CONSTANT problems with Airport Express in two rooms, dropped connection with gateway, no AirPlay

I have 3 Airport Express in my apartment, one is connected (named Living Room) to my ISP provided gateway (router) and acts as the main wireless hub, the other two (named Kitchen and Bedroom) and are set up to provide AirPlay audio only.
The ones set up for AirPlay have had constant issues since we moved to our new place 4 months ago, this is very strange because we were with the same ISP in the old place and used the same gateway (router) without any problems which leads me to think that there is something in the walls in the new place which is blocking an effective signal.
Even as I type this, I have Airport Utility open on my Mac and a message just popped up from AU saying that 'Living Room is unavailable'.
Attached is a screenshot which shows the current status of the Airport network. Basically it is a mess, and I have tried everything, from resetting the ISP router and all the AXPs, to changing the Network Modes to experimenting with repositioning the units to points in rooms where the reception might be better.
NOTHING has made any difference.

Sorry, have been away for work so only just had a chance to look again at this:
I'lll try again: right now using WiFI Explorer I can see 9 other networks, 3 of those are using channel 11, the same as my Airport Express network. (Set to Automatic in Airport Utility)
What I tried to explain earlier was that the one in the kitchen will not stay connected long enough for me to get a reading on WiFi Explorer, but I can tell you that I powered up the one in the bedroom at 19:56, it is currently connected in Extend Wireless Network mode (the one in the kitchen is disconnected from the power) and has an average SNR of 59dB (and shows as 'Excellent' in Airport Utility) and so far it has not dropped the connection, but I am 99% certain that it will be back to blinking amber by tomorrow.
So there is one Airport Express in the living room which is the one that has created the wireless network, within the living room the Average SNR is around 60% (as you would expect as that is the unit that is wired to the ISP provided router).
Since I connected the one in the bedroom earlier this evening it has managed to stay connected and appears to still be extending the network, I checked it just now by standing next to it with WiFi Explorer open on my MacBook Pro and it showed an average SNR of 55%.
I ordered a 10 metre ethernet cable yesterday and I will try relocating the unit that is set to create the wireless network to a place in the living room that is closer to the bedroom and kitchen. It is currently on a shelf on the TV bank which is about two metres away from the wall closest to the kitchen.
I will report back here once I have moved it and set up the kitchen and bedroom boxes again. Hopefully this will allow the kitchen one to stay connected long enough for me to get a reading on WiFi Explorer.

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I just integrated my new Time Capsule into our all-Mac network here a couple of days ago and its been fine for the most part but I've noticed that the existing airport express flashes amber for a few seconds every so often (usually once per hour or so) and disconnects everyone sharing files and connections. I have Leopard Server 10.5.2 running as well and this didn't seem to be happening before introducing Server to the mix (it was connected about 48 hours AFTER the time capsule) but the problem seems to lie with the Airport Express. Things are connected as follows:
Cable modem --> Airport Extreme
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any guidance would be greatly appreciated.

I'm running into exactly the same problem. Configuration is the same as Jackoschild's. I get about an hour of good connection, then signal drops off and I get a rapid set of connects then disconnects. Very frustrating. I'm considering turning off the Airport on the Time Capsule and going with my 54g wireless built-in to the FIOS router it is attached to. Total of two iMacs running 10.5.2 (one 20" G5, one 24" iMac) and four PCs (Windows XP SP2) demonstrating the problem. I NEVER had a drop issue with the FIOS ActionTek wireless.
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I know this is not new. I have seen many discussions on this subject but no real answer.
My setup: ADSL modem connected to a AEBS (square, N compatible). Yesterday I got an older Airport Express (draft N) and extended the WiFi netowork.
I understand that this extension will reduce the speed but I didnt expect it to be that slow:
Download speeds:
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- wireless connection near the AEBS: 9.5 Mb/s
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Is it normal? Should I try to change configuration, channels, anything to improve this?
Any ideas?
Thanks,
Tonden

