Airport Express Capabilities

I am looking to get some generic understanding of Airport Express capabilities. I love my AppleTV and would now like to link my outside speakers to the system. I love the idea of using the Airport Express to wirelessly send the audio, however, I am also interested in using the Cat-5 connector to enable a PC (no wireless) to gain access to my network. I have an A/B/G/N 2.6/5 secured wireless network in place (2 WAPs Linksys & NetGear) and do NOT need to replace them. Will the Airport Express serve BOTH (as a wireless bridge) simultaneously? I would like to get it on the 5N network for bandwidth. Recommendations? Wireless card and the Airport Express or just the Airport Express?
Any help is appreciated!
Thanks!

Welcome to the discussions!
The AirPort Express is capable of "joining" a wireless network at 5 GHz or 2.4 GHz, but not both at once. When the Express "joins" a network, it does not "extend" or "expand" the wireless network. If set up to do so, it will "extend" a network created by a "n" Apple base station.
When configured to "join" a wireless network, a user can use iTunes to stream AirTunes to the Express and hook up an amplifier and speakers either digitally or via analog.
If a user has configured the Express to "join" a wireless network, there is also an option in setup to "allow ethernet clients". Apple calls this ProxySTA. If your router is compatible with ProxySTA, (check with Linksys and Netgear first before you buy),you should be able to use the Express as a wireless bridge and use the ethernet port to connect to an ethernet device.
The Express is capable of handling AirTunes and ProxySTA simultaneously.
The Express can handle AirTunes and ProxySTA simultaneously.

Similar Messages

1st Generation airport express capabilities

I will be using a 1st generation airport express as a router at an exhibition. I have ordered 2 mbps connection. Will the airport express be able to deal with connecting 8 ipads to the internet?

There is a good deal of confusion about what is and is not a 1st Generation AirPort Express.
Check and locate the Model No on the side of your AirPort Express.
If you see A1264 there, this model is a 1st Generation product that will support up to 10 wireless connections.
If you see A1084 or A1088 there, these are older "pre-generation" models that only offer up to "g" wireless speeds, not faster "n" speeds.
If you have a 2 Mbps connection, then each of the 8 iPads will be receiving only .25 Mbps. That is going to be "iffy" if you are planning to have all 8 iPads connected simultaneously. If the iPads will be used for very light browsing, you may be OK.
If you plan to download graphics intensive media, or video, I doubt that the 2 Mbps connection will support this acceptably.
Unfortunately, this is going to be one of those times when you will not know if things will work until you actually try them. If it were me, I would go for a faster connection speed....4 Mpbs would be better....8 Mbps better yet.

Is there a way to turn the wireless capabilities off on an AirPort Express? I have an AirPort Extreme as my main router and use the express to just extend it. I only really want to you use the express for hard ethernet connections

Is there a way to turn the wireless capabilities off on an AirPort Express? I have an AirPort Extreme as my main router and use the express to just extend it. I only really want to you use the express for hard ethernet connections. For whatever reason when I have my express extend my wifi at home the download speed from just the express is absolutely terrible, drops to about 1.5 mb compared to when it's on the extremes part of the network the speed goes up to 50-75mb. These terrible download speed really only affects the iPhones as my MacBook Pro usually gets the good speed no matter where it is. I don't believe there is anything wrong with my phone because if I am in the part of the house that uses just the extreme the download speeds on the iphone goes up to 50-75mb. As a note I have an AirPort Extreme on the top floor of my house (second floor) that's where my modem is located. On the first floor that's where one airport express is located. I also have another airport express in the basement that is accessed by my landlord. Any thoughts on how to fix this would be helpful.

Is there a way to turn the wireless capabilities off on an AirPort Express? I have an AirPort Extreme as my main router and use the express to just extend it. I only really want to you use the express for hard ethernet connections.
It appears that your networking goals with the AirPort Express is to use it as a wireless Ethernet bridge instead of using it to extend the wireless range of your AirPort Extreme. The latter requires that the Express Wi-Fi radios be enabled.
If you intended to use the Express as a wireless bridge, you just need to reconfigure it to "Join a wireless" network instead of "Extend a wireless network."
For whatever reason when I have my express extend my wifi at home the download speed from just the express is absolutely terrible, drops to about 1.5 mb compared to when it's on the extremes part of the network the speed goes up to 50-75mb.
In an extended network, the placement of the extending base station is critical as it can only extend the wireless network at the bandwidth at which it receives it.
Please check out the following AirPort User Tip for details on optimal base station placement.

