Extra Antenna on Airport Extreme
My present Snow Airport does not give me full coverage in my house - I have to be relatively near it to get good signal (i.e. - 1 or 2 rooms away and not upstairs).
My question is this - if I buy an Airport Extreme with an extra Antenna (e.g. Dr. Bott Omni antenna), does plugging in the antenna into the airport turn the airports internal antenna off? Given the short lead on the Antenna, I'm thinking that I could site the Extreme BS downstairs and run the Antenna through the ceiling to upstairs. This would use the BS's antenna for downstairs and the external Antenna for upstairs - would this work?
Would I be better off buying an Airport Extreme BS and an Airport Express instead? I've heard third party routers are cheaper - can they act as remote stations just as easily? By the way, I only have standard airport card in my G3 iBook. My G3 iMac is cabled to the the Airport.
Many thanks for all your help.
Shane,
It might help to relocate your base station a short distance to avoid metal being in between (pipes, ductwork). I especially had a problem with a bathroom with a cast iron tub, medicine cabinet, etc. being between two rooms.
You might also want to verify that you have the latest firmware actually uploaded into the base station, as well as the software. A couple of times I noticed that I downloaded such things but never followed through to completion and the installers were sitting unused in my Utilities folder.
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http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1365
The first obvious thing to try is to move the AirPort Extreme as far away as possible from the headphones. You can use virtually any length of Ethernet cable to physically connect the AirPort Extreme to your modem.
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I have had an airport extreme card for awhile. I went to a apple authorized parts store ad said I wanted to do bluetooth on my computer and I just got the part today. All I got was this little antenna. Was I suppose to get another card like my airport card? I ask because I plugged in the antenna and in my system pro filer under bluetooth it does not show anything listed. If all I need is the antenna how do I set up the bluetooth then?Which G5 do you have?
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I would like to extend the range of my Airport Extreme. I ordered a D-Link antenna from MacMall with their assurance that it was compatible with Airport Extreme, but I find that the connector from the antenna does not match the jack on the back of my Airport Extreme.
Is there an adaptor that will allow the D-Link antenna to connect? Or can anyone recommend another antenna that is compatible with Airport Extreme?
My local Apple Store had nothing in stock and was no help at all, even though the manual for the Airport Extreme (bought 6 months ago) says that's where I can go for an antenna to extend the range.
Thanks for any help,
Peter Bickelmannneptune2000 wrote:
This is patently not true. There is a jack on the
back of the Airport Extreme (the round model) for an
external antenna, and the user's manual that came
with it clearly states that an external antenna can
be purchased to extend the range of the device.
Read the posting, dude, and read the title of the Discussion Forum, "AirPort Extreme (802.11n)":
and maybe re-read it:
No external antenna can be hooked up to an Apple Airport Extreme Base Station (802.11n). The AEBSn uses multiple internal antennas.
I repeat: the AEBSn CANNOT use external antennas. Period.
OK, so back to the original question -- why does Apple Store's site state specifically: "With this AirPort Extreme Base Station model you can extend the range of your wireless network by adding an Apple-approved omnidirectional or directional external antenna." and " External antenna port available on selected models. For use with Apple-approved antennas only; antennas sold separately. " and the title on the page is "AirPort Extreme Base Station (with modem and antenna port)" (http://tinyurl.com/yq3wmz)
Does anyone know specifically whether or not you can add an antenna, and if so, which one, and where to get it? I searched on Apple's site and couldn't find any antennas . . .
It just feels like this is getting extremely difficult, when Apple has always been extremely simple . . .
Any help would be welcome!
Thanks!
susan -
I have recently moved to a larger house and find that my Airport Extreme can no longer provide reliable coverage to remote locations within the house.
I would really appreciate your suggestions for a reliable, reasonably priced antenna that would extend the Airport Extreme's range.
Thanks for the help.Would the Dr. Bott's ExtendAIR Omni cut my bandwidth in half like a regular expander.
An antenna is a passive device. It's used to focus the wireless signal in certain directions, depending on it's design. It does not however put any additional energy into the broadcast - it just takes whatever energy is being put into it and concentrates that in a specific direction. For omni antennas, the energy that is normally sent straight down and straight up is focused into a horizontal plane, extending the reach of the wireless device horizontally.
With the AEBS, if you can imagine, the internal antenna pattern is a sphere with the AEBS being in the center of that sphere. Omni-directional antennas patterns are more like a donut, extending farther than the AEBS's sphere, but only in a single dimension.
