Dual band slow network

If I use dual band from my time capsule and use airport express to extend my network and use airplay will my network be slower? Using 5ghz for N and 2.4 for G ?

The AirPort Express will very likely connect to the 2.4 GHz band since those signals are stronger and travel over distance and through obstructions much more effectively than 5 GHz signals.
5 GHz signals may be faster.....but they are also significantly weaker than 2.4 GHz signals.
Another way of saying the same thing is the higher the frequency....the weaker the signal.

Similar Messages

How to set-up a DUAL BAND wireless network.

Lots of people are reporting problems caused by replacing an existing wireless network with the new Airport Extreme 802.11n base station.
* Xbox360 compatibility.
* Airtunes issues
* 802.11n slowed down by 802.11g devices
One workaround is to set-up a dual-band network. Your old 802.11g base station looks after the older "g" devices. And the new Airport Extreme looks after the 802.11n devices.
There are a number of benefits to this solution.
* Everything that did work, carries on working. No reconfiguring needed.
* Everything works at its fastest possible speed. You can use the full 270Mb 5Ghz band for n devices.
* 802.11g traffic does not interfere with 802.11n traffic at all.
* It's easy to set up.
The downside is
* There are two boxes. I want one.
This is the diagram (again)
Note that in this configuration, the new Airport Extreme base station is set-up in Bridging Mode.
Glyn

I've done some testing and here are my findings:
- 2 Computers, 1 C2D N enabled and iMac G only in 2 diff rooms
- 2 AX to stream music
- Transfer of a 446 Mb avi file from Airdisk to C2D
- 2 Wifi Networks: 1) G only from a Netopia 2) Depending from settings from AE(n), Both Base Station are placed aside. When G network is available both AX are connected.
- With or No airtunes means a stream to the 2 AX from iMac while transferring the 446 Mb file to the C2D.
446 MB / AE(n) 5 Ghz N / No Airtunes / Netopia Off / 2:47
446 MB / AE(n) 2.4 Ghz N Only / Auto Ch / No Airtunes / Netopia Off / 2:13
446 MB / AE(n) 5 Ghz N / No Airtunes / Netopia On / 3:14
446 MB / AE(n) 5 Ghz N / With Airtunes / Netopia On / 3:20
446 MB / AE(n) 2.4 Ghz N Only / Auto Ch/ No Airtunes / Netopia On / 2:29
446 MB / AE(n) 2.4 Ghz N Only / Auto Ch / With Airt / Netopia On / Unusable
446 MB / AE(n) 2.4 Ghz Mixed / Auto Ch / No Airtunes / Netopia Off / 2:17
446 MB / AE(n) 2.4 Ghz Mixed / Auto Ch / With Airtunes / Netopia Off / 3:03
Here are the findings:
- Without any G network (meaning no Airtunes possible) the 2.4 Ghz N Only performs much better than the 5 Ghz N
- While streaming Music the 2.4 Ghz Mixed performs better then the 5 Ghz N (Dual Band Network)!
These are my findings with my settings, it could be different, but I'm pretty sure you will find the same behavior on your side. And BTW, the theoretical thru-put means nothing, only real life usage testing is worth something. So on my side I'm going for a single mixed network.
Hope this sheds light for some of you.
Micha

Apple TV doesn't see Extreme Dual Band 5Ghz network.

I have a new DualBand Extreme that I purchased mainly to give my AppleTV the full "whammy" of "N" bandwidth. The ATV is located in the bedroom of a very small house, but does not see the 5Ghz band, even though it connects easily with the 2.5Mhz band and shows a full strength connection. I am a bit confused because I thought the 5Mhz had the greater range. (When I move the ATV closer to to the DB Extreme, it does pick up the 5Mhz band...). FYI.. the 5GHZ has a separate name so I know if I am on the dedicated "N" network or not.
I realizethe ATV is making an "N" connection on the 2.5Ghz band, and in the absence of a/b/g devices on the network is probably doing as well as the 5Ghz band would, but... does anybody have any ideas on why I get the 2.5 but not the 5?