Is the airport express 802.11n used as a booster to enhance your wifi capabilities?

is the airport express 802.11n used as a booster to enhance your wifi capabilities? I was told when purchased that I do not have to connect it physically to the router but it would enhance the wifi capabilities if I placed in a room near the router/dsl? Do I understand this correctly. It never stops flashing yellow?

Any Apple AirPort Base Station (AirPort Extreme, Express, or Time Capsule) can be used to "wirelessly extend" any other Apple AirPort Base Station's wireless network.
They may also be used to "extend" any network created by any other wireless router, if you connect it to that router with an Ethernet cable. The benefit conveyed by connecting it in that manner is commensurate with the distance between the two devices, limited by Ethernet LAN specifications (100m).

Can I Use Airport Express for Airplay and a non-apple router with streaming capabilities on the same network?

I want to do the following things but can't find one device that fits all purpose.
Wi-Fi router that has USB port to share external hard disk wirelessly to all devices (Mac, Samsung Smart TV, PC, Ipad, Iphone) along with inbuilt torrent download capability that also has a 3.5mm jack to do airplay.
Greedy? Yes I know but why can't we have it all I ask.
Airport Express severs Wifi Router + Airplay purpose
Then there are other non-apple routers in market that satisfy my need to attach external hard disk and stream to the devices mentioned (Note: Timecapsule will not stream to my Smart TV)
So I am thinking why not connect both Airport Express and a second non-apple router and get best of both worlds.
Is it possible?
Thanks in advance.

I want to do the following things but can't find one device that fits all purpose.
Wi-Fi router that has USB port to share external hard disk wirelessly to all devices (Mac, Samsung Smart TV, PC, Ipad, Iphone) along with inbuilt torrent download capability that also has a 3.5mm jack to do airplay.
Greedy? Yes I know but why can't we have it all I ask.
Airport Express severs Wifi Router + Airplay purpose
Then there are other non-apple routers in market that satisfy my need to attach external hard disk and stream to the devices mentioned (Note: Timecapsule will not stream to my Smart TV)
So I am thinking why not connect both Airport Express and a second non-apple router and get best of both worlds.
Is it possible?
Thanks in advance.

Hey! i wonder what steps are need to set up an iphone or an ipad as an Airport Express device, so it uses its wifi capabilites to capture a music stream, being conected to a pair of speakers in my living, or in my bedroom ?

I know that i can receive in my iphone the streamed music of the itunes library but this happends as an indepent music stream from the one already playing in the computer
I would like those to be in sync:
so i ca n set my whole house under one music stream, with my 2 iphones4, my ipad, and 1 airport express. plus the local pc in my offifce,
The airport express is hooked at the livingroom with a 4.1 set tha rocks.
my local pc is hooked to a Sony 5.2
then mi iphones could be at the master room and the other in the kitchen.
while managing the 4 individual streams with independent volume levers.
justa as if they where all airpor express devices
Is understood that the iphone 4 obviously exceeds the technological requirements to achieve such a task. !

you should be able to do what you want using Airfoil.

Question about capabilities of the Airport Express

Ok, need some real basic information on the Airport Express. So like a lot of others here I have this set up in a room on the other side of my apartment away from my wireless router. I would like to extend my signal and also plug a couple devices into the Express using a splitter that do not have a built-in antenna (Xbox, Blu-ray player, etc). Is this possible? Right now set up my Airport Express on a network with a Linksys Router (I hate the thing and plan on replacing) but is it possible to directly plug these devices into the Express? Thanks!

