Extending Wi-Fi Upstairs?

Hello!
I have the Apple extreme and modem hooked up down in my basement. I get good Wi-Fi upstairs, but not in the back bedrooms. If I purchase Apple express, would I be able to extend Wi-Fi with it upstairs?
Thanks,
Jamie

No one can predict wireless performance in advance, but your chances of a good signal will be greatly improved if you add an AirPort Express to "extend" the wireless network.
As the store about their return policy before you buy in case the Express does not do what you want.
Try locating the Express at the top of the stairs since it can only "extend" the quality of signal that it receives. You may need to experiment a bit with the placement of the Express for best results.

Similar Messages

I have an airport extreme for my main internet connection, an express to listen to music on my home theatre, another express to extend the network upstairs, and one more express for my wireless printer. whats the best way to setup the express stations?

So basically I would like to know if its best to have them setup on "join a wireless network" or "extend a wireless network"
Obviously the one I use to extend the network is setup that way, the other 2 are set on "join a network"
is this the optimal configuration? or should I have them all on "extend a wireless network" ?

There is really no "best" setting here for the AirPort Express devices. If you need more wireless coverage in the area where an Express is located, then it makes sense to configure the Express to "extend" a wireless network.
If you already have good coverage in an area where an Express is located, then the "join" configuration makes sense.
I've yet to meet the first user who felt that he/she had too much wireless signal coverage in their home, but you never know.

Extending WiFi signal upstairs

I have BT Inifinity with Homehub 3. I need to get internet to a new computer in eldest's bedroom upstairs. The signal from the homhub doesn't quite reach.
I spoke to BT and they said get a repeater. They said don't get a powerline adapter.
I have been looking at both particularly the latter with another router plugged in but am still unsure which route to take.
I hope someone can offer some advice as to what th best thing to do to get a decent signal upstaris.
Thanks in advance
Ben
Solved!
Go to Solution.

the_saucerer wrote:
Thanks for your reply. Is it plausible to plug a router into the upstairs powerline adapter?
Do you mean a wireless access point, or something to increase the number of Ethernet connections?
All of the options are discussed on the web page link I gave you.
There are some useful help pages here, for BT Broadband customers only, on my personal website.
BT Broadband customers - help with broadband, WiFi, networking, e-mail and phones.

AX X 2 - second not working - trying to extend network

I have a AX connected to amy router and this works fine connecting to the internet. I also had another AX extending my network upstairs (+ printer connected to it) and they both worked fine. Recently my internet access speed has been not great so I reset both AX. Now the one connected to the router is working fine but when I try to extend the network with the other AX during set up it asks me to switch networks and I have to say yes to proceed but then it does not pick up the main AX so I cannot get it to extend the network.
Any ideas

i advise you to link the express that can not be seen up via ethernet cable, this will make it visible in the airport utility, once the settings have been put back and the WDS set back up, then u can put the ethernet cables + airport express back to the way they were before the reset.

BT Broadband Extender Flex 500 Kit

I have purchased the Flex 500 kit and the Hotspot 500, I don't currently have the WiFi hotspot in use, bu I do have 3 Extenders plugged in. Extender 1 is next to my BT Hub 4 and the BT Fibre to the home modem box, its connected by LAN cable to the H4. Extender 2 is in the same room plugged in to a wall socket but does not have a LAN cable connecting it to the anything yet. Extender 3 is upstairs and is the one I am trying to use. The LAN connection from Extender 3 connects to a laptop (different laptops same issue) and Win7 connects to the H4 but does not connect to the internet, the Win7 Network and Sharing display shows the BT H4 as connected and has an X on the outgoing link to the Internet. If I switch on the laptop WiFi the Win7 network and Sharing display shows everything is fine. So having the luxury of two laptops I am able to prove that at the same time the BT H4 has a working Internet connection if connected by WiFi and does not have a working Internet connection if using the BT Extender LAN connection. All the lights on the Extender plugs are correctly illuminated green. I also have a Laptop connected directly by LAN cable to the H4 and that works fine. By resetiing both Extender plugs, rebooting the Laptop, using Win7 network troubleshooter its sometimes possible to resolve the problem but it always returns it can be hours later, 10 minutes later or when I next power up or unhibernate the laptop. What is also very odd is that I cannot even get to the BT H4 using the URL via the LAN cable when it shows as connected to the H4 and not connected to the internet. Win7 troubleshooter when it doesn't fix the problem (most of the time) replies that it is a DNS resolution issue. Anyone else had this problem.? By reset the BT Extender 'plugs