I`m no wlan expert but are sure you carn`t change the channel from what I`ve read the 5Ghz band is still split up into channels ranging from 7 to 196 depending on which country you live in:-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Listof_WLANchannels
Maybe your router is just set to automaticly select one?

Airport Extreme dual band extended network, 1 airport drops off

Greetings,
I have 2 brand new airport extreme base station purchased (2-2011)
I setup them up correctly and it functions fine for about an hour or two, then the extended airport (the one not connected to my LAN via ethernet) drops off the grid. I can't ping it (Statically assigned IP) and Airport Utility can't find it. iStumbler reports it's still up for an additional 10 minutes. The light is steadily flashing. If I reboot either one of the airport extremes it all comes back up automatically, however only for a few hours. I tried this with firmware 7.5.2 and 7.5.1 with the same results. I also reset both to factory defaults and re-configured once again. same results?
Thoughts?
LJS

Hello,
Have you resolve your problem?
in airport utility - Internet - DHCP - DHCP Lease what is the length of the lease ?

Time Capsule disk access SLOW! 2TB - Dual band

I have a Time Capsule (2TB, Dual Band, Firmare at 7.4.2)
Its been working like a dream, backing up 3 Macs for the last 8 months.
I also use it for connecting two or three other disks via USB and then making those accessible over the LAN, and there is also about 100GB of data on the Time capsule disk itself that i use as a dump for files so i can get to them from anywhere on my LAN.
Lately I started to notice EXTREMELY slow disk access, even when i am connected via ethernet (1000 base) - and equally when I am connected via wifi (n)
for example, copying over a 2Mb photo can take minutes when it should take seconds.
i've been trying to figure out whats going on here for a while and so i checked out the sizes of the backup files.. the sparseimages that time machine creates.
one of them was nearly 1TB, while another was around 500GB and the other was around 120GB
that plus my data meant there was only about 300GB free on the 2TB disk.
I have a feeling the slowness could be down to extreme fragmentation of the drive... ??
so i decided to dump the backup files and copy off my other data and do a erase of the disk and start again.. but get this.. i can't even delete the 1TB file ! I have been trying for about 3 days now and it just will not delete.. i get the Deleting msg box and it just sits there, literally ALL night...
i know it isn't just hanging on the Mac (10.6.4) because deleting the other two images also took a long time (but not this long!)
i can't just wipe the disk now because i can't get my other data off either.. I have tried copying it over the network and onto a USB disk connected directly to the Time Capsule, but 3 days later and i'm still copying files..
to put some context into this, I copied over 1.8Gb today and it took about 4 hours...
has anyone had this problem before?? what on earth is going on?? is it down to fragmentation, or something else?? the TC has been working fine up until a few weeks ago when i started to notice slow speed.
any ideas ?
thanks
Adam

if anyone ever has this issue ....
it must have been EXTREME fragmentation. I bought another 2TB external disk, connected it to the TC, did a complete archive, which took around 24 hours... then i wiped the TC and put stuff back... it now works fine again...

Best way to add new dual band Extreme to existing b/g network

I've been using a Snow Extreme and b/g Express, but have recently been having dropped/slow connection issues. I think this may be at least partially caused from the many other networks and other wireless devices in the neighborhood - I can see 30 or more networks at times. I've also gotten a new Mini and MacBook, both with n wireless, so I decided to get a new dual band Extreme.
The faster connection speed of the new Extreme is very noticeable on my n capable machines. It also looks like the connection issues I was previously having may have been resolved, but its a bit early to tell for sure.
First problem I've had is with setting up the guest network. If I attempt to set it up wirelessly, I get as far as changing the settings and restarting the Extreme. Once I do, it does restart, but then Airport Utility is not able to find it after restart. I am able to see the main and guest network in my available networks, but I am unable to join either. Once I turn guest off (via ethernet since Utility isn't able to see it wirelessly) I am again able to see it in Utility and connect to the main network. If I try to turn on guest via ethernet, I get an error and it does not restart.
Originally the Snow Extreme was the main and the Express was used for wireless printing. My plan was to use the new dual-band as the main, move the Snow to the printer, and use the Express for AirTunes. But now I realize that I'm only able to print and use Airtunes on the main and not the guest network. Since the Snow and Express are b/g, are they going to slow down the main network? I am seeing these as clients in Airport Utility, which I didn't expect. If so, is there a better way to set this up than what I am attempting to do?
I've got the radio mode set to 802.11n only (5GHz) - 802.11b/g/n. Am I able to set it up so that the n capable clients use the 5GHz band and the b/g clients use the 2.4GHz band so that they don't slow down the n connection, or would I even want to do this?
Thanks!!!