From my experience of setting up the Airport WiFi for family members and friends, I have learnt the following :-
1. Airport Express is not as good as Airport Extreme, for being as extender, the difference can be quite a lot.
2. There is always a dead cornor (bad reception) in a house
3. Even moving the Airport Extreme / AE a few inches, the performance can be improved quite significant
4. If possible, always choose 5G 802.11n than 2.4G, unless there are many thick walls.
My suggestion will be as follows :
1. Moving out the AEBS out of a closet, is a good idea
2. Always try to locate the AEBS in the centre of a area, instead of the two sides
3. Try to test the AEBS without an extender, and find the best location area (don't place on the floor, neither above 6 feet height)
4. After finding a best location, set the extender closer to the AEBS, and then moving apart from it (check the performance after every move), it is better that both devices can face each other.
5. I can't tell you the reason, and some people may not agree with me, the new 2013 Airport Exteme performance is better and may be is a good idea to replace your Airport Express, and use it to connect with your router, and old AEBS as an extender
6. Some Powerlinks (in case you can't use a wired ethernet connection between the two devices) work and some don't work with Apple Airport products, therefore, if possible, have an option to return them to the shop if they do not match
Good luck

Configuring the time capsule airport wlan function as "connect to wlan", the time caspule gets a correct IP adress from the other wlans IP range, but does not assign this to the ethernet ports. With Airport Express it worked!

Configuring the time capsule airport wlan function as "connect to wlan", the time capsule gets a correct IP adress from the other wlans IP range, but does not assign this to the ethernet ports. With Airport express it worked, the single Ethernet port got the IP Parameters passed through!
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Only the option "connect to wlan" is succesful.
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My notebook is a MacBook pro.
Any idea????
Thank a lot in advance!
Kind regards
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Neverthe less, could there be the chance, that this feature could be implemnented with an firmware update?
That would appear to be a question for Apple to answer. You can make suggestions to Apple here:
Apple - AirPort Extreme - Feedback
If the AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule are configured to "extend a wireless network" they will provide additional wireless coverage....and...the Ethernet ports are enabled in this type of setup.
The "catch" here is that you must have an Apple router providing the network to be extended.

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Hi, Under Water.
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Connect your computer to your Express via Ethernet and open AirPort Utility. Press "Manual Setup" and authenticate if necessary.
Go to the "Base Station" tab. Give the Express a name and password.
Go to the "Wireless" tab. Set the Wireless mode to "Join a wireless network" or "Extend a wireless network." Enter the name of the wireless network created by your Time Capsule (or select it from the list). Check the box that says "Allow Ethernet clients" (if you're joining) or "Allow Wireless Clients" (if you're extending).
Provide the appropriate security mode and password for the Time Capsule's network.
Press "Update" and allow your Express to restart.
Then you can plug the solar system into the Express's Ethernet port.

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The Airport Utility will only see (scan) the router if your PC is connected to it.
You may do the following.
1) Hard reset using the reset button on the router while plugged in. Keep pressed the button for 5 seconds to reset.
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3) If still not successful, try opening network connection properties. Go to control panel, right click Network connections and select properties. Go to Wireless tab on the top and check if apple network is listed in your preferred networks. If not, try steps 1 and 2 until you find the network here. If it is listed here, open its properties and change encryption to "Disabled".
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My two iMacs frequently go offline when I have our iPad and two iPhones-5 connected with Airport Express (2nd edition). If I disable WiFi on my three "i" devices no problem. Any thoughts on this?

My two iMacs frequently go offline when I have my iPad and two iPhones-5 connected with Airport Express (2nd edition). If I disable WiFi on my three "i" devices the offline problem stops. Any thoughts on this?

.....doesn't that seems to suggest the modem?
That is what I have suggested....twice now. From posts above:
My opinion would be that it is likely not the ISP, unless you have complete loss of Internet service for all devices at the same time......it is the Comtrend device....
and
I believe that the problem lies with the modem, and not the ISP signal.
Your ISP will likely have a different opinion, though. Please keep us posted on your progress.

Problem with Airport Express & D-Link 615 Router

Hi there, this is my first post on the Community but as I am buying more Apple products I decided to sign up.
I have a D-Link 615 wireless router which would not broadcast far enough to the other side of my house (open plan) so I ran a cat 5 cable and connected up my Apple Express to give wireless to this area. This has worked very well up until a few days ago when I upgraded the firmware to V.7.6.4 on the AE. Since then I have lost the wireless from the A.E. and despite resetting and reconfiguring it I cannot seem to get it to work as it was.
The A.E. Utility is telling me that it cannot find the wireless network once it has updated, but doesn't seem to have a problem recognising the network name when I am initially configuring the unit. I have tried just about everything I can think of but to no avail, even plugging the A.E. into the router via another port and Ethernet cable but still with the same results. I thought that it (might) be a security issue so turned of the D-Link wireless security but still no result.
The strange thing is that it WILL 'create a new network' without any problem and broadcast at full strength!
Anyone have any ideas???
Many thanks

