Adding remote/relay base stations

hello,
re network with AEBSn's and Airport Express's
is it possible to add more than 4 remotes to a network? In Airport Utility under the WDS page (participate in a network), it only seems to allow 4 remotes added when setting up the main base station.
can remotes be connected both by WDS and ethernet cable?
are relay stations required to be connected by ethernet cable or can they be WDS as well?
when setting up a relay base station, should the station also be listed as a remote under the main station?
finally, when do I use 'Participate' vs. 'Extend' a network under the wireless tab in Airport Utility?
I've read the article "Designing Airport Networks" and can't find clear answers to the above.
also, I do understand band width will suffer with multiple base stations
any help appreciated.
kind regards, Scott.

is it possible to add more than 4 remotes to a network? In Airport Utility under the WDS page (participate in a network), it only seems to allow 4 remotes added when setting up the main base station.
Yes, but indirectly. You can only add four remotes or four relays (with up to four remotes attached to the relay) to a main base station ... for a total of twenty-one base stations in a WDS.
can remotes be connected both by WDS and ethernet cable?
If a base station is connected by Ethernet, it is no longer participating in a WDS.
are relay stations required to be connected by ethernet cable or can they be WDS as well?
They would be wireless.
finally, when do I use 'Participate' vs. 'Extend' a network under the wireless tab in Airport Utility?
Use "Participate" when you are creating a WDS; use "Extend" when you want to extend a 802.11n network wirelessly with an additional 802.11n AirPort Extreme Base Station (AEBSn).

Similar Messages

Remote base station versus relay base station

Okay, I give up. What is the difference between a remote and a relay? Can I daisy chain relay base stations? Will remote base stations act as "relays"? Are there any tricks to setting up the relay stations (remotes seem completely straightforward)? What are the positives and negatives of each?
MacBook Pro Mac OS X (10.4.7)

It seems like the distinction is more important if you want a wired connection to the station. If you're just tring to create a robust wireless network, can you do many remotes but just one relay? It seems like relay would be the way to go if there was no limitation on how many.

Wired network in office not seen from relay base station side

After a number of false starts I have a wireless set-up between my office and a remote location. All five Macs in the office are wired to a router which is wired to the cable modem. The Airport base station in the office is connected with the the WAN port to the router. Base station is set up as a WDS.
The remote base station is set up as a relay base station and WDS and we go wireless between it and the Mac at that location.
While I have a fast internet connection from the remote location, I expected to see the 5 Macs in the office and be able to connect to them. I don't.
What settings must I play with to be able to connect to Macs in the office? I might note that I don't see the remote computer from the office either. So the problem is both ways.
Tim

My question was answered on this other discussion list:
Getting Online and Networking
Thanks.

RELAY BASE STATION

1) Should I have Airport EXTREME or EXPRESS connected to the modem, then use an additional Airport EXTREME or EXPRESS as relay base station? Could either Airport EXTREME or EXPRESS be a relay base station?
2) If I’m correct, the base station (connected to the modem), will connect to the RELAY BASE STATION which could additionally connect to other airports/ PC within its RANGE.
3) Which Airport is best to use as relay base?
Many thanks

1) Should I have Airport EXTREME or EXPRESS connected to the modem, then use an additional Airport EXTREME or EXPRESS as relay base station? Could either Airport EXTREME or EXPRESS be a relay base station?
You could have either connected to the modem. Either can be a relay base station.
2) If I’m correct, the base station (connected to the modem), will connect to the RELAY BASE STATION which could additionally connect to other airports/ PC within its RANGE.
That is correct.
3) Which Airport is best to use as relay base?
Depends on what you consider most important. If cost is, then the AirPort Express would be the best option.

Should I Try Adding An Airport Base Station to Speed up Network?