The jre is 14,872 KB (j2re-1_4_2_03-windows-i586-p.exe).
If you silently install the JRE then then licensing doesn't appear to be an issue (no dialogs appear). See http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/docs/guide/plugin/developer_guide/silent.html. Silent installation is perfect for us since our customers are very nontechnical and would be very confused about the JRE installation dialogs.
My main question remains: what is the best way to incorporate the installation of the JRE into an existing product. I solved the above-mentioned error 1500 problem by asynchronously starting the silent JRE installation after my product is installed, i.e., after the InstallFinalize step. This results in a bad human interface: the user is prompted with the final dialog with a "finish" button. However the mouse cursor is showing an hourglass intermittenly (kind of like when you logon to Windows after a reboot), for 25-40 seconds after this dialog first appears, until the JRE is installed. I have got to figure out a way to synchronously install the JRE while the user waits.
I chose to do a private install (search for "private" in http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4/pdf/plugin-dev-guide-1.4.2.pdf), which works, but I haven't yet figured out the best way to uninstall this JRE -- it appears that simply deleting the directory tree might be the correct way to uninstall.
I have searched a lot of newsgroups for the "generally accepted" method to incorporate some Java programs into a product (i.e., how to install the JRE). I have not found anything. My conclusion is that I must be doing something that isn't done that often, either that or I've taken a wrong turn.

V. Slow transfer speeds with new dual band Airport Extreme

I have a new Airport Extreme (late 2009, dual band, full 'N' spec) which I am using to replace an older Airport Extreme (early 2008, 5Ghz, 'draft' N).
I have a USB disk attached and was interested in benchmarking the transfer speed of the new Extreme, compared to the previous version. The results are puzzling / alarming.
Shown below are transfer speeds (file copied to the attached USB drive) under different connection standards (2.4Ghz / 5Ghz & a/b/g/n)
'Old' Airport Extreme
5Ghz - 'draft' N : ~5-7 Mb/sec
'New' Airport Extreme
2.4Ghz - b/g : ~3-5 Mb/sec
5.0Ghz - a : ~3-7 Mb/sec
5.0Ghz - N : ~200 Kb/sec
Hence transfer speeds appear to collapse when I try to make use of the 'N' spec with the latest Extreme. I have tried altering items such as - wide channels (on / off), interference robustness (on / off), 5Ghz channel (manual, instead of auto), with no upside.
I seem to be at the point of concluding that either
1. I have a 'broken' Airport Extreme
2. The WiFi card on my early 2008 iMac (which implements I guess the 'draft' N standard) is 'incompatible' with new the Airport Extreme under a 'N' connection.
Any thoughts ?

Since all devices in my wireless network are capable of latest 802.11n protocol, I really do not need older and slower 802.11a/b/g protocols. To achieve above 200 Mbit/sec, 5GHz band with wide channel option turned on is really necessary. Thus I really wish I can turn off the 2.4GHz radio band (seems Apple has set this band as default) of my new dual band Airport Extreme to avoid unwanted bandwidth degradation. Unfortunately this is not possible with radio mode setting in Airport Utility.
The best I can do to force connection with 5GHz radio band (with quite consistent result) is as follows:
On Airport Extreme through [Airport Utility>Wireless] :
Radio Mode: 802.11n only (5Ghz) - 802.11b/g/n
More Options>Wireless Network Option>Transmit Power: 100%
More Options>Wireless Network Option>Use Wide Channels: checked
More Options>Wireless Network Option>5 GHz Network Name:
checked and same network name with extra suffix "(5 GHz)"
On 27" iMac through [System Preferences>Network>AirPort>Advanced>AirPort]:
Preferred Networks:
Create only one profile in Preferred Networks for the above network name with suffix "(5GHz)"
Uncheck the option [Remember networks this computer has joined] to ensure there is only one profile under Preferred Networks .
Once all above settings are done, restart Airport Extreme in Airport Utility. Your computer should connect wirelessly to the base station through 5GHz band after booting most of the time. Even when it is not occasionally, simply go to the Airport icon in main menu bar and click on the network name with suffix "(5GHz)" in dropped-down list to connect manually. With all these settings, I have achieved 300 Mbit/sec bandwidth on my iMac most of the time for fast Time Machine backup.
How I wish feature for better radio mode control by end user will be implemented in next update of Airport Utility. Apple should trust end user's brain better than artificial intelligence (or ignorance ?) in wireless network implementation. Wireless traffic between the two radio bands and among various wireless devices should be segregated specifically in Airport Utility by end users whenever dual band Airport base stations are in use.

