How to set-up a DUAL BAND wireless network.

I have a question that may fit into this solution but has a twist.
I already have a dsl(but moving to cable soon) modem (non Mac naturally)that transmits wirelessly througout the house to my macs. I want to add an airport extreme base station to this mix to improve the coverage. The modem is at the rear of the house and I was thinking of locating the airport base station at the front of the house.

If I connect the airport extreme base station to the wireless modem (which I am also using as the router).
Do I do it wirelessly or is an ethernet cable the only way?
Can I use the modem's wireless capability as well as the airport base station's wireless or do I need to disable wireless on the modem?
What configuration do I use for the devices?
Any help would b appreciated.
Keith

Glen,

Hi, I've been following this thread and have attempted a couple of times to set up my network by your diagram...I have alot less experience than most so please bare with me. My previous setup was:

Cable modem connected via Ethernet to a Dlink DI-624 Extreme G wireless router.

Mac Mini and 1 XBox 360 connected via Ethernet to the router.
2 XP laptops, PS3, Wii, and 2nd XBox 360 connected wirelessly to the router. Believe it or not my connection was pretty good, and heavy as it was, speed seemed good also.

I have added to that mix the following:

1 AEBS and 1 Macbook Pro Core 2 Duo laptop.

I wanted to have the AEBS as the primary router and the DLink as the slave, however I can not seem to figure out how to get the 2 to work together. The only way I have been able to access my Dlink configuration page (using IP address in browser) is to connect directly via Ethernet. Even then when I changed the IP to a 10.0.1.x, I couldn't access it at all. Not to mention, the settings menu for the DLink doesn't have a "Bridge Mode" selection as the AEBS does. Would you possibly be able to help with this setup? Anyone? I would really appreciate it. Oh yeah I should mention I currently have AEBS connected through the WAN port to the modem. The MacMini, and 1 XBox 360 connected to the AEBS via Ethernet, and everything else running wirelessly through the AEBS (the wireless XBox 360 is using the MAC address to connect. I have taken the DLink router out of the mix altogether until I can get this figured out. Though this setup is working, it is considerable slower than my previous setup. Both of the XP laptops will only connect at 54mbps, opposed to the 108 that it used to. So, with all this equipment what is my best option and how would I go about setting that up? Any help or advice is welcome and appreciated!

Teresa

Your post is really helpful and the diagram is great. I have this exact same setup with the addition of another Airport Express.

I have followed your diagram as closely as I can but still can't quite get things working.

I have my cable modem wired to the WAN port on the AEBSn and the AEBSg wired to it using LAN ports on both.

I have setup a 5GHz N (only) network with a unique SSID with the AEBSn. The AEBSg is used in WDS mode as the main with the 2 expresses shown as WDS remotes. This network is G/B and has a different SSID from the N network. All 3 G/B devices share the same SSID, encryption, and channel.

I have setup static IPs for the base stations - 192.168.1.1 for the AEBSn, .2 for the AEBSg, .3 & .4 for the expresses. DHCP is setup on the AEBSn to start at 192.168.1.6. All 3 of the g base stations are set to bridge mode.

When using the Airport Utility the AEBSg shows with an orange light next to it saying that the ethernet us unplugged. I can only get the 2 expresses to show up in the utility if I connect them with ethernet. They seem to successfully join the WDS because their lights are green, but they don't show up in the Airport Utility. I also can't seem them from iTunes.

I've tried to follow this thread and your diagram as closely as possible. I tried setting the AEBSn to "allow this network to be extended" but that didn't help.

Does anyone have any ideas or advice? Anything I can try?

THANKS!!!!

Mac OS X (10.4.9)

I believe this is the same problem that I posted about on the weekend (threadID=900357). I use two 5G base stations and then connect an Airport Express to the remote one via its ethernet, creating a dual-band network, as well as at least one computer. Nothing that is connected to the remote 5G base station can reliably reach the internet. I haven't had time to investigate further.

Dual 2 GHz PowerPC G5; 2 GB RAM Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Hi I hope someone can help.
I am just about to get and airport extreme and i want to set up a dualband network using an airport express is this possible i know it is with an airport express base station and an airport extreme but i just have an express that I plug into the wall
I have an imac 24 inch model also a imac g5 and xbox 360 and an apple tv and that is why i want a dual band network
Thanks
David

This thread is really helpful and the diagrams are great. I have this exact same setup as sumocomputers above with the addition of another Airport Express. It's also the same as Glyn's but with the 2 Airport Expresses.

I have followed the diagrams as closely as I can but still can't quite get things working.

I have my cable modem wired to the WAN port on the AEBSn and the AEBSg wired to it using LAN ports on both.

I have setup a 5GHz N (only) network with a unique SSID with the AEBSn. The AEBSg is used in WDS mode as the main with the 2 expresses shown as WDS remotes. This network is G/B and has a different SSID from the N network. All 3 G/B devices share the same SSID, encryption, and channel.

I have setup static IPs for the base stations - 192.168.1.1 for the AEBSn, .2 for the AEBSg, .3 & .4 for the expresses. DHCP is setup on the AEBSn to start at 192.168.1.6. All 3 of the g base stations are set to bridge mode.

When using the Airport Utility the AEBSg shows with an orange light next to it saying that the ethernet us unplugged. I can only get the 2 expresses to show up in the utility if I connect them with ethernet. They seem to successfully join the WDS because their lights are green, but they don't show up in the Airport Utility. I also can't seem them from iTunes.

I've tried to follow this thread and your diagram as closely as possible. I tried setting the AEBSn to "allow this network to be extended" but that didn't help.

Does anyone have any ideas or advice? Anything I can try?

THANKS!!!!

Mac OS X (10.4.9)

24" iMac + 15" MacBook Pro CoreDuo + TV Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Sorry. My original post must not be clear.

I previously had the 802.11g (and b) setup running with the AEBS and 2 airport expresses in a WDS as a way to extend range and allow me to attach ethernet devices in one of the remote locations.

I just got the AEBSn router and want to add it and keep it as a separate band so it runs at full speed.

So it's just two bands with WDS extending the range of the g/b network.

You said that I should configure it differently. What am I doing wrong?

Thanks again.

Mac OS X (10.4.9)

I should also add that I would prefer to use the AEBSn as the main base station and DHCP server if possible. But at this point anything that works would be great.