Airport Express and 2wire gateway

Question

I have a 2wire 2700HG-D gateway and bought an Airport Express today to stream music to my stereo.
When connecting the Airport Express in Client mode, I lose the ability to access the internet from my MacBook. I've followed the steps here:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=1120146
and while I could probably get this to work, I don't want to have my wireless network unsecured. Is there a way for me to be able to access the internet and stream music to my stereo, and have a secured network?
Thanks in advance.
Nick Laeder

Answer 1

Is there a way to either secure the Apple wireless
connection, or for me to access the 2wire encrypted
wireless connection. Does this make sense.
If your 2wire supports WPA I would suggest changing to that.
However if it only supports WEP, then note one of the problems with WEP is that the actual standard relies on a 10 character HEX key for 40bit WEP and a 26 character HEX key for 128bit WEP.
In order to make things easier for people, vendors use certain algorithms to convert simple alphanumeric passwords (or passphrases) into HEX keys, thus enabling people to use simple memorable WEP password rather than lengthy HEX keys.
The problem is that different vendors use different algorithms to generate the HEX key and therefore a ASCII password on an AEBS will be hashed differently on a Netgear client and vice versa.
One thing is a 13 character 128 bit WEP password will be hashed by all vendors in the same way (if you use 40bit WEP then a 5 character password is required).
Though sometimes not even that works and the HEX key must be used regardless.
AirPort: Joining an encrypted wireless network
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106424
Choosing a password for networks that use Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP)
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=108058
Also, I don't get a constant connection with the
Apple connection if I'm in the neighboring room from
the base station. What is the distance that I can be
from the base station?
In theory 150 feet.
However wall construction can block a signal quite easily, water pipes, metal, etc...
If possible raise the wireless router higher if you can (ie off the floor) or put it in a different position and see if that makes a difference
iFelix