Were you referring to the Extreme base station?
No, I was referring to the OP's AirPort Express Base Station (AX).
Or can you set up the Express to extend the network of the Extreme AND connect, say an xbox, to the Express via ethernet?
Yes, that would be possible.
If this is possible, would the xbox signal be as strong as a wired connection?
In this scenario, the Xbox would not be "getting" a wireless signal.
Or would it make more sense to just plug in an Express on the first floor to extend the signal?
Configured to "Extend a wireless network," the AXn will both extend the wireless network of another AirPort or Time Capsule AND have its Ethernet port enabled for either a single wired client or a number of wired clients if you connect an Ethernet switch to it instead.
Remember, when extending, the AXn will have just as much trouble "seeing" the wireless signal as any wireless client. So it will need to be placed within a strong-enough range (usually within 25dB) of the router that it is extending in order to properly extend its signal.

I have an airport express and want to know how to set up two different wireless networks. One with 5GHZ and one with 2.4GHZ so different devices can connect to either.

I have an airport express and want to know how to set up two different wireless networks. One with 5GHZ and one with 2.4GHZ so different devices can connect to either. I have an iphone 4 that will not connect to 5ghz.
thank you!

Your AirPort Express is already providing two separate 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands, but each band is using the same wireless network name.
This is the default setup for the AirPort Express, which is recommended for most users. The theory here is that devices will automatically connect to the best quality signal based on their capabilities and distance in relation to the AirPort Express.
It is possible to assign a different name to the 5 GHz band, and then "point" devices at that network to connect. Some users swear by this option.....(I am not one of them).... but you might want to give it a try to see how it works for you.
Open Macintosh HD > Applications > Utilities > AirPort Utility
Click on the AirPort Express
Click Edit in the smaller window that appears
Click the Wireless tab at the top of the next window
Click Wireless Options near the bottom of the next window
Enter a check mark next to 5 GHz Name.....which will automatically add "5 GHz" to the network name....so you can identify it
Click Save, then click Update and wait a full minute for the Express to restart
Now you will need to "point" your 5 GHz capable devices at the 5 GHz network name. 2.4 GHz devices will connect to your "other" network name.

Airport Express 801.11b/g and the neverending, unconfigurable blinking amber light

Gather round and let me tell you a tale. Once upon a time I bought an airport express 801.11b/g and I was very happy to use it for airtunes, extending a wi-fi network and the wireless printing capabilities. One day, it beagn flashing a scaaaary amber light. The base station stopped showing up in my airport utility 5.6 as well. The only way to get it to show up, was to hard reset it, and lose all the configurations I once enjoyed happily. After the hard reset, It would show up in the utility, and I would reconfigure it to do all its cool things it once did, and it would restart. But sadly, after restarting the blinking amber light came on a again. It would also not show up in the utility unless I hard reset it again, and the same thing happened over and over and over until I felt like pulling my hair out.
I decided to get another airport express a few months later, ultimately deciding that the unit must have just been defective. Bad luck. But - the second unit literally went through the SAME EXACT THING. Worked for a while, then onto the blinking amber light- hard reset- reconfigure-blinking amber light thing. Over and over and over. Just like the first one. The end.
So - either Im missing something totally fundamental or I had the misfortune of getting two defective units in a row. Both were bought used from different places, and worked "fine" for previous owners. Am I corrupting these things or what?
I have spent literally hours trying all the resets, configuring "workarounds" and nothing works. For both of them.
What do I do with these two devices? I don't need two shiny white paperweights.
Please advise,
Thanks.

Yes. It seems an integral part of the set up process though, you don't have to seperately configure the airport do you?
My wireless security is WPA/WPA2 Personal. When I go through the standard network set up, it automatically enters my wireless security settings. So it doesn't really seem to give an option to specifically set that option on the airport if that makes sense?
I did go through maunual mode to try that with the same result:
If I'm using the airports own network and connect to the wifi, no security, then I'm getting airtunes from my macbook. Of course this means it's plugged into my router via ethernet which isn't any use to me as I want it in my kitchen, and would rather not limit my apple devices to b/g when I have a decent N router, and would also mean running a huge ethernet cable across my house!
The seller has said it worked for him but he's not up to scratch on his tech, so if I'm sure it's malfunctioning he'll refund. Obviously this is great news and he seems like a very nice guy so I want to be certain it's not me malfunctioning before I send it back!
So in summary I have it functioning on it's OWN network:
Wireless mode: Create a wireless network
Wireless network name: Apple Network XXXXXX
etc
Once 'wireless mode' is switched from 'create a wireless network' to 'join a wireless network' I select my current WiFi, security and password, checked the TCP/IP settings all good. Select 'Update'. Get the warning that device and network will be temporarily unavailable am I sure I want to continue. Then it goes through the same as before, says it's succesful, restarts to flashing amber with no way of accessing it unless I hard reset.
Thanks for the help so far...