I am having problems with my Wi-Fi Home Hotspot 500 kit and have to write this on a laptop connected by Wi-Fi to the Home Hub 3 – This is where I am at:
I plugged in both units, and both showed green lights throughout – however, firstly although 2 Android devices and an iPod, which have worked perfectly wirelessly via the Home Hub 3, immediately picked up the BTHomeSpot-6FP none of them would connect despite the Wireless light clearly showing green, nor could I gain internet access on the cabled PC, despite the data light on both units showing green.
A check on BT Hub Manager via this laptop showed on “Home Network – Devices” the two Android devices, the iPod, and the PC all “connected on the “Physical connections” path, but none had Internet connectivity.
I spoke to the Product Support staff on 0808 100 6116 about my problem, and all they did was to put me through to India, where of course they couldn’t assist as my Broadband/Infinity was working perfectly, apart from via my Hot Spot kit!! All they could then offer was the number of the “Wi-Fi Hot Spot Call Centre” but of course this is for commercial BT Wi-Fi Hot Spots and not my kit – the staff member was very helpful as he has the Home Hotspot 500 kit himself, and we ran through some diagnostics, but with no success!
I then looked on the BT Community Forum and noticed this piece about potential problems with 2 wiring loops - https://community.bt.com/t5/Other-Broadband-Queries/BT-Broadband-Extender-Flex-500-Kit/m-p/1225997/h... where it states “you have 2 wiring loops in your home (i.e. two fuse boxes)? If so the adaptors will have problems as they run best on a single loop.” I do have an extension on my property, with a second fuse box, but I never had a problem with my BT Infinity service and connection from this room until now, going right back to the old "dial up" days, and obviously I cannot rewire my property to a single wiring loop!!
I contacted the BT Connected Home Helpdesk, and they offered:
“Please try resetting the Hot Spot 500 Kit as follows. Press and hold the Link button on the Extender Flex for 15 seconds (until all the lights go out momentarily). Push a pin in the reset hole on the Hotspot for 1 second (the Wireless light will go red).Once the Data light on both units has come back on check the connection to your devices again.”
However, although I followed the instructions (again) as I had already tried that I am still having connectivity problems, despite all of the green lights showing on both the extender and the hotspot!
On Thursday the kit worked for about 4 hours from switch on, and then ceased - despite all the green lights being on - so I followed the advice again, and gained access again for several hours. Then it cut off again, and despite green lights, resets and reboots absolutely nothing at all.
When it does work, it appears either as "Network 4" or "Unidentified Network" in the "Network and Sharing Center" on the Ethernet connected PC - can I do anything about this at all, and is a reset the official answer even if it fails with all green lights showing?
Also, a check on Hub Manager, via this laptop, shows both the PC and the hotspot as connected, in "physical connections" when plainly no data passes through!
On Friday I was connected to the internet for about fifteen minutes in the morning, then nothing all day, and it finally came back about 20.00 and was on until I switched off the PC about 22.30, and the Wi-Fi from the hotspot also allowed an iPod to connect – today (Saturday) absolutely no connection at all, despite green lights for everything showing on both units.
The Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit “Network and Sharing Center” page either shows the Hotspot Ethernet cabling as “Network 4” the old name for my network, or “Unidentified Network”, and can show the network as connected to the internet and at the same time not allow any website to open – or when the intermittent signal causes them to stop working the only way back is to restart – which is frustrating as well as time consuming – so if they drop out how can I reconnect service without a restart?!
I e-mailed the BT Connected Home Helpdesk again because of the continued problem, sending them screen prints showing:
All lights on both units are showing green, as they have all day - and the Home Hub clearly shows the hot spot and the Ethernet cabled PC as connected - but the screen print from the Ethernet cabled pc shows No internet Access.
For the Hub Manager to read the pc as "connected" it must be working through my house wiring to obtain this data, and presumably the same applies for it to read the hot spot kit, so data is obviously passing on the reverse path back to the hub for Hub Manager to read it.
But this doesn't explain why I still have no web connectivity - this also still applies to trying to connect Android and Apple products via the hot spot kit, even though the initial data giving BTHomeSpot-6FP appears on their relevant set-up screens
Another problem that I get occasionally is the data light on the Extender Flex being off, despite it being connected straight from the Home Hub, and I would have expected at least that piece working (it is using the new Ethernet cable supplied with the kit).
So far they haven’t replied!!
Sorry about the length of this, but I am totally fed up with the lack of connectivity.
many thanks in anticipation
Allan

