I strongly recommend this approach to extending the range and strength of your LAN. The price of an AirPort Express is inexpensive compared to the benefits it offers, and for Mac users, it could not be easier to set up and use. However, you should find that you have full signal strength available for wireless devices throughout the house now, especially in areas where before signals were weak, intermittent, or non-existent. The Express will repeat synchronously the data signals received from the Extreme and transmitted by users on your LAN.Īdding an AirPort Express will not increase the speed of your network, since it is limited by the speed of data transferred through the Extreme. The app will almost immediately find the Express and ask whether you want to add it as a bridge router to your present network. Next, plug in the Express and return to your Mac computer, where you will find and open the AirPort Utility app. AirPort Utility 5.6.1 allows you to configure and manage the new AirPort Express with simultaneous dual band 802.11n. Any wireless router should be place high up near the ceiling of the room in which it is located in order to obtain the greatest signal range. Extreme) primary LAN (local area network) router.įirst, locate the AirPort Express (Express) physically where you think it will do the most good-e.g., the other end of the house yet within signal range of your primary router. Using an Old Apple Express to Extend Wifi Range (a.Apple AirPort Express Base Station Wireless Router is a good and inexpensive way to expand your network's reach within your home, especially if you already are using an AirPort Extreme (abbrev.Under the Internet tab, set Connection Sharing to "Off (Bridge Mode).".Be sure to tick the box for "Allow wireless clients." Now you'll have a new tab: under WDS, set the WDS Mode to "WDS remote" and the "WDS Main" to the MAC address you wrote down for your router.Under Airport -> Wireless, set the Wireless Mode to "Participate in a WDS Network", and set the network name, security, password, and channel to match your router's settings.Make sure your wireless router is set to a static channel, and write down the router's MAC address.Ĭonfigure your AirPort Express using Airport Utility: The steps to set up your AirPort Express as an extender (this information is largely based on a Quora answer given by E.O. So instead, I am just running a long ethernet cable from the main router to the AirPort Express, creating a "new" network with the AirPort, and extending my signal that way. The broadcast works and functions as if it is extending the range, but the IP (the internet) does not pass through to the device connecting to the AirPort. Update: Even after updating the firmware, I can't get the AirPort Express to pass the IP. However, I am not updating the firmware just yet in case part of the update included Apple shenanigans to prevent the Express from extending non-Apple networks. It should also be noted that the current firmware for my AirPort Express is 7.6.4 (older firmware) and the newest available version is 7.6.9. I can confirm that I am using an AirPort Express 802.11n (1st Gen) to extend the network from my Netgear Nighthawk R7000. Essentialy, to do what you desire, you would need an Airport Extreme and an airport Express. There has been some rare instances where people have been able to use a non apple router for this purpose, but it seems to be a rare occurence. However, I repeated the steps, and somehow it magically worked. However most non Apple wireless routers will not work with the Airport express in this manner. It should be noted that the first time I went through the steps below, AirPort Utility told me it wouldn't work with a non-Apple base station.
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