Configuring Airport Extreme BS n and Airport Express n

You guys are going to kill me, but I've spent the last two days reading through all the posts and searching the forums for my answer, and I only have bits and pieces of answers. Duane and Tessarex if you are here, please help summarize this all with a complete explanation. I think others have left "steps" to getting this done, but some of them are missing. Ok, here goes:
I got a new iMac, AEBSn, and AXn. I have an original MBP that we'd like to be able to use wirelessly anywhere in our house. My wife and I were able to configure our ABESn for a wifi signal in our house (it's in a bedroom over our garage). The signal barely reaches our basement (2 floors down), and I'd like to use the AXn to make the signal better in the basement by placing it somewhere on the main floor. We have plugged in the AXn near the iMac and ABESn in the bedroom over the garage to configure it based off of suggestions in the forum. Here are my questions:
1. How do you configure the AXn after plugging it in (to AC power)?
a. Do I have to have the iMac's Airport card turned on to "see" the AXn? I initially had the Airport
card off because we hardwired the AEBSn via ethernet cord to the iMac, but the Airport Utility
only showed our AEBSn but not the AXn after we plugged it into the wall.
2. What is the difference between "Extend a wireless network," "Participate in a WDS network," and "bridging?" I've read other discussions and they almost sound the same to me depending on who's asking the question and who's answering it.
a. Does participating in a WDS network allow the AXn to extend the AEBSn's wifi signal (strength)
AND allow one to plug in a device (ie PS3) via the ethernet port on the AXn whereas extending a
wireless network means the AXn JUST extends the signal, but its ethernet port cannot be used?
Thank you very much for reading this. I know that one should always search for answers first in the forums, but I cannot find my answer exactly. The books that came with the two devices are basically worthless. We used the forums and trial and error to get the AEBSn up and running (my wife is also was a Windows based network administrator in a prior life).
I'll keep searching and seeing if I can piece this together in the meantime. Thanks again!

What manual is that? Is it one that is available on Apple's website? I'm going to do a search for it.
You won't believe what happened. I just came up to check my email, and the Airport Utility just opened by itself and said it had found my AXn (which it had before also when I tried to configure it like you said to do). I went through the screens again and clicked Update yet again (like I had before) and instead of blinking yellow, the **** thing is solid green. I think I have a ghost in my house!!!
Well, thank you for all of your help! Do you have any insight into my other question about the AEBSn giving out a solid signal to my MBP, but when I click on Safari, it says that I'm not connected to the internet? I'm wondering if when I was setting up the AEBSn, the internet connection went to my computer instead of the AEBSn. I know I'm not describing this right, but it's like when I got my new iMac and tried to plug in the ethernet from the cable modem, it wouldn't recognize my iMac, but if I plugged it into my MBP it would. I had to reset the cable modem and then plug it in. The signal must have bypassed the AEBSn at some point and gone straight to my iMac (it's hardwired via ethernet cord from back of the AEBSn). It was broadcasting the internet signal at one point after my wife got it set up the first time because I was able to surf wirelessly on my MBP in the basement.
Message was edited by: Bunky

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Message was edited by: thestaton

You need to configure the AirPort Express (AX) and AirPort Extreme base station (AEBS) to join together using WDS.
To set up the main base station to share its Internet connection with
other base stations:
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.
Open AirPort Utility (located in the Utilities folder in the Applications folder on a Mac, or in Start > All Programs > AirPort on a Windows computer). 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. 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.
Click the Wireless button, and then choose “Participate in a WDS network” from the Wireless Mode pop-up menu.
Click WDS and then choose “WDS main” from the WDS Mode pop-up menu.
Select the “Allow wireless clients” checkbox if you want client computers to connect to this base station.
Click the Add button and enter the MAC address of the base stations you want to connect to this base station.
If there is a base station listed that you’d like to remove from the list, select the base station and click the Delete (–) button.
Click Update to send the new settings to the base stations in the WDS. By default, the “Allow wireless clients” checkbox is selected. If you deselect the checkbox, and later want to change the settings on the base station, you must connect to the base station’s LAN port with an Ethernet cable. You will not be able to connect to the base station wirelessly.
To set up the AX to connect to the main base station:
Open AirPort Utility. Select the AX, and choose Manual Setup from the Base Station menu. 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.
Enter the same network password as the main base station, if necessary.
Click the AirPort button, and then 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.
Click WDS and choose “WDS remote” from the pop-up menu.
Enter the MAC address of the main base station in the WDS Main field. The MAC address is also referred to as the AirPort ID and is printed on the label on the bottom of the base station.
Click Update to transfer the settings to the base station.
Page 42 of "Designing AirPort Networks Using AirPort Utility" (direct PDF download).

To configure Airport Express as an extender to Airport Extreme ?