I upgraded my PC to windows 8 and I am no longer able to stream music from itunes through my airport express.

I still can use the wifi capabilities of the airport express but not the Iplay capability.

iPad not appearing in iTunes
http://www.apple.com/support/ipad/assistant/itunes/
iOS: Device not recognized in iTunes for Mac OS X
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1591
iOS: Device not recognized in iTunes for Windows
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1538
iTunes for Windows: Device Sync Tests
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4235
IOS: Syncing with iTunes
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1386
Apple - Support - iPad - Syncing
http://www.apple.com/support/ipad/syncing/
iTunes 10.5 and later: Troubleshooting iTunes Wi-Fi Syncing
http://support.apple.com/kb/ts4062
The Complete Guide to Using the iTunes Store
http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/the-complete-guide-to-using-t he-itunes-store/
iTunes Store: Associating a device or computer to your Apple ID
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4627
Can't connect to the iTunes Store
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1368
iTunes: Advanced iTunes Store troubleshooting
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3297
Best Fixes for ‘Cannot Connect to iTunes Store’ Errors
http://ipadinsight.com/ipad-tips-tricks/best-fixes-for-cannot-connect-to-itunes- store-errors/
Try this first - Reset the iPad by holding down on the sleep and home buttons at the same time for about 10-15 seconds until the Apple Logo appears - ignore the red slider - let go of the buttons.
This works for some users. Not sure why.
Go to Settings>General>Date and Time> Set Automatically>Off. Set the date ahead by about a year.Then see if you can connect to the store.
 Cheers, Tom

One Printer - two wireless routers, and one Airport Express

Hi all,
I'll do my best to describe this convoluted situation in detail, please feel free to ask questions—I need all the help I can get.
I am in an office with 5 Macs (some with wireless capabilities: my Intel iMac, a Mac mini, an eMac with a wireless card, and a new iMac running OSx 10.5) and one eMac with no wireless capabilities.
We're all connected to an Actiontec router. The one eMac is hard-wired via ethernet to the router and the rest of us receive the signal wirelessly through an 2' thick concrete wall that makes for a slow connection. Our printer, an OKIdata C3200N, is also hard-wired via Ethernet to the router, which allows us wireless Macs to print on a crappy, slow connection.
I got fed up with the slowness and brought in an Airport Express, which is now also hard-wired to the ethernet port and seamlessly and easily connects all the wireless-capable Macs to the internet. It's a joy. However, whenever we wanted to print, we had to switch to the slower Actiontec network b/c the printer was not connected to the Aiport Express.
I figured I could remedy this by plugging a USB printer cable from the printer to the AX and all the wireless Macs would automatically find the printer through Bonjour. It seemed like a good plan; though I was worried that the printer would be confused by having both the Ethernet connection AND the AX connection (this could be the case).
Now, I have been able to be on the AX network, find the printer via Bonjour (with Printer Sharing turned on). However, when I print to it (or any of the other Macs in the office try to print to it) a variety of errors happens:
...the printer jobs are paused and will not resume (this happens on the iMac running OSX 10.5)
...the print queue spools and says "waiting to complete job"
Do I need to configure something through the Airport Admin Utility? Is this a lost cause because the printer is connected two ways to our computers? Is there any hope for printing on the AX connection?
Thanks in advance for your input.
Message was edited by: slobhan (to format error messages)

Thank you so much Duane. Can you clarify what you mean by:
I would recommend returning the printer connection to the original configuration.
Thanks! I'll look up the other stuff about AX as a bridge (now to remember that AX admin password....)
Thanks!

Airport Express as wifi audio for ip camera?