I have the incredibly slow network problem at home on my D-Link, WEP wireless system that I did not have on my Powerbook, iMac G5, or my old iBook. I have to have this system as my partner works from home on a Windows machine.
At the school where I teach everything is fast and wonderful. I'm wondering if adding an Airport Express or Base Station to the network would help. I'm getting desperate here. What I'm doing right now is booting up into Windows just to use the Internet. It's that slow, and really unusable.
Any thoughts? Does anyone have the equipment or the time to test this?
Thanks,
Robbie

If you had no issues prior to the intel jump, I think you'd be better off trouble-shooting your home network - and how it relates to your new machine. Clearly something is out of sorts in the set-up if it worked so efficiently on your other Macs.
I'm going to shoot from the hip and offer this potential quick fix to get you back up to speed, so to speak.
If you direct connect your intel machine to the router, do the speeds increase? If not...
Direct connect and try the following:
In the Network Pane of your System Prefs, set the Ethernet tab to "Manually" (Advanced); change your Speed tab to "100bastTX" (or faster if the option is there); select "Full Duplex" and click Apply.

Did anyone else have all their wireless airport relay base stations suddenly reset at 4:30 PM August 5 2013? I had four base stations at my house reset simultaneously at 4:30.

At 4:30 PM today all of my secondary base stations simltaneously reset and lost connection. I am wondering what might have caused this. All of my eithernet connected stations remained green and connected but the relay stations sudenly lost any recognition for the network and required a restart to find one another angain. I will occasionally have one go off the reservation but all at exactely teh same time gives me pause to consider a bug.

I have the same proble, I posted my question but still nobody answers me yet. If you get to kknow something please let me know

Remotely Access Base Station through Airport Extreme

Someone may have already asked this but i couldn't find it. I have a 500 Gb hard drive connected to my Airport Extreme set up as a base station which all the computers on the network are able to access with password. Is there anyway to connect to the base station when im not at home. I know a little about VPN but not sure if thats the best thing to do or even how to set it up here.
Any adivce is awesome.

1. Enable remote access to your base station's hard drive via its WAN port. See:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=AirPortUtility/5.1/en/ap2051.html
2. When you are remote location (you cannot test this from a computer on your own LAN) go to the Finder, and from the Go menu select "Connect to Server...". You will need to enter the public IP address of your Base Station.
Notes:
1. This access is not going to be a secure connection like that provided by a VPN (because it is not supported by the base station)
2. Make sure your base station's disk password is a good one, because anyone on the internet that can guess it will also be able to access the data on the drive.

Adding an extreme base station to an existing wifi 'n' network

Got a bit of a strange one here wondering if anyone had a good answer to.
Basically I am in the process of connecting up a CCTV wireless external cam to my network. I dont particularly want to use wired connection purely because of where my router is situated. It would mean a very long Cat5 cable running up and down several walls and is not ideal.
However, after testing the cam i don't really want to rely on the wifi it has built in. When it is in position I need it to work flawlessly - it would also be awkward to reconnect it up to the router via cable (router downstairs and cable would pop out in corner of room upstairs).
I also would ideally like my external hdd (with time machine backup running) on the network rather than plugged into the imac via usb- I'm thinking more on security - id rather have the backup stashed away upstairs away from the computer.
So I'm thinking about getting an Airport Extreme Base Station and wire the CCTV and external hdd up to it so they are accessible on the network - but still use my existing router as the dhcp sever and main wifi access point.
But I'm a little unsure if this is possible to do? Any help would be appreciated.

