Airport Exreme - Airport Express droupout with multiple Airport Express sta

I have multiple airport express's, an iMAc, a Airport extreme router, all software/firmware to current release. If I play on the iMac and one set of remote speakers, no problems, once I add two airport express stations with iTunes, I get the dropouts. Any ideas. I have already got rid of wds, changd channels, tc. to no avail.

I have the same set up and had the same issue and a guy at apple support gave me a tip to try and it worked!. First remove all the expresses from the power outlets keeping your airport extreme running. I also recommend using a different channel say 11. and use ap grapher
http://www.chimoosoft.com/products/apgrapher/
to see if your network looks like it's running well after you resetup your everything or before you bother doing this. I found my audio gear was really messing with my airports bandwidth and when I moved it to a new spot ap grapher showed I was getting a nice steady 54mbit/sec.
So again unplug the expresses and keep the extreme up and running.
You must first do a reset on the airport express by pushing in the little white button on the bottom with a paper clip for a few seconds, but you should check out how to reset the airport express via apple's web site because there are 2 types of resets one with it plugged in and one with it not. Not sure which is right reset method so check that yourself.
Once you have reset it you want to set the first express to extend your preexisting airport extreme network using the airport setup utility. If you have two expresses you may only need to do this to the last one in the chain but it can't hurt to reset them all form scratch.
Once the first express is up and running you then unplug the airport extreme from it's power outlet. Then you go to set up the 2nd express after you reset it and here lies the trick. You extend the 2nd express off the first express without the extreme involved. Then you plug in the extreme back into the power and bingo you have tricked the express #2 to extend from the first express and they wind up with new ip numbers like 10.0.1 and 10.0.2. Instead of them competing for signal using the same ip address they now have their own individual ip address, it turns it into an extension chain. If that makes sense I don't know what the tech terms are for this but it did cure my issues of dropouts I thought it was odd that they had the same addresses so it makes sense that they should have their own.
Micro wave ovens cause drop outs and so do some wireless phones but you can always check on your signal using AP grapher. I found that when I walk around with my MacBookPro in my house that the expresses really don;t have much of a range so if they are really far apart that could also be an issue. I'm sure the N versions are much better and I am thinking about upgrading.
Hope this helps cause it sure took a long time to type:)

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AirPort Express (Problems with multiple remote speakers

I've been so far successfully using several AirPort Express base stations to stream music from Itunes to differant rooms in my house. A week ago I suddenly started getting an error message ("Unknown Error -3256) when attempting to stream to multiple rooms. Anyone else having this problem all of a sudden? I've gone thru the configuration for Airport and each base station and everthing seems to be in order.... Any ideas... Anyone? thanks

A lot of people including myself have been having problems with the airport. We think it's the AirPort update or the security update that is causing problems. If you're experiencing problems or slow downs with your internet then that's also part of the update. Wait till the next update or we find a workaround to this problem.

Need Help with Multiple Airport Setup

I have the following hardware:
2- Airport Extreme (Simultaneous Dual-Band II)
1- Airport Extreme 802.11n (Fast Ethernet)
2- Airport Express 802.11n
Microcom EZ-BR2 802.11b/g Bridge Kit (the routers see this as just an ethernet cable connecting the two points)
Extras (old Airport Extreme Dome, Old Airport Express, D-Link DIR625)
I am host at a camp and retreat facility in a national forest. We have a satellite connection in our ball field on one end of the campus. The satellite line goes into a recreation building with the modem and Airport Extreme 802.11n (Fast Ethernet) router. The Microcom EZ-BR2 is plugged in to this on one end and connects to one of the Airport Extreme (Simultaneous Dual-Band II)'s in our main building office 800 feet away. The router in the office is set up as the main router for the wireless network, our Ooma phone & network printer are plugged in here. There is one Airport Express in this building giving internet access to a Power Mac G4 & old iMac. Up to this point everything works fine. My house is across the road from the office and has a pretty strong signal from the office router. I tried hooking up the other Airport Extreme (Simultaneous Dual-Band II) at home. If I set it up to extend the network the wireless works, but the Ethernet ports do not. If I set it up in bridge mode, the ethernet ports work but it doesn't extend the network, so I put the other Airport Express in bridge mode first to get internet in to the Extreme then made a new network for the house, If I keep it all the same network my Apple TV doesn't really work, with a second network our iphones and misc. devices keep getting kicked off the network "IP not valid", so I have to keep powering down to get everything working again. How should I set this up?