Force 5ghz when extending extreme with express

Is there a way to force a 5ghz connection between the new AirPort Extreme and new airport express. When it connects at 5ghz I Get twice the performance with a solid connection. The power went out and now it only connects between the two at 2.4ghz. Please help

If you give a different name to each band, you can try forcing the connection.. but the other problem is apple will mess up what happens at the other end.
Let me explain.
I am running two apple routers.. older models but that doesn't matter.
I name the wireless in the wired router Time Capsule.. TC24ghz and TC5ghz.
I can then select which band I will extend in the upstairs Airport Extreme.
The strange side effect of this, is that upstairs will also create a second band with name TC5ghz but working on 2.4ghz.

Hooking up 2 wrt54g v8 wireless routers

Hello folks. Here is my problem. My brother in law needs a wireless network upstairs and downstairs. So I went out and bought him 2 wrt54g v8 routers and connected one upstairs and tried to connect other one donstairs. No dice. He has a mac pc plugged into router upstairs and I have a cable running to the other router downstairs but I cant get the one downstairs to work at all. What can I do to make this work or what else can I do to extend wireless from upstairs to downstairs and could the mac be causing problems.
Thanks For Help
Bill

Hi.
Both of your Linksys routers have the same IP address (It is 192.168.1.1), when you connect both of them, ofcourse, they will have a conflict. First, you need to change the second router's IP address to =
192.168.1.2 : if you wanted to have file and printer sharing on the computers under Router 1 with Router 2. Do not forget to disable the DHCP server on the 2nd router since all computers will be getting the IP address from the 1st computer. The first router will be connected to Port 1,2,3 or 4 on the 2nd router.
192.168.2.1 : if you wanted to create 2 networks. The first router will be connected only to the Internet Port of the 2nd router.
Dreamers*

Having Network Issues with Multiple ATVs

I've never really had any problems with my ATV on my wireless network (Time Capsule 802.11n 5Ghz only range being extended to my upstairs (3rd floor) via Airport Extreme) until I added my 2nd ATV on the network yesterday. Almost immediately after doing so I got nothing but errors from both ATVs. They won't play any video (Says the format is not recognized) or connect to the iTunes store. I can't even play videos I just watched hours prior. I've tried doing a restore on both ATVs to factory, then reupdating them. I've also unplugged them for several minutes and plugged them back in. Both my Time Capsule & AirPort Extreme are up to date. When I remove 1 of the ATVs and restart the other everything is fine. My network also works with no problem when I leave both ATVs and remove the AirPort Extreme from the equation. I don't NEED the AirPort Extreme but it makes life easier because my printer plugs into it in the upstairs office that Time Capsule doesn't reach - that and the simple fact that I paid a lot of money for my AirPort Extreme when it came out and would like to be able to use it
Running a CAT6 cable to one of the ATVs is not a viable option at the moment so I need to see if I can find a work around using the wireless only. I suspect if I lower my network to the 2.4 Ghz range I won't have any issues but then I'm not getting the most from my internal network.
Basically, I am almost positive I can lower the internal speed of my network and get this to work but I'd really rather not because I'm constantly streaming and moving massive amounts of data across it. My question is, has anyone set up more than one ATV using a similar setup (802.11n 5Ghz range)? If so, did you have any of the same issues or not?
My goal: Be able to use both ATVs on my network with my Time Capsule & AirPort Extreme at the fastest speed available. I need to be able to extend the network with AirPort Extreme because it won't cover my entire home with just the Time Capsule.
Note: My Time Capsule & AirPort Extreme are not the newest models on the market so I do not have the option to do 802.11n 5Ghz with backward compatability to 802.11g. Also, my ATVs are both fairly old, purchased within a month after ATV was first launched. I've only used one until now because I lent the other to a friend until now.
Thanks,
Jason

Your second Apple TV is probably running the initial sync that will fill the entire hard drive with information. While this is happening your network will be crippled. I suggest waiting a day or two until the sync is complete.
Unfortunately, the fact that the second, syncing Apple TV doesn't function correctly when the first Apple TV is plugged in means you may have another problem (the sync should pause when playing media on that particular Apple TV, which means the above problem wouldn't apply). So you may have another problem altogether.