However, after testing the cam i don't really want to rely on the wifi it has built in. When it is in position I need it to work flawlessly - it would also be awkward to reconnect it up to the router via cable (router downstairs and cable would pop out in corner of room upstairs).
You might want to consider a pair of ethernet powerline adapters to accomplish your goal. One adapter plugs into an AC socket near your main router and the other would plug into an AC socket near the camera. Short ethernet cables would connect the router to one adapter and the camera to the other. The AC wiring in your home transmits the ethernet signal.
I also would ideally like my external hdd (with time machine backup running) on the network rather than plugged into the imac via usb- I'm thinking more on security - id rather have the backup stashed away upstairs away from the computer.
So I'm thinking about getting an Airport Extreme Base Station and wire the CCTV and external hdd up to it so they are accessible on the network - but still use my existing router as the dhcp sever and main wifi access point.
You could connect connect the CCTV to the AirPort Extreme, but the AirPort Extreme would need to connect to your main router using an ethernet cable (or powerline adapters). You would not be able to do this using wireless only.
Ironically, the less expensive AirPort Express would be able to connect to your wireless network (assuming there were a strong signal where it is located) and provide an ethernet signal. The problem here is that you would still be relying on essentially a wireless connection between your main router and the AirPort Express. That's really about the same as relying on only a wireless connection between your main router and the camera, which you mentioned that you did not want to do.
The big problem with connecting an external drive to the AirPort Extreme for use with Time Machine backups is that due to corruption issues, Apple does not support this type of configuration. So this would definitely not be advised.

Airport Extreme Base station + Relay Inquiry

My Airport Express Base station died on me so I replaced it with an Airport Extreme. I immediately noticed the lack of wds support and a simplified network setup option.
So I updated all my other relay stations to the newer network(Airport Express btw).
I found that the Ethernet connections weren't functioning anymore. Why?
To make it clear, I'm trying to connect a non-wireless computer to my wireless network through a relay station.
Is this still doable?

Yep! I can understand that!
Here are the basic setup steps for creating a WDS with a mixed (802.11n/g) base stations:
AEBSn - WDS Setup
(Note: To facilitate the WDS set up, place the base stations within near proximity of each other during the set up phase, and then relocate them to their desired locations when complete. Also, jot down the AirPort IDs (MAC addresses) for each of the base stations to be used in the WDS. The AirPort ID and is printed on the label on the bottom/side of the base station.)
Main Base Station Setup
o Click the AirPort status menu in the menu bar and choose the wireless network created by the base station you want to set up as the main base station.
o Open AirPort Utility (located in the Utilities folder in the Applications folder on a Macintosh computer, or in Start > All Programs > AirPort on a computer using Windows).
o Select the main base station, and choose Manual Setup from the Base
Station menu, or double-click the base station to open the configuration in a separate window.
o Enter the base station password if necessary. If the base station is using the
default password of public, you will not be prompted for a password.
o Click Wireless in the toolbar, and then choose “Participate in a WDS network” from the Wireless Mode pop-up menu.
o Click WDS and then choose “WDS main” from the WDS Mode pop-up menu.
o Select the “Allow wireless clients” checkbox if you want client computer to connect to this base station.
o Click the Add "+" button and enter the AirPort ID of the base station you want to connect to this base station.
o Click Update to send the new settings to the base stations in the WDS.
Remote Base Station Setup
o Click the AirPort status menu in the menu bar and choose the wireless network created by the base station you want to set up as a remote base station.
o Open AirPort Utility (in the Utilities folder in the Applications folder on a Macintosh computer, or in Start > All Programs > AirPort on a computer using Windows).
o Select the remote base station, and choose Manual Setup from the Base Station menu.
o Enter the base station password, if necessary. If the base station is using the default password of public, you will not be prompted for a password.
o Enter the same network password as the main base station, if necessary.
o Click AirPort in the toolbar and click Wireless. Choose “Participate in a WDS network” from the Wireless Mode pop-up menu, and choose the same channel as the main base station from the Channel pop-up menu.
o Click WDS and choose “WDS remote” from the pop-up menu.
o Enter the AirPort ID of the main base station in the WDS Main field.
o Click Update to transfer the settings to the base station.
Relay Base Station Setup
o Click the AirPort status menu in the menu bar to join the wireless network created by the base station you want to set up as the relay base station.
o Open AirPort Utility (in the Utilities folder in the Applications folder on a Macintosh computer, or in Start > All Programs > AirPort on a computer using Windows).
o Select the relay base station, and choose Manual Setup from the Base Station menu.
o If the base station is using the default password of public, you will not be prompted for a password.
o Enter the same network password as the main base station, if necessary.
o Click AirPort in the toolbar and click Wireless. Choose “Participate in a WDS network” from the Wireless Mode pop-up menu, and choose the same channel as the main base station from the Channel pop-up menu.
o Click WDS and choose “WDS relay” from the WDS Mode pop-up menu.
o Enter the AirPort ID of the main base station in the Main AirPort ID field.
o Click the Add "+" button and enter the AirPort ID of the remote base station this relay base station will connect to.
o Click Update to transfer the new WDS settings to the relay and remote base stations.
(ref: Pages 42-46 of "Designing AirPort Networks.)