Dual Band Network Problems; Air Disk, Air Tune = AIR ****

Here is my set-up; I have a dual band network. I have my MacBook Pro on the 5GHZ side and everything else on the 2.4GHZ side. I have an external Hard Drive, which houses my iTunes Library in Apple Lossless format, connected to the USB port on the Extreme and I also have an Airport Express attached to it, to transmit the 2.4GHZ network.
Here is my problem; when I play files, the MacBook Pro has to read the files wirelessly from the external HD on the 5GHZ network and then send it to the Airport Express on the 2.4GHZ network. I notice sometimes that the speed of the music speeds up slightly. Like the playback is trying to catch up or something. I only notice it when I play large files, i.e., the Apple Lossless files. It never happens with 128 AAC files or other compressed files and it also never happens when I hardwire the laptop to my audio system via USB cable. I also notice the the time it takes to start, stop and change tracks is considerably longer
Can all this wireless stuff be the cause of my problem?
Macbook Pro 15" Core 2 Duo 2.16 GHZ Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Reading I think you are confusing two things. There is Ethernet (hardwired) and there is Wireless.
Ethernet:
The TC has three Gigabit ethernet ports on the back that can give you 10, 100 or 1,000 Gbit/s speed depending what devices you connect. You don't need to configure this as it's auto sensing and negotiates the highest possible speed.
Wireless
This is when you don't have any wires going between your devices and you have different wireless speeds from a/b/g to n. The wireless network will always be only as fast as the fastest device you connect, ie you connect a wireless g device to a wireless n network it will slow down to g. So it's adviceable to have a separate g and n network which you can do with your two base stations.
So back to your case if you hardwire your DirecTV and PS3 into the TC and then the TC back to your AEBS you don't need to worry about them, they will auto negotiate with their Ethernet ports.
Your MBP can then connect wireless to your TC using wireless n network. if you have other wireless g devices suggest you set them up to connect to your AEBS.

Dual-band networking issues

Hi, all. I'm seeing a few posts on spotty internet connectivity with Airport Extremes and I wanted to add my voice to the list, with some more details, perhaps my situation can help us all decipher this issue.
My setup:
iMac running Leopard 10.5.7 (and home to my media library) with n-class Airport
Macbook Pro running Tiger 10.4.11 with g-class Airport
Apple TV with n-class Airport
Dual-band Time Capsule with 7.4.2 firmware
iPhone running 3.0 with g-class Airport
Until recently I've had what I thought was a pretty standard setup: my Time Capsule ran one wireless network, with WPA2 protection. The network was private, but I had a guest network enabled as well. In addition to the equipment I've listed above, I have an older g-class Airport Express connected to a radio (not extending the network).
I started noticing this issue when the Time Capsule had the 7.4.1 firmware. It's similar to what other people are describing: sometimes internet connectivity would simply stop, or slow down drastically. It had the appearance of, say, a DNS lookup problem: my browser would spin, searching for the server. But this was only on my iMac: if I switched to my Macbook, running Tiger and connecting at g, everything would be fine.
At first I thought the firmware was the problem: after upgrading to 7.4.2 the problem seemed to go away for a couple of days, but then it reappeared. I also got the impression that somehow Time Machine backups were part of the problem: the slowdowns seemed to coincide with the backups, which always seemed to take a long time.
A few days ago, I finally went into the Airport administrator and tried to divine what was going on. I'd had an amber flashing light for weeks but that had gone away with the firmware update: it seemed to have no effect on connectivity. I turned off the Guest Network: no change. But then I gave the 5 GHz band a unique network name (instead of sharing the regular network's name), and connected my iMac to the new name. Bingo! That has seemed to get the job done! My internet connectivity has not wavered in the few days since.
But it has created a second problem:
Under the old setup, all my devices connected to the same network name. Under the NEW setup, my iMac and my Apple TV can connect to the separate n-only network but my iPhone can't. Which means that I lose the ability to control my Apple TV with the iPhone remote program. Right now I've switched the Apple TV back to the original network, but I fear I'm losing bandwidth because of it, connecting the ATV at g speed.
This can't be the way it was envisioned...is there some other setting or device that might be causing the issues with the one-network-name setup?