Hi Joe,
You got the short answer from
b Henry B,
which will save you lots of aggravation.
But if you're as curious, as I was, here's some more info I came across. I thought naively that a simple wireless 'repeater' would be straightforward and would work across different vendors of wireless basestations.
Maybe it would? But the Airport Express implements something called a
b Wireless Distribution System
b (WDS),
which sounds to me more complicated than just a simple wireless repeater. Maybe it has something to do with also honouring the encryption in the wireless signal to be repeated, err extended? Apparently WDS implementations are not standardized and currently
b rarely
work across different brands of wireless basestations.
Although apparently several folks have been successful extending the range of
b linksys
brand wireless basestations using an Airport Express,
b IF
they first update (swap out?) the linksys firmware with another (open source) version. Whew!
Anyhooow, for your situation, a brute-force option might be to replace the Ethernet cord between the Rogers cable modem and the D-LINK with a longer cable, so you can move the D-LINK closer to Living Room. (Or possibly get a longer CATV cable and move both the cable modem and D-LINK). You could even try increasing the range of the PowerBook with one of those Quickertek antennas.
But I expect it would be
b cheaper and easier,
if it came to that, to just replace the D-LINK with a 2nd Airport Express, which would then inter-work with the Airport Express in the Living room, using
b WDS.
best of luck,
...ben

Numerous problems with Airport Express 802.11n with DSL and extending WLAN

Hi all,
I have the following hardware:
802.11b/g Airport Express with firmware 6.3
802.11n Airport Express with firmware 7.3.2
MacBook Pro
iBook G4
Mac Pro PowerMac 2x450 G4
Up until now I had been using the old Airport Express as the base station connecting to my PPPoE DSL line, and it worked fine. I wanted to extend the range of this network, and got another newer Airport Express, the 802.11n model.
First I tried to use the 802.11n to connect to the Internet and the old one to extend the network. Turns out the old one can't be used to extend a network, which is bad enough, but the 802.11n one refuses to connect via DSL for more than a couple minutes, then drops the Internet connection.
So I tried downgrading the firmware to 7.3.0 and 7.3.1, but it didn't help. Did a hard reset, factory default reset, soft reset, nothing worked.
Next I tried swapping the two, putting the old Express back on the DSL line and the new one as the bridge to extend the network (using WPA2). But the 802.11n complains that it can't access the network and flashes amber.
Again, tried upgrading to 7.3.2, downgrading to 7.3.1 and 7.3.0, hard reset, soft reset. Nothing works.
Any ideas?
Cheers,
Fairfax71

I don't see any option in the Airport Admin Utility for the old Express for creating a WDS network, only to participate in one...?
That is the option you want to choose.
You could use the newer AirPort Utility to configure the older AX.
Sorry, forgot to ask something else: The 802.11n Express is able to join the WLAN created by the 802.11b/g Express as a client, but not extend it, is that what you're saying?
No. If you join the network the AX is simply acting as another wireless client and is not extending the network. The "extend" option is not available since the older AX is not 802.11n capable. You must use WDS.
Use AirPort Utiity and follow these steps for both AX's. To set up the main AX:
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 second AX to connect to the main AX:
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.
This can be found on page 42 of "Designing AirPort Networks Using AirPort Utility" (direct PDF download).

Problem with Airport express N (2nd gen)

Problem with Airport express N (2nd gen)
Firmware 7.6.4
ISP - 20 Mbps ethernet cable
I have MacBook Air 13 mid 2013 os x 10.9.5, ipad 4 ios 8.0.2, ipad4 ios 7.1.2 , iphone 5 ios 7.1.1
When i try to use speedtest.net from my Macbook i got good results of download speed and incredible upload http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/3801286946 (connection 300 Mbps) , both ipads got terrible speedtest download result and incredible uploadhttp://www.speedtest.net/my-result/i/981631804 (connection 150 Mbps), iphone 5 got bad download and great uploadhttp://www.speedtest.net/my-result/i/981695357.
All these tests were done near airport express with really good signal and 5ghz. I tried to choose different channels, 802.11 mode, guest ssid, 5ghz ssid ...
I think that something is wrong with my new airport express. Can anyone help me to solve this problem?
ps sorry for my bad english