My house is across the road from the office and has a pretty strong signal from the office router. I tried hooking up the other Airport Extreme (Simultaneous Dual-Band II) at home. If I set it up to extend the network the wireless works, but the Ethernet ports do not.
To have the Ethernet port active, you would have to configure both the AEBSn in the office and the one you have in your house as an extended network ... with the office AEBSn configured for "Allow this network to be extended" and the house AEBSn configured for "Extend a wireless network."
The key here is that (most likely) you will not be able to extend the 5 GHz radio and possibly not the 2.4 GHz radio due to the range between the AirPorts. The higher frequency network typically has a usable range of 50-75 feet; the 2.4 GHz network, 100-150 feet. By "usable," I mean with sufficient bandwidth to be worth it.
You can test this by measuring the Signal & Noise values and calculating the resultant Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR). You will want the house AEBSn within a 25+dB range of the one in the office.
Let me know if you need further assistance on how to take these measurements.

Can older Airport Express work with new Airport Extreme?

I had an older airport base station (dome shaped) and I was extending it with an Airport Express. I didn't need extra range, it was so I could play my iTunes from my laptop through my home speakers (or use my iPhone to do the same). Now I bought one of the newer flat Base Stations but I can't seem to get it to hook up to the old Express so I can still play my music. Do the old Express's not work with the new base stations?
And if not, is there any other way for me to be able to play music wirelessly to my home stereo from my mac and iPhone/iPods, like I was able to do before?

Im thinking my Airport Express has failed. I tried hard resetting it several times and I can see it through Airport utility, nor my iPhone. The iPhone sees it, but it cannot set it up.
Looks like I need to get a new Airport Express no matter what. Ive had it for a Looooong time. So I guess its number was finally up.
Thanks for the response seancobrien.

Creating a single network with multiple airports

Hello -
I have been having trouble combining all of my airport devices into one single network. I currently have one Airport Extreme (Gen 2) and two Airport Express (802.11n) devices to cover my home. I have significant difficulty with range on the devices. Right now each of the devices are connected separately via anethernet cable to a switch that then is connected to my home FIOS router. All of my best efforts at bridging the devices with my Extreme as the primary network have failed. Is it possible to have each of the Airport devices act as one network with this configuration?
Thank you.
Don

Thanks for the update.
Power up one AirPort Express only, open up AirPort Utillty 5.6, select that AirPort Express, and click Manual Setup.
If the Express does not appear in AirPort Utility, perform a Factory Default Reset on the device as follows:
Power off the Express for a minute
Hold in the reset button on the Express and keep holding it for an additional 9-10 seconds while you simultaneously plug the Express back in to power
Release the reset button after the hold period and allow 40-45 seconds for the Express to display a slow blinking amber light
Then try AirPort Utility 5.6 and Manual Setup again and it should "see" the Express
Click the Base Station tab below the icons to assign a device name to the Express....AirPort Express 1, for example, a device password and adjust Time Zone settings.
Click the Wireless tab and assign the exact same settings that you used on the AirPort Extreme to the AirPort Express. The Radio Mode of the Express may not have an "Automatic" setting, so the default "802.11n (802.11 b/g compatible" setting would be a good choice.
Click the Internet icon and then the Internet Connection tab and assign the exact same settings that the AirPort Extreme is using....Connect Using = Ethernet and Connection Sharing = Off (Bridge Mode).
Click Update and allow 40-45 seconds for the AirPort Express to display a green light. Then, power it off.
Configure the other AirPort Express exactly the same way as AirPort Express 1, except that you will give it a different name under the Base Station tab, AirPort Express 2....for example....to keep everything straight.
Once you have a green light on AirPort Express 2, power it off.
Power of the entire network now...all devices....in any order that you wish
Wait a minute
Start the FIOS modem/router first and let it run a minute by itself
Start the AirPort Extreme the same way
Start AirPort Express 1 the same way
Start AirPort Express 2 the same way
Continue starting devices one at a time a minute apart until the entire network is back up and running
The network should be operating correctly at this point and your Mac should automatically pick up a signal from the AirPort that is providing the strongest signal as it moves around the house.
To confirm that this is the case, locate the Mac very close to the AirPort Extreme for a minute
Hold down the option key on the Mac while you click on the fan shaped AirPort icon at the top of the screen
Note the BSSID. That is the AirPort ID of the device to which the Mac is connected
Move the Mac close to an AirPort Express, wait a minute, then check the BSSID. It should be a different ID
Check the other AirPort Express the same way, it should be a different ID

