airport extreme extender

Is your goal to extend your existing AirPort Extreme with another using a wireless connection between them or a wired one?

There are two ways to "extend" a network, with one method offering much better performance than the other.

The best way to extend a network is to have the new AirPort connect back to the "main" AirPort using a permanent, wired Ethernet cable connection. There is no signal loss when you do it this way, so maximum speeds on the entire network are maintained.

The second AirPort can be located anywhere that the Ethernet cable will reach....up to a maximum length of about 325 feet, or 100 meters.

It is also possible to have the second AirPort connect back to the first using a wireless connection. Unfortunately, when you do it this way, there will always be a loss of about half of the potential speed on the entire network. And, this assumes that you literally have a line-of-sight relationship between the two AirPorts. If there are walls or ceiling in the signal path, then even more performance will be lost.

The second AirPort will need to be located about half way between the first AirPort and the general area where you need more wireless signal coverage.

Hopefully, you will choose the best performance method, but we must ask......which method do you want to use?.....since the setup is different for each type of network.

Is the iMac that you list in your tagline still using OS X (10.7.3), or has it been updated to a newer operating system?

I have just extended my wireless network using your recommended method -- connecting the second router to the first using an ethernet cable. I live in an older building with plaster walls, which I have read can hinder a wifi network, and my apartment is long and narrow. The signal in the far end of the apartment was frequently weak, so I ran a 100' ethernet cable down a long hallway (luckily I was able to hide it above a crown molding for about 75% of the run), and plugged that into my second router (an Airport Extreme). Once I connected the ethernet cable and plugged it in, I opened Airport Utility and it said simply "Do you want to use the Airport Extreme to extend your existing network?" I said yes, and I was done. Previously I was getting speeds of 10-15Mbps in the back of the apt., and now I'm getting 95-105Mbps. Using the Extreme may be overkill, but since I'm all Apple I just went with the easiest option.

Nice work!