As a last resort, try a factory default reset on the AirPort Express as follows:
Power off the AirPort Express
Wait a minute
Hold in the reset button first, and keep holding it in for another 8-10 seconds while you simultaneously plug the Express back in to power
Release the reset button after the hold period and allow a full minute for the Express to restart to a slow, blinking amber light status
On an iPhone or iPad home screen....
Tap Settings
Tap WiFi
Look for a heading of Setup a New AirPort Base Station. If it appears.....
Tap on AirPort Express just below the heading to start the configuration process on the Express again
If you try several factory default resets, and the AirPort Express does not appear under the heading of Setup a New AirPort Base Station, the Express most likely is defective and will need to be replaced.

I have a Sony Sa ns300, will it work with airport express to allow me to play iTunes in another room?

I have a Sony NS 300 will it work with airport express?

Not from the iPad, but you can from a computer.

Trying to set up wireless network on PC with Airport Express

I'm helping a friend set up his network with AirPort Express. He's got a modem attached to his PC, and currently has a router that sends a wireless signal to a receiver on the PC in the other room. Now he's added a Mac, and the old router/receiver doesn't work with Mac. So he bought an Airport Express.
I've turned on the Airport, and first I connected the ethernet cable from the modem to the AirPort. Per the AirPort utility I put on the PC, it couldn't find it (got the flashing amber light). So then I took out that ethernet, and I hooked up the ethernet directly from the CPU to the AirPort. Suddenly, it was found, and it took me step by step through the set up. It asked for password info from our internet provider (??why would I have that info??), so we just hit "enter". Then it couldn't set up the network, and said to check the "manage network settings". I've tried everything. Not only can I NOT manage to create a network, but now NEITHER ethernet cable will cause any recognition in the AirPort. All I get is the blinking amber light. I'm about to throw all the computers out the window...it really should not be this difficult. I've set up networks in my own home, before, with both PC and Mac, and never had these problems. So, now, I've had to relink up the old router/receiver in order to send out this call for help. Can anyone suggest anything else to try before I use these computers for target practice?
Thanks in advance,
Jennifer
P.S. The main PC w/modem is on Vista with service pack 2.0...since I can't even get that one working with AirPort, I hardly think it matters what the other computers are...

I had some initial problems too. Make sure that you have the latest Airport Utility in the utilities folder. I used that to correct the problems I had when I first got Time Machine. I recommend resetting everything through there to get it working right.
Mine is not set up to run an n network because my macs are all g and b compatible. Does the airport utility see the time machine? And if so, does it have a green light in the utility?

Very slow download speed with Airport Express

Hi.
I've recently experienced painfully slow downlink (download) speed using Airport Express.
My WiFi configuration:
- main router: WRT54G connected to my provider (speed limit: 4Mbit up/down link),
- AirPort Express with WiFi N and Airtunes hooked up to stereo in living room,
- AirPort Express WiFi G and Airtunes connected to stereo on bedroom.
Second Airport is currently not used to simplify tests and description of my problem.
The problem: when connecting from MacBook to Airport Express I can't reach more than approx. 512kbit downloading from internet, usually even 300kbit, while uplink reaches easily 2.5Mbit (limited probably by my network provider). While connected to WRT54G I can get 2.5 up to 4Mbit downlink, same when using cable directly plugged in to WRT54G.
I tried changing channels, switching different options in Airport with no effect - still getting pathetic download speeds. Even worse - browsing experience is awful, with frequent slowdowns, etc.
I tried different encryption methods, and seems like only switching it off at all (unprotected network) seems to let my Airport work on full speed (2.5Mbits symmetrically up/down, up to 4Mbits - provider speed limit) - which is unacceptable, I refuse to set up and use unprotected network at home.
Problem is clearly in Airport or in interaction between Airport and Macbook. I've just ran out of ideas - can you help me?

I can't offer any help with your problem except for the fact that mine has recently done the exact same thing. It's ridiculous, for months and months it was extremely fast and then all of a sudden it takes 20 minutes to open a simple browser page. Something is definitely wrong with the airport because all other wireless internet connections from other routers are as usual. \

CONSTANT problems with Airport Express in two rooms, dropped connection with gateway, no AirPlay

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