Extend wireless network with multiple airport express and netgear powerline

I currently have the following network configuration:
1. Using ATT u-verse (2-wire 3800HGV-B "modem") to internet
2. Disabled the u-verse modem wireless router, and have connected an Apple Time Capsule wireless router (on a DMZ)
3. Have four Netgear XAVB5001 powerline adapters connected to the time capsule (for our iMac desktops and the Apple TV)
4. Have an Airport Express wirelessly connected to the time capsule to extend range (for our iPhones and iPad)
All this is currently working. What I would like to do is the following, keeping 1-3 above the same:
4. Connect the airport express to the time capsule via Netgear XAVB5101 powerline adapter (instead of wirelessly connecting to the time capsule as it is today) and use it to extend the wireless range of the time capsule
5. Add ANOTHER airport express to the time capsule via powerline adapter (and extend the wireless range elsewhere in the house).
Does anyone have any experience with this kind of setup and can assure that it would work? (I'm trying to decide whether to spring for a couple more powerline adapters and another airport express)
Thanks in advance!
Dave

I had a VERY similar problem: I was trying to extend my wireless network using a hardwired ethernet connection from Airport Extreme to my Time Capsule. Every time I plugged in the wire to the TC, everything disappeared. Unplugged, and boom. Came back.
Here's how I solved it:
Go into Airport Utility and select the unit you are trying to use as a wireless extender and choose to edit it. Then, on the wireless tab select CREATE a wireless network. But, give it the exact same name and password. This is completely counter-intuitive. You would think to choose EXTEND, but this would be wrong. Next choose the network tab. And, select Router mode to Bridge (off).
By choosing the same name and password, your phone, laptop, etc. will think it's on the same network and move seamlessly from one to the other.
See if this fixes your issue. Fixed mine instantly. AND, it only took 3 painstaking hours of checking ethernet connections and rewiring jacks, etc. to figure it out. LOL

Networking with Multiple Airport Express'

I am using a new Airport Extreme 802.11n as a router in a home network that is in an extremely large house. I also have 3 new Airport Express' connected to the network. My question is should the settings in the Airport Utility be "Join an existing network" or 'Extend an existing network' for each Airport Express' or some combination of either based on which express is first in closest proximity to the Airport Extreme.
Thanks, JB

I've only got the two running now, and the signal at the far end is dramatically better than without.
I don't think it decreases bandwidth for each device. Each machine's bandwidth decreases a little for the overhead, but it is not cumulative.
On a side note, when I added the New Airport Express, I had an absolutely horrible time getting it all to work correctly and I think I had similar symptoms as you are describing. I was able to differentiate which base station I had connected with because the new Airport Extreme was n-band and the main stations is an old g-band. So, by holding down the option key when selecting the airport menu, I could easily see the bandwidth going above 54. I hope you're laughing as I later realized that the MAC address of the base station you are connected to shows up in the menu with option held down, also.
Everything seemed to be connected right, but it just wasn't working. I ended up resetting both devices and started from scratch. Just about when I was going to give up and just extend the network, my WDS connections worked and I haven't had any problems.
Before I realized that the network wasn't configured correctly, I thought my old Airport Extreme was going bad. It was freezing up and I had to restart it to get an internet connection. Ever since I fixed the WDS network, I don't have any problems with it. I think the two base stations were jamming each other.

Can I configure a wireless home network with two cable routers (both with separate connections to the same cable company)? Issue is poor signal strength even with multiple Airport Expresses added to the network.

I have a wireless home network consisting of a time capsule, two airport expresses and a cable modem. Even with this configuration I get a very weak signal in much of be condo - the walls, etc. are solid concrete. I want to see if I can add another separately connected cable modem and connect one of the existing airport express to it by Ethernet cable. If so, this would give me two wired hubs and greatly improve signal strength. I do not know if this configuration will in fact work or if I will just wind up with two, separate and unrelateable networks. Unfortunately, there is no way to run any additional Ethernet cable and I doubt simply adding more Airport Express will help. Thanks.