Hello all. I have a question regarding Airport Express's audio transmitting capabilities. First, I recently purchased an Airport Express to expand the wifi range in my new house. The house is one floor, and my Linksys N router is located on the other side of the house from my bedroom. The signal from the Linksys is spotty at best in the bedroom, so I have the Airport Express connected via CAT5 in bridge mode in my bedroom. The signal is great and everything has worked fine so far with that setup.
The reason that I needed wifi stronger in the bedroom is that we have 2 IP cameras that we use as baby monitors for our toddler and newborn. We have a Trendnet system, which includes a 7" wifi monitor that displays multiple Trendnet cameras connected to your network simultaneously. That all works great as well, with only one drawback. The monitor does not support audio from the 2 IP cameras at all. So I get video but no audio, and the audio is important when using them as baby monitors.
The IP cameras are audio capable, and you can actually hear the audio when you access the cameras from your computer. The only problem is that we have a desktop at home and no laptop (although I recently purchased an iPad, but all IP camera apps that I seen so far have the same lack of audio issue). The IP cameras also have a 3.5 mm output jack on them, so you can hook up speakers to them to extract the sound that way.
My question is this...if I purchased a 2nd Airport Express, is there a way that I could connect the audio output to an AE (through the 3.5 mm jacks) by the baby's camera, and then have the audio wirelessly transmitted to the AE in our bedroom (hooking up a small set of speakers to the AE in the bedroom as the output for the audio)?
I'm very new to the Airport Express world, so any help would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance!

My question is this...if I purchased a 2nd Airport Express, is there a way that I could connect the audio output to an AE (through the 3.5 mm jacks) by the baby's camera, and then have the audio wirelessly transmitted to the AE in our bedroom (hooking up a small set of speakers to the AE in the bedroom as the output for the audio)?
Sorry, but no. The audio port on the AirPort Express Base Station (AX) is an audio OUTPUT port, not an input port ... so connecting the output audio from the camera via this port won't work. The AX's audio is dependent on receiving an AirTunes (or ROAP protocol) stream over IP ... typically from iTunes (or as Jolly has pointed out via a third-party solution like Airfoil).

Using Airport Express to listen DVD via Front Row and Optical Out

I want to find out if this is possible:
I currently have Macbook Black Core 2 Duo. I enjoy watching DVDs using Front Row. The DVI video cable goes to the projector which is at the back of my room. Since the Macbook is close to the projector, I have to run optical audio cable to the 5.1 Dolby Digital home theater sound system at the front of my room.
I am interested in the AirPort Express because it can play iTunes wirelessly and use optical output to hook up the stereo system.
The question I want to know is if it's possible to connect Airport Express optical output into my Dobly Digital sound system so I can watch and listen DVD movies via Front Row? If not, any other alternatives? When searching through topics, it seems the users said Rogue Amoeba has a lag issue. Even I am not sure it can do optical output capabilites. Any thoughts. Thanks!
Mac OS X (10.3.9)

KonradL, Welcome to the discussion area!
To stream non-iTunes music to the AirPort Express (AX) you need Airfoil.

Airport Utility 6.0.0 breaks support for my Airport Express

Computer updated to Airport Utility 6.0 but that breaks support for my Airport Express. When I try to access the Airport Express it tells me I have to download Airport Utility 5.6 - but I can't find that anywhere on the Apple sites to download!

