the Extreme should be the one at the hub and each of the two Express base stations will be on the spokes. You can see from this configuration, you will NOT be able to "daisy-chain" the two Express base stations to cover a longer distance. For example, if the Extreme is on the 1st floor, and Express on the 2nd floor should work, but placing another on the 3rd floor will not. That is because it, most likely, be outside a useable range of the Extreme to extend it. At best it will just join the wireless network like any other wireless network client.
So, I need to understand where you will like to place your base stations so I can assist you further.
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Feb 22, 2016 12:00 PMby donfromevanston,thanks the extreme is in the basement. there is an express on the 1st floor and one on the second. The reason being is that we have a 3rd floor and my daughters phone kept falling off the wifi. The printer is also on 3rd floor and i believe it sees this 2nd floor express but also the first floor express. I need the expresses but i also need a single network so to speak
Thoughts?
Don
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Feb 22, 2016 12:13 PMby Tesserax,Ok, I'm taking it using wired connections will be out of the question ... correct?
Going with they're not, we need to revisit your current placement of each of the base stations. Ideally, you will want them in the center of each floor in the home at the highest possible point in each room. Obviously, you will be limited with the Extreme as it will need to be relatively close to your Internet connection.
What we need to do now is set up each base station, one at a time. The following background material, provided by Apple Support, should give you a good idea on our desired goal with an all-wireless connected extended network.
To start, power-down both Express base stations. We will be taking Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) measurements. At this point, only of the Extreme. Please review the following AirPort User Tip to get yourself familiar on how you will take these measurements. The key here is to take your Mac laptop to the location on the 1st floor where you will want to place the 1st Express base station. Remember, we only want to take SNR measurements of the Extreme at this location. Once you get the measurements, jot them down as we will need to look at them in a minute. Since you have the laptop handy, go to the second floor where the 2nd Express will be located and take these measurements again.
You should now have two sets of measurements. How did the SNR values compare at each location to the SNR Guideline table in the user tip? Ideally, you want both locations to be 25+ dB for the Express base stations to effectively extend the Extreme's wireless network with enough bandwidth to be useful to wireless clients.