Try Ethernet over Power adapters.. these are very popular for your kind of environment.. being able to make non-wireless link to another area where you can setup a wireless access point.
Airport Express are not great for wireless power.. if you really have issues with wireless strength in a bad environment apple stuff is not the way to go.
The comparison chart here.
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/lanwan/router-charts/bar/58-2_4-ghz-dn?see=P_F
This is their worst test location you can also see averages.. the latest airport extreme.. is there a long way down.. and that is a much better wireless device than Airport Express.
The Ubiquiti power AP is small cheap and designed for precisely this duty.. useless in an apple wireless network.. you will need to run ethernet or EOP adapters back to the main router.. but if the normal omni directional antennas don't provide enough signal you can get directional ones.. I suspect you can cover your whole apartment with a pair of these and high gain directional antenna.

On a network with multiple airports (extreme, express, + time capsule), do they all have to be "guest" capable devices in order to offer guest networking?

Here's the situation: I have three older devices:
a1254 Time Capsule
a1134 airport extreme
a1264 express
none of these support guest networking, according to Apple. If I add a newer Extreme (3rd gen or higher) that support guest networks, will that be possible to offer to guests within range of the Extreme, -OR- do I have to upgrade my entire network of Apple wifi devices? Help appreciated, esp if you have such a setup. thanks!

The problem here is guest network only works if the Apple Router is indeed the main router.. you cannot setup guest network on a bridged router. Although it appears you can, it doesn't actually work.
You could modify the network setup..
Use one device dedicated to a secondary guest network. This would actually work better than using guest but you should have some way to prevent access to computers from guest.. that may be easy or hard depending on the modem you are using.

Newer mac mini airport utility can't work with older airport express

Hi anyone who can help me out.
I have a relatively new mac mini (2012), and a much older airport express. I can accesss the internet no problem, but I cannot use the airport utility to chane the password on the airport expres. when I try, I get this message "This version of AirPort Utility doesn’t support this base station. Go to AirPort Service and Support for more information." I have the latest version of Airport utility (6.3.1), which is supposed to work with all generaions of airport express. I need to change the password, but I do not have any of the original set-up disks for the airport. How do I fix this?
Thanks for your help.
liametmanu

Unfortunately, AirPort Utility in Lion and Mountain Lion no longer supports the older wireless "b/g" versions of the AirPort Express. This would include model numbers A1084 and A1088.
Please locate the model number on the side of your AirPort Express devices to verify the version that you have.
If you have another Mac running the Leopard or Snow Leopard operating system, you can use AirPort Utilty on that Mac to administer the older Express. A PC could be used as well.
If you cannot use another Mac or PC, then you might want to consider trying an unsupported method to install an older version of AirPort Utility on your Mountain Lion Mac. No guarantees can be offered that this will be successful since Apple does not officially support this method, but it does seem to work for most users.
See this thread for more details:
https://discussions.apple.com/message/22940547#22940547
If nothing seems to work, the final option....likely the one that Apple wants you to use.....would be to buy a new AirPort Express.

Extending an Airport Extreme (6th Gen) network with older Airport Express models

I just purchased the latest Airport Extreme (6th Gen) base station to be my main wifi router. I have two airport express models that I used in the past to extend my network with my (very) old retired Airport Extreme (2nd Gen): the 2nd Gen model A1264 (you plug into the wall directly) - I've had it for several years, and the newest 3rd Gen model A1362 (small square that lies on a desk or table) - I just purchaed a couple of months ago.
My question is - will extending my network with either of these Airport Express models diminish my overall network speed (Especially the older model)?
I don't have any AC capable clients yet - so everything is running on the "n" band - and the older Express is an "n" model, but I just have this (perhaps irrational) fear that attaching older routers will slow everything down.
Any thoughts or suggestions?
Thanks!