go into networks and airport and preferred and delete it.

How do I use the remote app on a dual band network?

There are 2 routers in my home. One is dual band (SSID: NETGEAR49-5G). This one is being used as a 5GHz access point while the other (SSID: NETGEAR49) is being used as a 2.4GHz extender. However I can't use the Remote app to control my iTunes library, regardless of which router I connect to. I can't even use a passcode to add my library because I just keep getting an error saying I entered the wrong code. Strangely everything's fine if I turn off the 2.4GHz router, but I don't want to have to keep doing that. Is there any way I can configure the two routers so I can use the Remote app and other network-based services??

Hi,
I can tell you how it works on my iPhone.
I click the Messages icon to open it.
I click the box with pencil icon top right for New Message
I start to type the name of the person I want to contact in the "To" spot.
(Alternatively use the Blue + icon and select direct from Contacts list)
I select the full name of Contact from any list if there are multiples.
Once the person and their Contact option is selected I click on the text field at the bottom of screen
Using the "keyboard" I type the Message and then the Send button.
9:45 PM Saturday; June 9, 2012
Please, if posting Logs, do not post any Log info after the line "Binary Images for iChat"
 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Lion 10.7.4)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.7.4),
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

Dual Band (5ghz and 2.4 ghz) Wireless Network Config and Dropped Connection

Hi, I have an Airport Extreme (802.11N) and a Motorola WR850G (802.11A/B/G) that I'm trying to connect in a dual band setup - but something in my setup is causing the Airport to drop it's connection (before the connection is dropped - everything works great). After I lose connectivity, both routers show up in my list of wireless networks, the light stays green, but I don't have local or internet access. When I try to reconnect, the log on times out. Also, the Airport isn't displayed in the Airport Utility (light is green on the airport itself though). Unplugging and resetting the Airport Allows all computers on the network to connect locally and to the internet for a few hours until the connection drops again. While it is up and running, I have no problems streaming movies off the connected Airdisk, navigating the internet, and connecting both N and G devices to the network.
I'd love to hear from you if you've gotten a similar setup to work, and if possible, have you provide the settings you used to make this work. I've looked around quite a bit and haven't seen a detailed description of the process (even from the Apple documentation). Also, advice from anyone would be greatly appreciated since my wireless networking knowledge is pretty basic.
My configuration:
Time Warner cable modem connected to the Airport's WAN port. WR850G connected by LAN port to Airport's LAN port. Bridge Mode check box selected on WR850G. Airport setup for 802.11n (5Ghz). Unique SSIDs to determine which network is 'N'. Same password for both networks. My Firmware and utilities are up to date.
Computers/Devices on Network:
Two Macs with Airport Extreme N cards. A Vista PC with a D-link N card (only compatible with 2.4 Ghz so it connects to the G network). A Vista PC with a GB ethernet card connected to the Airport Extreme. Various other G devices like iPod touches and an old iBook. Airdisk connected to the Airport Extreme.
Thanks,

I removed the second router (Moto wr850g) and everything seems to be working smoothly. It must be some settings on that one that are causing the problem, but I haven't been able to get it configured correctly. I noticed there were some IP conflicts with my wireless wanting to use the old Moto router IP and trying to assign my Mac an IP from that router. Does anyone know specifically what needs to be disabled on a router in bridge mode? Since I have a third party router there aren't any handy wizards that can configure it for me.
Thanks again