Since bandwidth is dependent on signal strength, the farther you can extend the range of the signal, the more likely you will still have higher data rates farther away from the base station. Antennas, are typically, rated in dBi. The AEBS is pretty much an isotropic antenna, and thus has a 0 dBi...and the Dr. Bott antenna is + 3.5 dBi. The higher the dBi, the more "sensitive" the antenna (in a particular direction.)
On the other hand, boosters can actually increase the strength of the signal being transmitted. The AEBS transmission is around 32 mW. Boosters come in a variety of strengths, typically between 100 & 500 mW. -
Is there any antenna for airport express?
I think i´m having problemas with the signal of my airport express and all the readings i made always refer antennas for airport extreme base station.
My question is, if there is any antenna for airport express that don´t needs an extreme base station.
Thanks
Ricardo
Pentium IV Windows XP ProTwo quick things to check using AirPort Utility on both devices:
On your "main" base station
Open AirPort Utility - click Manual Setup
Click the Wireless tab/label located just below the row of icons
There must be a check mark next to "Allow this network to be extended"
Click Update to save your changes.
If you don't see this option, you likely have an older AirPort Extreme that does not support the "extend" feature. Please clarify on the version that you have
On your AirPort Express
Open AirPort Utility - click Manual Setup
Click the Wireless tab
Wireless Mode = Extend a wireless network
Wireless Name = Same name as your main network
Check mark next to "Allow wireless clients"
Wireless Security = Same setting as your main router
Wireless Password = Same password as your main network
Confirm Password
Click Update to save settings
If you do not see the "Extend a wireless network setting", you may have an older AirPort Express, or if you are sure that you have a newer 802.11n model, try holding down the option key while you click on the selection box to see if the "Extend" setting will appear.
Assuming no major obstructions between the main router and area that needs more wireless coverage, a good starting location for the Express would be a point that is approximately half the distance between the main router and the area that needs more coverage.
As I said, this feature works very well if major obstructions do not come into play. -
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What is the best external antenna for extending the range of my Airport Extreme? My studio is in an old metal building and I want to send the single to my house which is about 50' away. The metal blocks the signal so I believe I need some kind of directional antenna. Any advise?
Here are a few you can check out ...
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I have one AirPort Extreme base station running in our school, I just placed an order on 2 more.
I'm going to make one network of the 3 of them, all will get their uplink thru ethernet cable.
I've read that each station can support 50 users, and we won't have more then 70 wireless users at the same time. Will this load balance between the units so each user get connected to the station closest to them? Is station connections based on signal strenght?
The base stations will be placed in difference parts of the building, in a triangular fashion, but lets say all 70 users would go and stand directly below 1 station, will the excess 20 get connected to the closest one of the other 2?
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Airport Extreme + ext. antenna or Extreme + Express?
My current Belkin 54 wireless router range is not enough to fully cover the entire house due to walls material and thickness.
Hence I am looking at either buying an Airport Extreme and adding an external antenna (i.e. Dr. Bott) to boost the signal, or building a network with an Extreme and several Expresses.
(this is a European set up and hence the Airport radio output power is reduced, 15 dbm, to comply with European regulations)
Would anyone have experienced a similar situation and hence could comment on the pro's and con's?
Also, would anyone know the impact on thruput when adding several Expresses, due to WDS protocol overhead?
ThanksI couldn't give you technical details, but I know that using WDS is slower than not using WDS. The reason, as far as I understand, is that in order for WDS to work, it needs to split the transmission rate into 1/2 so that 1/2 of the transmission is for sending and the other 1/2 is for receiving. So, if you theoretically are supposed to get 54bps then you'll get 27bps. Don't quote me on the technical details. The idea, I know however, is correct.
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The literature on this topic is sparse. I have an Airport Extreme base station. I will like to "extend the signal" so that it is stronger in part of house. I would like to buy a product that will do this. Questions:
I think this is called "bridging".
1. Can I do this with the Airport Express as a 2nd unit??
2. Does the Airport Extreme work with other WDS 2nd units like Netgear?
3. Is there a darned manual to tell you how to configure the settings on BOTH stations?
Thanks.How new is your Extreme? I ask because if your Extreme supports 802.11n, the setup process will be greatly simplified.
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hi all.
I have an Apple AirPort Extreme (802.11n). On the back I have 3 Ethernet ports. All the 3 ports are used (one for an Ethernet Printer, One is connected to my computer and one is connected to my wife's computer. I need an additional Ethernet port for a music server. I have no idea of how to extend the Ethernet ports number.
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David - CanadaHello David Gershon1. Welcome to the Apple Discussions!
You could simply add a multi-port Ethernet switch to any of the 802.11n AirPort Extreme Base Station's (AEBSn) LAN ports to increase the number of available ports. An example would be the Linksys EZXS55W. -
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