will extending my network with either of these Airport Express models diminish my overall network speed (Especially the older model)?
The A1264 model will be able to extend only one band of the new dual band AirPort Extreme. Normally, the A1264 will extend the 2.4 GHz band since it is stronger than the 5 GHz signal.
The A1392 will be able to extend both bands since it is also a dual band model, providing that it is located where it can receive a strong wireless signal from the new AirPort Extreme.
Here, I am assuming that you are asking about extending wirelessly.
You might want to keep in mind that extending wirelessly always involves compromises and loss of bandwidth. The main reason for this is that an extending device can only "extend" the quality of signal that it receives.
The wireless signal from the new AirPort Exterme will slow down and lose strength the further that it moves away from the main AirPort. So, the extending device gets a slower, weaker signal to extend. The result is signficantly slower wireless performance in the extended areas.
The way to solve this is connect the extending AirPorts to the main AirPort using a permanent wired Ethernet connection. There is no signal loss in a wire, so the extending AirPort receives a full bandwidth signal to broadcast. The result is higher and more uniform speed on the entire network.

Current version of airport utility will not connect with older airport express

I was given an older aiport express that I want to add to my network for iTunes sharing. I have an airport express and aiport extreme currently. I am running Mac OS x 10.7.5. My current version of airport utility does not support this express and it tells me to download utility version 5.6. When i try to install version 5.6 i get an error message that tells me to contact software manufacturer. I'm sure there is a simple fix but I don't know what to do. Any help would be great!

Hi
again , at least for getting 5.6 installed, look at my post earlier, or better to JEFFY's and download an much better alternative "unpkg", to get it ( 5.6) on to your mac.
Then, though, getting to use it to configure your older AP as I attempted is anothe matter. I didn't succed so far..
Good luck to you. If it works pse tell .
Thanks.
Pierre

Extend range with multiple airport

I want to use an airport express to provide wireless music to speakers that are over 150 feet from my mac and my extreme n base station. How can I do this?

150 feet would be about the theoretical maximum for a wireless signal to travel....under the most ideal conditions.....which would mean no obstructions like walls or ceilings in the signal path. In other words, you would really need a line-of-sight situation between all wireless devices.
Realisically, you really need to consider a wired Ethernet connection for this type of application to avoid constant drop out issues.
A high gain antenna from a company like QuickerTek might be a possible solution as well, but this is always "iffy". You just can't predict wireless performance in advance, so it's important to understand the return/credit policies in case things don't work out as hoped.
http://www.quickertek.com/

Extending airport express network with other airport express

I am trying to extend my airport express based wifi network, using two more units.
All airport express units are 802.11n capable.
My main question is about the band frequency: does it matter whether I use 2.4 or 5 ghz ?
I have some success when using 2.4 ghz, but I am having zero success when using 5ghz on the main unit (the one connected via ethernet to the router). The other two units are set up to "extend a wireless network".

Welcome to the discussion area, Giovanni!
While it is not exactly correct to say that you almost need line-of-sight between the AirPort Express devices for 5 GHz to work effectively, a number of users are finding this to be the case. 5 GHz signals are much weaker than 2.4 GHz signals, so they do not travel well over distance or pass through obstructions very well.
Unless you almost do have line-of-sight between the devices, you are probably going to get better results by setting up the "main" AirPort Express on the 2.4 GHz band and use the others to "extend" that band.
The "extend" setup works like the hub and spokes of a wheel. Your main AirPort Express is the "hub" and the other devices are located at the ends of the the "spokes". The remote devices communicate directly to the hub, not to another device at the end of another spoke, so it's not possible to "extend" a device that is already setup to "extend".

Keyspan Express Repote with Multiple AE's?

I was thinking of buying the [color=blue]Keyspan Express Remote[/color] and using it attached to an AE to control volume and pausing of music streaming from iTunes.
If I am running music to multiple AE's, will the remote only affect the one it is attached to or all of them?
I do have a question submitted into Keyspan tech support, but this may be the first time this question has come up, and I'm thinking that if the remote really controls iTunes via the AE, then ALL the AE's would be affected by the remote, which would be pretty cool.
Tom

Next time you try to format a link, use HTML instead of vB code.
Anyway, the remote affects the iTunes that is streaming to the Express the remote is connected to. As such, it will affect all Expresses that are getting the same stream because iTunes itself will react to the remote commands.

Airport Exreme - Airport Express droupout with multiple Airport Express sta

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