Changing the radio channel on Airport Express

I have set up a network in my house using an airport extreme which is connected to the ethernet. Then I added an airport express to extend the network upstairs. That all worked well but we did not get a good signal in our bedroom. I then bought a second airport express and added that. My computers can see the new express but it does not seem expand the network. I have done quite a bit of reading and the only thing I can see is that I maybe need to change the radio channel of the second express. However I only get the option of changing radio channels on the airport extreme base station. Am I missing something?

When you setup the Airport Express(n) to "extend a wireless network", it extends the exact same settings as the main network. So, the Radio Mode, Security, Password and Channel will all be the same.
It's not possible to separately change the channel on the Express set to "extend".
You might want to experiment with the placement of the Express devices that you have set to extend by moving them closer (or possibly, further) away from the main AirPort Extreme.

IPad 2 Intermittent Wireless Connection

I have a new iPad 2, 64 GB, Wireless and 3G. I had a previous iPad that was the same model but had to be replaced. I did not have this problem with the "old" iPad.
I lose my wireless connectivity. It shows full strength, but the wheel turns constantly and the iPad will frequently fail to complete any form of speed test. It might start the test, but then the speed will drop dramatically and the upload test might not run at all.
This happens at work (Comcast) and at three different home networks (all Verizon). Unfortunately, I could not get the issue to repeat itself while in the Apple Store.
The problem is not the router. At each location (but particularly at my house, work, and my fiancee's house), I could test my iPad against another iPad 2's performance. In each case, only my iPad was suffering the intermittent connectivity issue.
I do not believe that the iPad is defective. In fact, I am on my third iPad 2 since the Apple Store simply gave me a second replacement when I took the iPad in to ask about this issue.
Does anyone have any tips? The IT guys at work are on this issue, but they couldn't figure it out. The Apple Store geniuses were skeptical I was even having the problem, even though I could show them speed test results and emails from my work talking about how my iPad was performing differently than an identical model on the same wireless network.

This was with the iPad 2. There was not really a happy medium we could reach with the router location, because it would have meant sacrificing coverage downstairs if we were to move the router upstairs. Besides, who really wants a router in their bedroom. The WNR2000 is a relatively cheap router and not dual band, so not sure how much of a factor that is in the improved performance. My estimation was not necessarily that the reassuringly expensive Airport Extreme is the best router on the market. Rather my justification is thinking of the number of hours Apple spends testing wi-fi interoperability on the iPad 2, I would hazard a guess that the majority of this testing would focus on the Apple Airport products.
As an insurance policy, I also purchased an Airport Express which I would have used if the need arose to extend the network upstairs. Thanfully this was not the case and I will be taking the Airport Express back to the Apple Store this evening.

Problems connecting airport express a1264 to bt homehub 3 router in bridge mode

I cant seem to get this to work. When i had sky i could bridge my airport express to their router and create a new network so i could extend the network upstairs using another airport express.
I just cant seem to get it to work with the bt homehub 3. can anyone help?

Althrough have no experience of the device this Netgear extender has apparently been used with Home Hub (Ver 2) with success.
Netgear WN1000RP
Every "free Netgear router" i have received from ISPs in the past has been slung in a large box and forgotten.
Much prefer Cisco or Apple with the ISP device simply being a modem.

Adding Nest and Belkin WeMo products

Where is the optimal location to install the Airport base station based on the following:\
I have the following sensors i am trying to connect to my WLAN at home:
2- WeMo light switches (1- kitchen and 1- bedroom)
1- WeMo outlet switch (basement office)
2 - Nest Thermostats (2 - zone heating and cooling)
2 - Nest Smoke/C02 alarms
all running over my Apple Airport base station. I added an Airport extreme so i could extend the WLAN upstairs in our split level home. The Nest products are visible most of the time from my iOS 7 phone & Tablet. Of the 3 WeMo devices only the wall switch shows up, the light switches are "grayed out". Can't seem to find our why they are dropping off.
Overall the house is a log cabin, upper and lower, with cinder block foundation, and is approx 3,000 sqft. My office is in the basement where the Comcast cable enters the house through a splitter to the TV and to my router.