Can you add new AirPort Express Base Station Simultaneous dual-band 802.11n with a 1st Gen time capsule network

Hi
Has anyone tried using the AirPort Express Base Station with a first generation Time Capsule and used it to extend their network, while still being able to use the Simultaneous dual-band 802.11n on their network?
Thanks in advance

The first generation Time Capsule was not a simultaneous dual band device.
If you add the "new" AirPort Express to the network and configure it to "Extend a wireless network", it will extend the one single band signal that it is receiving from the Time Capsule.
In other words, the AirPort Express will not extend simultaneous dual bands in this type of setup...since it can only "extend" what it receives. You would need a simultaneous dual band Time Capsule if you want that type of functionality.

Creating a Dual Band Network

I have the newer Airport Extreme Base Station, with N capability, before it supported Dual Band. I also have an Airport Express. What I want to do is broadcast a network in my home with 5GHz for my Macbooks and a second network on the AE at 2.4GHz for everything else. I've tried many times to get this to work, and I keep getting the error message that the DHCP overlaps with the AEBS. What should I do? I know this can work somehow.

Hello Rad Mac. Welcome to the Apple Discussions!
Setting up a "dual band" network is described in the Designing AirPort Networks document, starting on page 48. Please check out the document and post back if you still have any questions.

Setting up/extending a Dual Band network

Any recommendations regarding dual-band vs. the n/b/g blended network? Is it possible to set up a dual-band network on an AEBS-n and also boost the "n" side of the network with an AX-n? I've searched the discussions but have not found much on the topic, other than some comments regarding iMacs not liking "n" or 10.5.3 or airport utility 5.3.1 or maybe the "automatic" channel setting or possibly something else.....
A little history:
We have 3 iMacs (new 3.06 Ghz, 17" late 2006, 20" late 2006), 3 MacBook Pros, and one dual-2.5 Ghz G5 that all shared internet access through a Motorola modem/Comcast cable via an Airport Extreme Base Station b/g. The AEBS was in the basement and configured as a WDS with an Airport Express b/g that served to extend the network's reach to the second floor and remodeled kitchen (new steel beams). This setup has worked nearly flawlessly for years until recently, when both of the older iMacs started experiencing intermittent airport signal drops--supremely annoying. The modem seemed to work fine, however, and the AEBS light stayed green and the G5 and MBPs weren't having issues (some running Tiger, some Leopard).
I thought that upgrading to Leopard (erase and install) might take are of any weird settings or corrupt files and thus improve the iMacs' airport connections, so I upgraded the first one, and it seemed to fix the problem--no drops of airport or internet for several hours. I then decided it was time to upgrade the network as well--swapping out the old b/g AEBS and AX for a new AEBS-n and AX-n. (Yes, I know, not too smart to change both the OS and the network at the same time ... but here we are.) Since the G5 in the basement can't connect to an "n" network, I decided to set up a Dual Band network with the AX-n acting as the old AX b/g had to extend the network.
This is what it looked like:
cable modem ------>
AEBS-n ------> wireless to Airport Extreme-n ---> wireless to older iMacs and MBPs
AX b/g (connected via ethernet to AEBS) -----> wireless to the G5
This worked, sort of, in that all but the G5 could all pick up and join either the "n" or the b/g network. Problem was, the network was very unstable-- the airport signal would suddenly drop out for no reason then recover, or the airport icon would show a full 4 bars but have no internet connection. This was happening on all of the macs, perhaps more so on the two older iMacs, while the modem itself showed no change in status, and the AEBS-n light would remain green. When I removed the AX-N from the setup to see if that was causing a hiccup, the drops were a little less frequent but the kitchen iMac was marooned with 1, maybe 2 bars in the airport icon and the signal strength on the second floor was decreased. Oh, and the drops continued to happen. I've now reverted to a b/g-compatible network, which is better, but still hasn't prevented all of the drops.
My questions are:
1-Any ideas about why the airport is acting wonky? Are 'n' networks proving to be more problematic than the old ones?
2-Is it possible to use an AX-n to extend the range of the "n" side of a dual band network?
2-If so, any ideas for improving the network's reliability?
3-If not, will going back to a b/g-compatible network negate the supposed speed benefits of 802.11n? Would I go back to using a WDS setup then?
I've tried so many different settings, combinations, configurations trying to get this up and working, that I'm ready to pull my hair out. Any help will be greatly appreciated!
Message was edited by: wiswic