My catch-all list of Airport 6.0 & Firmware 7.6.1 problems:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I've compiled a catch-all list of problems and changes with Airport Utility version 6.0 and FW 7.6.1. Some of the items may be relevant to this thread.
THE PROBLEMS WITH AIRPORT UTILITY 6 AND FIRMWARE 7.6.1:
Introduction: If you find AirPort Utility v6.0 too limiting or strange, you can ALSO install AirPort Utility v5.6, released alongside v6.0, to maintain all your previous capabilities. It works fine with both Airport g and n devices.
PLEASE NOTE: According to Apple you must FIRST install Airport Utility v6.0 in order to access and install Firmware upgrade 7.6.1. Do that first. THEN install Airport Utility v5.6 and use it instead if you prefer. HOWEVER: Another user has informed me that they were able to use Airport Utility v5.6 to install Firmware v7.6.1 without any problems! This would mean anyone can avoid Airport Utility 6.0 entirely if they chose.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1) According to Apple's documentation, Airport Utility version 6.0 is ONLY for Mac OS X 10.7 Lion. It is NOT for 10.6 Snow Leopard. If you accidentally installed v6, you'll have to dig around in Apple - Support - Downloads for the previous relevant version for your devices and OS version. Here is the relevant page:
http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1483
2) The HELP for Airport Utility has been updated. When you first access it you may well be looking at the old Help. It is supposed to update itself spontaneously over the Internet. It took a couple minutes in my case. Be sure you are looking at the NEW Help before you start using it. One way to tell is that the list of help topics essentially doubles from what there used to be. Also, the very first topic in the NEW Help should read:
"Set up an AirPort device > Set up a new AirPort Base Station or Time Capsule"
3) The HELP has some WRONG information. Here we go:
3a) There is NO "Enable Guest Network" setting. You CANNOT create a guest network or name it or give it any settings. Why this is still listed in Help, I have no idea. Why the setting is gone: This is most likely because the technology behind guest networks, WPS, has been thoroughly CRACKED in the wild. Google "WPS cracked" for lots of documentation of the situation. It won't be resolved soon.
3b) I can't find any 'Setup Assistant". Everything is now manual. This is not to say that there isn't a setup assistant that appears when you FIRST set up your Airport device. I don't know.
4) After installing Airport Utility v6.0, there is no indication of the accompanying firmware update until you decide to run the new version. Even then, you have to click on the big icon of your Airport device and notice an 'Update' button about halfway down the popup window. You then have to assume that this button is telling you to update your firmware.
5) After you update your Airport device's firmware, you may well discover an ERROR subwindow popping up inside Airport Utility that says:
"An error occurred while updating the firmware. -6721"
Don't panic! All you need to do is go into your Wi-Fi settings, either in your menubar or the Network preferences, and turn OFF Wi-Fi, then turn ON Wi-Fi again. This is part of a long standing bug in Lion's Wi-Fi with which I bet you are already familiar, certainly up through Lion version 10.7.2.
6) Miscellaneous changes in Airport Utility 6:
6a) The keyboard command to manually change your Airport devices settings is GONE. You have to click the little 'Edit' button after clicking on the big icon for your device.
6b) There is no longer any summary window for your Airport device. You have to instead click on the big "Internet" icon for related data, then click on the big icon for your Airport device for local settings data.
6c) There is no longer any HELP advising users to EXPORT their settings. (The Help only talks about Import of settings). BE SURE TO EXPORT YOUR NEW SETTINGS! I did this immediately after both updates.
6d) MAC address filtering for Airport devices is GONE.
6e) All references to IPV6 anywhere are GONE. I have to assume the IPV6 settings are now entirely working and entirely automatic. Let's hope so.
6f) Signal and Noise data and graphs are GONE. Use Apple's Wi-Fi Diagnostics app instead. Apple have hidden it here in Lion:
/System/Library/CoreServices/W-Fi Diagnostics
6g) In order to access the menu items in Airport Utility, you have to first click on the big icon for your Airport device.
--> No doubt there are other changes, oddities or bugs related to these changes. But this is what I came up with during a cursory strafing of the software.

I have an AirPort Extreme time capsule . I need to extend my wifi network range. Which devise is better ?? Airport express or AirPort Extreme ??

I have an AirPort Extreme time capsule . I need to extend my wifi network range. Which devise is better ?? Airport express or AirPort Extreme ??

Since you have the new Time Capsule, then you will need a new AirPort Extreme to match the performance capabilities of the Time Capsule.
If best quality is preferred, you will need to connect the Time Capsule and AirPort Extreme using a wired Ethernet connection between the devices. The advantage of doing it this way is that you can locate the AirPort Extreme exactly where it is needed...and there will be no loss of signal through the Ethernet cable.
A wireless connection will result in a significant drop in performance, but it might be OK for your uses, if you want to try it that way first to see if the performance is acceptable.
It is really important that the AirPort Extreme be located where it can receive a strong wireless signal from the Time Capsule.
A line-of-sight relationship between the Time Capsule and AirPort Extreme would be the goal, with the AirPort Extreme located about half way between the Time Capsule and the general area where you need more wireless signal coverage.

Airport Express Capabilities

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