Thinking of adding Airport Extreme to Google Fiber

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Turtle2000 Author

Level 1

8 points

Thinking of adding Airport Extreme to Google Fiber

Hi, everyone. Wanted to start a new question related to Google Fiber...slightly different than Back2Mac's question earlier.

Just got Google Fiber. House is wired throughout with CAT6. Wired connection works great. Wireless is great sometimes but not getting the range or consistency we want.

Can I add an Airport Extreme, hard wired to the Google Fiber Network Box (which is a router, "GFNB" for short) and have everything work well and be secure?

There is a lot of information out there, but most of it is highly technical and I think talking about trying to take the GFNB out of the equation all together. I don't need or want to do that. Just looking to replace GFNB's wireless with an Airport Extreme wireless. I think all I need to do connect the Airport Extreme by wire to the GFNB, set the Airport Extreme to bridge mode and "create wireless network" and turn off GFNB's wireless.

I haven't bought the Airport Extreme yet and didn't want to go to the trouble if it's going to be over my head technically. I've seen lot of references to port forwarding, DMZ, static IPs, etc. Is there more that needs to be configured to make my setup secure? Also, will shared network activity across wired/wireless devices work together (for example, Airplay from wireless iPhone to wired AppleTV)?

Thanks and appreciate any help anyone has for a novice with little network experience!

iMac (21.5-inch Late 2009)

Posted on Jun 19, 2016 4:44 AM

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Answer 1

Bob Timmons

Level 10

186,290 points

Jun 19, 2016 11:19 AM in response to Turtle2000

Connect an Ethernet cable from one of the LAN <--> ports on the fibre router to the WAN "O" port on the AirPort Extreme.

Power up the AirPort Extreme for a minute or two.

Click the WiFi menu at the top of your Mac's screen and look for a listing of New AirPort Base Station.

Click on AirPort Extreme just under that listing.

That will get Apple's setup "wizard" up and running. It will take a few seconds to analyze the network, then display a screen that looks like the example below, except that you will see a picture of the AirPort Extreme.

Network Name......Type in a short, simple name that you want to call the wireless network

Base Station.........Type in a short, simple device name that you want to use for the AirPort Extreme

Password..............Type in a password that will be used for the wireless network and base station

Verify.....................Type in the same password again to confirm

Click Next

The setup "wizard" will configure everything for you automatically....so you don't have to worry about things like "bridge mode", "security", or other settings.

When you see the message of Setup Complete, click Done, and you are done.

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Answer 2

Turtle2000 Author

Level 1

8 points

Jun 19, 2016 11:23 AM in response to Bob Timmons

Thank you! I'm going to buy the Airport Extreme today and try it and I'll post once I make some progress. The only thing I'm wondering about is the advice on Google's support site that says "Simply connect the router to the Network Box (wired or wirelessly) as you would any other device." I was guessing that meant to plug it into a LAN port on the Airport, not a WAN. But I'm going to start with following your write up first!

Thanks so much for the reply. I've been down this road before with Uverse and I couldn't get it....but I was using Time Capsule and trying to connect a network drive. Got the wireless to work but never got the drive to seat with any stability. The goal this time is much easier, I hope!

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Answer 3

Turtle2000 Author

Level 1

8 points

Jun 19, 2016 11:14 PM in response to Bob Timmons

Thanks, Bob. This worked great. No trouble with the setup at all. I'm still having some issue with dropping the 5ghz connection and with the 2.4 being quite slow when farther away. Will troubleshoot a little then may post another question or two. Thanks again!!

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