flammarion
Level 1 (4 points)
Wireless

Q: Possible to give Airport wifi extender a custom wifi name?

I have two recent Airport Extremes and a Netgear router (with wifi turned off). I'd like
to connect one of the Airports to the Netgear via ethernet, and have that Airport provide
a wifi network called ALPHA. Then I'd like to use the second Airport to extend the
ALPHA network such that the extended wifi is named BRAVO.

I've looked at the Airport Utility and I get the impression that if an existing Airport wifi
network is extended using a second Airport, the extension wifi will have the same name
as the source wifi from the first Airport: that is, ALPHA with no option to use the name BRAVO.

However, I may be wrong. Is there to way to give the second extender the wifi name BRAVO?

Posted on Jul 16, 2016 2:00 PM

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flammarion

Q: Possible to give Airport wifi extender a custom wifi name?

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  • Helpful answers

  • by theratter,

    theratter theratter Jul 16, 2016 2:05 PM in response to flammarion
    Level 4 (3,907 points)
    Desktops
    Jul 16, 2016 2:05 PM in response to flammarion

    You can do that using Airport Utility to configure the device name for each when you select each one to re-configure and change the name.

  • by Bob Timmons,

    Bob Timmons Bob Timmons Jul 16, 2016 2:16 PM in response to flammarion
    Level 10 (105,018 points)
    Wireless
    Jul 16, 2016 2:16 PM in response to flammarion

    The answer to your question is Yes and No.

     

    Yes, if the extended AirPort connects using Ethernet to the "main" AirPort, then you can assign any name that you want to the wireless network provided by the second AirPort.

     

    No, if the second AirPort will connect wirelessly to the "main" AirPort. In that case, the extended Airport will have the same wireless network name as the "main" AirPort....and it cannot be changed. 

     

    Another way of saying the same thing would be that when a network is extended "wirelessly", the name of the wireless network will always be the same on the main AirPort and any other AirPorts that are set up to extend the network.

     

    Another downside to extending wirelessly is that there will be significant loss of about half of the potential speed on the network. This can be avoided if the AirPorts connect using a permanent, wired Ethernet cable  connection.

  • by flammarion,

    flammarion flammarion Jul 16, 2016 2:53 PM in response to Bob Timmons
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Wireless
    Jul 16, 2016 2:53 PM in response to Bob Timmons

    Aha. Thank you. Your "No" paragraph describes my situation.