Thanks for your reply. Looking back at my sorry attempt at a diagram, I realize I wasn't clear about a couple of things. The modem is connected via ethernet to the AEBS-n. The AEBS-n is connected via ethernet to the AE-b/g, which provides wireless coverage to the G5 and others. So far, everything is in the basement.
We live in an old house--no way to set up the network via ethernet--and so rely on the airport network to provide internet access to the computers on the first and second floors. In our old network, I had an AE-b/g as a WDS remote located in the kitchen that provided the first and second floors with their internet connection.
When I upgraded our network, I set up the new AEBS-n as a 5.0 Ghz an-only network (create a network/allow network to be extended) and connected the old AE b/g to it (bridge mode/create a network) to provide wireless internet for the G5. The iMac in the kitchen could hardly pick up the "n" signal at all, and it could receive only a weak signal from the b/g network. Lots of dropped airport signals and also lots of dropped internet connections. Strangely enough, the MacBookPros on the second floor could pick up both signals pretty strongly, but they, too, had lots of drops. The 2nd floor iMac was even worse than the kitchen iMac--spotty reception at best, and lots of drops. The G5 and the iMac in the basement, meanwhile, were fine--strong signal and only intermittent drops.
Hoping to extend the reach of the "n" network and thereby eliminate the drops, I added an AE-n to it (bridge mode/extend the network) and put it where the old b/g had been. This boosted the "n" signal to the kitchen and 2nd floor, but the drops seemed to become more frequent and for longer durations. Perhaps this was merely coincidence, but it made me question whether adding the AE-n in a dual-band network was advisable. Not finding any info that specifically addressed that scenario, I turned to the discussion forum for guidance.
Further research leads me to believe that the iMacs' issues may be more due to their being iMacs in the first place, but I was still left with a very unreliable dual band network for the rest of the Macs. Reconfiguring the AEBS-n and AE-n as an n (b/g compatible) network has led to far fewer drops, but like you, I'd prefer to keep my "an" devices separated from the G5 to make use of their higher wireless speed.
So....I guess what I need to know is whether anyone else been having so many dual band dropouts? Have you had any success in eliminating them? Have you successfully extended the "n" side of their dual band without adversely affecting stability?
As long as I know this isn't a lost cause, I'll give it another go and keep tweaking settings in hopes of finding a stable setup....

Time Machine: External Hard Drive connected to a dual-band network

I currently have a dual-band network setup using a 1TB Time Capsule (wireless-n only) and an AEBS (wireless b/g) in bridge mode.
My unibody MBP and ATV utilize the Time Capsule, while an older Macbook and MacMini utilize the AEBS. I have Time Machine configured on the MBP to use the Time Capsule for backup.
I have connected an external 500GB hard drive to the AEBS for the purpose of using Time Machine for the Macbook and MacMini. The Airport Utility shows the external drive connected to the AEBS, but when I try to configure Time Machine for the Macbook and MacMini I am only allowed to select the Time Capsule as the destination. Sorry for the long post. Any help would be greatly appreciated

Assuming you have the square Extreme (not the UFO-style), you can use an external USB HDD with it.
Time Machine backups to AirDisks (e.g. USB HDD attached to Extreme) is unsupported, but has been successful by some. As well, once you decide to move any old TM backups (HDD connected directly to the Mac) to an AirDisk, you cannot continue backing up to your previous TM backup. The format it saves to vs. a local HDD is different. The folder structure you see becomes a sparsebundle/disk image via the AirDisk.
If you are interested in proceeding with your plan, check these links out:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=8225748&#8225748
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=8650723&#8650723
http://jamesshore.com/Blog/How-to-Accelerate-Time-Machine.html

Dual band slow network

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