Airport Extreme with Airport Express as extender. It doesn't "just work".

Just installed the airport extreme base station with an Airport Express for extending the network with a home network that includes a Windows XP desktop and a MBPro. I set everything up with the MBP. My goal was to stop all the resetting I had to do with the Linksys system. The XP is near the cable modem so I plug that into the extreme directly with ethernet. The extreme is plugged into the cable modem. My MacBook Pro I connect wirelessly into the internet from about 60 feet away wirelessly (the Express works as an extender to boost the signal). It all works fine for a few minutes, then if I have to close the MBP for a few minutes, when I come back, I still have a "5 bar" signal, but the MBP won't connect to the internet. When I look at the network settings, I keep getting this error:
"Airport is connected to the network ("my network name"). AirPort has a self assigned IP address and may not be able to connect to the internet".
I have a cable moden with dynamic IP addresses. I've set everything to "automatic" and still have this problem. I think when the IP adress changes, my home network dies. It is still live with 5 bars but no internet connection. I paid $300 for a router and an extender because they were Apple products, but, ****, I almost can't even work anymore.
I guess the core of my question is, why can't I keep internet connection after I close the lid on the MBP or shut off the machine for a few minutes?
Thanks for any input.

I have a network with 2 airport extremes (the old round one and the new gigabit ethernet) and an airport express. I have seen this issue while I was setting up the network. From what you wrote, I am guessing you have the following issue:
You have 2 airports configured with the same network name and password, but your WDS is not setup corretly, hence you think it is connecting to the airport with modem attached, but it is in fact connecting to your other airport with no modem attached (hence the self assigned IP). What is happening in fact is that you have 2 seperate networks with identical names. If that is the case, you should only see one airport at a time when you open the airport utility app.
If that is in fact your problem, you have to make sure to set the main airport as WDS main and enter the MAC address for the remote base station and click update, while it is updating, rescan and the other base station will show up. set that one up as WDS remote, and enter the MAC address for the main base station, and click update. Once the update is done and both base stations have restarted, your networks will be joined and you should see them both appear in the airport utility.

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    Message was edited by: Bob Timmons

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