Can I Use 802.11n Base Station and 802.11n AirPort Express in an 802.11 ac Time Capsule Main Base Station WDS Network?

I havea "wirelessly challenged" 2-story home and need to extend the range. Currently I have an 802.11n Main Base Station with an 802.11n Airport Express Remote. It's not getting the job done (upstairs connection is weak).
I am considering getting an 802.11ac Airport Time Capsule to help, even though I currently only have devices with 802.11n wireless connectivity (future-proof a little).
I an planning on setting up a Wireless Distribution System (WDS) Network:
1.) Setting up the Time Capsule as the Main Base Station connected to a Cable modem
2.) Reconfiguring and Setting up the current AirPort Extreme 802.11n as a Relay Base Station
3.) Reconfiguring and Setting up the current AirPort Express 802.11n as a Remote Station
I cannot "hard wire" one Base Statio to the other.
Will this work?

Will this work?
Unfortunately, no. WDS is a older, very inefficient way to extend the wireless network signal.
As such, newer operating systems like Lion, Mountain Lion and Mavericks do not even offer settings for this older WDS type of network.
In addition, the new Time Capsule has no capabilities to use WDS settings at all, even if you used a Mac with another operating system to try to set things up.
Even if it were possible to set up a WDS network, the speed on the network would be incredibly slow. As you know, WDS only operates at "g" wireless speed levels. Each "relay" or "remote" that you add to the network each cuts that bandwidth or speed in half.
With a WDS "main", "relay" and "remote", the network would be operating at about 14 Mbps......a tiny fraction of what the devices would be capable of providing normally.

Anybody use an Apple AirPort Express Base Station (windows)

http://store.apple.com/uk/product/MB...mco=MTIxODk3Mw
Im thinking about getting one of these and just wanting people opinions on it working with windows.
Just im a little confused, can i use it as a wireless router insted of my net gear, or will i still have to use my net gear router. My internet comes from the telephone wire if that helps?
Many thanks James

Hello jshrubb. Welcome to the Apple Discussions!
Since you didn't include the model of your Netgear router, it will be a little hard to determine if the AirPort Express Base Station (AX) could replace all of its functions.
So, here's what the AirPort Express is, and is not to help you decide:
o The AX is an Internet wireless router.
o The AX does not have a built-in modem: DSL, ADSL, Satellite or cable ... so one of these will still be required.
o The AX does not have a built-in Ethernet switch. It does have an Ethernet port, but that ports primary function is to be connected to the modem. However, it could be used to connect a wired client, but only if the AX is reconfigured as either a remote or relay base station in a Wireless Distribution System (WDS). The bottom-line here is that if you need to support wired clients, the AX would not be the appropriate choice for your network.
o The AX does support iTunes audio streaming so that when connected to either a pair of powered speakers or an audio system, you can stream iTunes to speakers wirelessly.