- I have an Airport Extreme , its been there for 2 years
- I forgot the admin password to login to the airport extreme, but I remember
the wireless password. I cannot rest it as I cannot loose the configuration.
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extender to the current Airport Extreme wireless what I already have.
Question:
========
1) While configuring this new Airport Express as an extender to my current wireless setup (Airport Extreme), does it need the ADMIN password of the airport extreme anywhere ?
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Welcome to the discussion area, johnpau2009!
I have an Airport Extreme , its been there for 2 years
Just to confirm which version you have, is your AirPort Extreme (AEBS) square shaped with rounded corners, or is it round and shaped like a flying saucer?
I forgot the admin password to login to the airport extreme
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Click Update at the lower right to save your changes and the AEBS will restart in 25-30 seconds and you should have a green light.
Post back on your progress at this point.
2) Will there be any difference in the wireless signal & strength in the below
setup ?
Connecting devices using ethernet cable connections is always the better way to go because this provides much better bandwidth (speed) for the wireless network and it allows you to place the AirPort Express in the location where it's really needed.
Using wireless only to extend can work well if you have close to a line of sight relationship between the AEBS and AX. There's nothing wrong with trying this first to see if it will provide the performance you want if you're not anxious to pull ethernet cable through the house.
Message was edited by: Bob Timmons

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Cheers
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Message was edited by: William C.

OK. We're up and running after a number of changes. I don't know which or what combination made things work, but here's what I did.
1. Airport Express Firmware Update 6.3
http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/airportexpressfirmwareupdate63formacosx.h tml
I don't know if I had ever done this, nor am I sure that firmware update remain when one does a "factory default" reset, but I did this after a factory default reset using the AX default network.
2. Did a "factory default" reset. Connected AX to the AEBS via Ethernet LAN. Did a Manual configuration.
3. Configured AX, noting the problems listed in Summary. Two were noted. One recommended that the Connection Sharing be turned off (bridge mode). The other indicated Default settings were in operation.
4. Restarted AX. Same result with error in reading the configuration after restart.
5. Changed AEBS Wireless<Wireless Mode to "Create a Wireless Network." Previously this had been set to "Participate in a WDS Network."
#5 seems to have done the trick, though I can't rule out that #1-4 weren't necessary parts of the solution. I've tried to document the many attempts and changes I made so perhaps someone can sort this out for anyone else who might have this problem. iTunes is back on the stereo!
wmc

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There are 3 types of resets.
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Try a factory reset.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=108044
Joseph Kriz

Configuring airport express

I was wondering if it is possible to set up a wireless network using airport express on a G5 without an airports card. If not is it possible to set up a wireless network any other way for this situation. The reason I ask is that my wife has an iPhone (maybe an iPad in the future) & would like to be able to take advantage of wifi at home. In other words can I configure an airport express with just the ethernet cable connected to my cable modem? Thanks.

Thanks for the clarification.
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+I have a similar set up (I have an Airport Express that I want to connect to my existing Airport Extreme Base station's network) and spent about 2 hours swearing last night as I tried to sort this out, but after coming back to it tonight I can claim some success, though not without a significant caveat. The good news is that I got my Airport Express (AEXP) connected to my Airport Extreme Base Station's (AEBS) network. The bad news, is that I went back to Tiger to do it.+
+This is a set up I had working previously with WDS, but have recently moved and only am just now getting the AEXP back out to hook up the stereo. I have a TiBook that hasn't been updated to Leopard yet, so after an exasperating night last night, I picked it up and used the old Airport Admin Utility. Note: NOT the current Airport Utility that they introduced with the 802.11n AEBS and is the only option in Leopard. So here's what I did:+
+I just reset my AEXP to the default settings. Then I switched over to it's wireless network (Apple Network fb7... (whateve)+
+I launched the Airport Admin Utility, which detected the AEXP.+
+I clicked on it and the configuration window came up.+
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+This made another pop-up menu appear where I could choose my existing 802.11n network coming from my AEBS.+
+I believe I was prompted for the network password, so I put that in.+
+Then i made sure that my Airtunes was configured.+
+Updated (restarted) the AEXP+
+When nothing happened I remembered that I had to go back and rejoin my original existing wireless network. So I did that and momentarily both my AEBS and my AEXP popped up in the Airport Utility.+
+Both are there with green lights, internet connection is solid, and AirTunes is working in my living room.+
+So I've joined the AEXP to my existing AEBS's wireless network - which is what I wanted to do in the first place. Honestly I'm still unclear on the difference between "join an existing wireless network" and participating in a WDS network. I thought that WDS was for extending the range of a wireless network (this is how I had previously set up my AEBS and my AEXP). Now I would rather just have the faster 802.11n speed of the AEBS network and merely have the AEXP connected so that I can use AirTunes, but not ever actually connecting to the network through the slower 802.11g speed of the AEXP. So hopefully that's what joining an existing wireless network has done.+
+Either way, my wireless network is functioning, and so is AirTunes. So, for now, I'm happy.+
+Good luck with your respective set ups. Hopefully a copy of Airport Admin Utility is on the install disk for the AEXP. I was able to run it in Leopard, though when I did the configuring it was on the Tiger machine.+

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