Optimal.....It is an oversimplification to say that wireless devices need to be as close as possible and have line-of-sight to the wireless access point to which they are connected....but it would be ideal if this were possible.
Otherwise, you must work backwards from the ideal and accept the fact that everything will be a compromise of sorts.
You will have a significantly higher quality signal if you can connect the AirPorts together using a wired Ethernet connection, since you lose at least half of the bandwidth on the network when you try to extend wirelessly.
Add in the fact that the ceiling is probably absorbing another 20-25% of the signal and you can see why there won't be much of it left for the extender to extend.
The extender does not "boost" the signal speed, it simply takes what it receives and makes it go further.
To give you a rough idea, my house is not as large as yours....about 2400-2500 square feet all on one basic level, and I use four AirPorts all wired together to provide the wireless network, which delivers a strong, fast wireless signal to any point in the home and out on the patio as well.

Hi i would like to know how to extend the range of my time capsule wifi network(500G 802.11n) using an airport express. i have a double storey home and would like to extend range to my upstairs bedrooms.i have a time capsules network setup via a netgear a

hi i would like to know how to extend the range of my time capsule wifi network(500G 802.11n) using an airport express. i have a double storey home and would like to extend range to my upstairs bedrooms.i have a time capsules network setup via a netgear adsl.i have a second imac upstairs which connects to time capsule wifi network (it is within range as it is directly abobe on 1st floor)
could you tell me how best to set airport express up to extend my wifi range?

Greetings,
This is called an "Extended wireless network".
Read this article for details and steps on how to extend your TimeCapsule's network:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4259
Cheers.

HT1515 I want to extend my existing wireless router upstairs to my new smart TV. I have loaded the AirPort Express onto my desktop Mac. In simple terms do I now just plug the AirPort into a socket halfway between the base WiFi and the Smart TV, or do I

I want to extend my existing wireless router by using the AirPort Express for my Smart TV. Can I just plug in the AirPort halfway between the router and the Smart TV and have no direct connection to a computer or the TV, or do I need to plug in next to the TV and somehow connect the AirPort to the TV (ethernet)?

You are asking several different questions. If you need to store your photos, music, and movies on an external volume, you certainly can. Any externally connected hard disk drive will work, connected either directly to your Mac or to your Time Capsule as a shared volume.
You should not rely upon using that as a backup device though. Although you certainly may use it for both purposes, it is a better idea to have dedicated backup devices for a variety of reasons not limited to redundancy. You would not want to simultaneously lose all your pictures as well as your backup. If they are all on the same device, that could happen. Furthermore, a backup cannot back up the volume on which it is running.
As for adding an Extreme or Express, using its LAN port for your iMac, and then enable Internet sharing so you can effectively use the iMac as a "hotspot", you can do that too, but I am unclear on what benefit you believe this arrangement would convey for you.
An Extreme's Guest network is separate from its Main network; that is the reason for having it.

The Difference between Extending a Wireless network and WDS?

I have an Extreme (n) and an Express (n).
I want to make sure the signal is strong upstairs and share a printer (connected to the express) and use AirTunes. I also may add an external drive to the Extreme.
What's the difference between Extending a Wireless Network and using WDS? Will there be a speed difference?
Message was edited by: J. Christopher Edwards

I think you don't get it
If I have another draft N router that operates at 2.4G and I have only n devices I can still use WDS and it will connect using draft n in the 2.4G band.
If one g device connects to the network will go in mixed mode.
The AEBS will still report 130 Mbps for your n clients and 54 for your g clients.
If the other router is g only obviously you can't connect between the two router at n mode but still the AEBS will be in mixed mode and not in g. The Extreme will still report 130 Mbps for the connected n clients.
I can tell you that because I have actually implemented it am not taking off the documentation.
The same device if I try to use the "extend n network" does not even see the AEBS but will happily keep the n in the WDS mode and though the bandwidth is halved it is still more than g.
In any case enough for this!

Extending Wi-Fi Upstairs?

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