How do i...airport/ethernet/wifi/extend

Question

I have an express N in my living room that is being extended from my extreme N base station.
I am not getting very fast speeds in my living room, and i am wondering if it is because it is getting a weak signal due to my concrete walls being very thick.
would it benefit my network if I have a port open on my living room switch and gave the express a dedicated LAN line, so it wouldnt have to resend the weak signal from the base station?
My switch is an 8-port gigabit switch, so I have that going for me if it helps...
if this WILL work, how does the express need to be reconfigured so that the network is still extended so i can roam from room-to-room without drop of signal?
thanks in advance..

Answer 1

Concrete definitely will pose a problem for the transmission of Wi-Fi signals and, most likely, the reason you are getting poor bandwidth performance with your current setup.
As you have mentioned, one alternative would be to reconfigure your network for roaming. In a roaming network, you will need as a minimum an Ethernet backbone to connect your base stations to.
To setup an 802.11n AirPort Extreme Base Station (AEBSn) as a roaming network:
o Network configuration: DSL/Cable Modem or Internet Router > (Ethernet cable) > [WAN] AEBSn#1 [LAN] > (Ethernet cable) > [LAN] AEBSn#2 [LAN] > (Ethernet cable) > [LAN] AEBSn#X
o Setup the AEBSn connected to the Internet to "Share a public IP address."
Internet > Internet Connection > Connection Sharing: Share a public IP address
o Setup the remaining AEBSn(s), as a bridge.
Internet > Internet Connection > Connection Sharing: Off (Bridge Mode)
o For each AEBSn in the roaming network:
+ Connect to the same subnet of the Ethernet network
+ Provide a unique Base Station Name
+ The Network Name should be identical
+ If using security, use the same encryption type (WEP, WPA, etc.) and password.
+ Make sure that the channel is set at least three channels apart from the next AEBSn.
(ref: See pages 40-41 in Designing AirPort Networks.)