Not seeing base station in Airport Admin Utility

Let me ask another question:
I have two Airport base stations 10 feet apart. One (A) is connected to the internet via the WAN port (all three status lights are on steady). The other (B) is set up as a relay base station (left and middle lights in operation).
From a computer with an Airport card I only see the relay unit (B) (I have normally seen both in the past). From the in-house wired network (cabled to the first Airport ) I only see the first base station (A).
Is this a sign that the first base station (A) is not transmitting a signal - don't see it with the computer with the airport card? Other than seeing a Airport station with a computer with a card, how do you know if it is transmitting? Do Airports fail (mine are a year old)?
Tim

This sounds a little like what I have experienced with my setup. Hope I can be of some help.
Because you indicated that things have worked in the past, lets assume for now that the network is configured correctly.
First, I would use the Admin utility to reset both base stations. This will take a few minutes and I would recommend giving everything about 10 minutes before you move on.
Now, unless the wired computer has an AirPort card installed, it will only find the ABS that it is wired to. If this is the case, you will need to use the wireless computer to check whether both stations are now available.
With any luck, both stations will now appear and you'll be up and running.
If not, Unplug both base stations for a few minutes and let them restart that way and check it again.
Good luck.

Relay vs Remote Base Station

I have setup a WDS network with my airport express units.
What is the difference between a relay station and a remote base station in a WDS network?
Thanks
Mike

Yes, so lets say I have two aiport express. One of them is in my bedroom and it gets good reception from my router. And the second one is in lets say my den, and it doesn't get so good reception from my router, but it is close to my bedroom... Would I have both the bedroom and den airport express as REMOTE, or would i put the bedroom one as a RELAY and the den as a REMOTE, or the other way around. I have a WDS network setup.. or does it matter?
Thanks

How to set up Express as a relay wireless base station ? System: Yosemite

How to set up Express as a relay wireless station ?
OS: Yosemite.
Airport utility: 6.3.4
Base station: Extreme, connected to modem. Configured as "create a wireless network"
Remote stations: Express, connected wireless as "extend a wireless network"
Need relay station between Extreme and Express units.
Airport utility doesn't give the "relay" option.

Sorry, but Apple does not provide a "relay" option. The network can only be extended one time, not two.
Move the remote station closer to the main station, or move the main station closer to the remote station, or move both closer together.

HT4262 Can I extend a wired remote base station network via wireless WDS Remote to a Wireless WDS main base station?

I have a wired nework in a remote closet (3 PC's to a 100/1000 Linksys switch). I have an Apple Extreme network connected to the Internet in another remote closet allowing wireless PC's and wired PC's access to the internet and printers. I do not have the ability to connect the two networks together via wired although they are 50' apart.
My objective is to configure two Airport Extreme devices so the remote wired PCs can connect via the remote/relay Airport Extremen to the main Airport base station for DHCP, internet and intranet.
One Aiport Extreme base station is Model # A1034 and the other is Model A1408.

Can I extend......?
Yes, this is possible. But sometimes, the fact that something can be done does not necessarily mean that it should be done. In a case like this....Upsides are far outweighed by Downsides.
Upsides
You will have more wireless coverage (but 50 feet is a long way if there are multiple walls or ceilings in the signal path...I am not optimistic about this)
The Ethernet ports will be enabled on the remote Extreme.
Downsides
The required WDS configuration will drop the performance of your newer "n" Extreme down to wireless "g" levels.
In addition, the bandwidth on the entire network will drop by 50%. In effect, you will have a "g" wireless network running at half speed
WDS is difficult for most users to configure. It is very easy to make a mistake and literally impossible to recover without starting all over again with the configuration attempt
It might work. But things are going to be extremely slow. Might be OK for general Internet browsing or light email. Any file transfers or copies from one device to another are going to take a very long time.
You also might want to review the WDS setup required to get an idea of what is involved here:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4262
As you know, a far better way to do this would be to connect the two AirPort Extremes using an Ethernet connection. If you cannot run the Ethernet cable, you might want to consider a pair of Ethernet Powerline Adapters.
These devices send an Ethernet signal over the existing AC powerlines in your home. So, you already have the wiring in place....you just need the adapters. I've used these devices for runs up to 70-80 feet or so with good results. But, you need to understand that there are number of factors that can affect performance here.
So, if you want to try the powerline adapters, I would strongly recommend that you understand the store's return policy in advance. The bottom line is always this.....you won't know how they will work until you install them in your home.
Apple's instructions for a setup using Ethernet are here:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4260

Adding remote/relay base stations

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