My Working Solution: 1 Time Capsule + 2 AEBs on One Network

Question

Over the past two weeks, I have probably spent 10+ hours messing around with one Time Capsule and 2 AEBs in an attempt to create a single roaming network. I tried everything and I searched for hours on the forums for solutions. Thanks to many others for posting tid bits here and there, I was at least able to try things I hadn't tried before. In the end, I never found a perfect answer and I even spent time on the phone with Apple. Finally, after coming close to throwing every one of these devices at the wall, I took at step back and waited a few days and came up with a solution that works perfectly for me - as of today, it's been three days without any glitch. Keep in mind though that I have the luxury of having a wired house and I have the option of running ethernet cable from one device to the other as my mechanism for "extending" the network. What I needed was the ability to walk around the house freely with wireless devices such as our iPhone, MacBook Air and my work laptop...
What I don't know is whether or not the approach I took has performance issues or if it's supported by Apple or if I am in for a sudden surprise so take my solution for what it's worth... Here is what I did...
*General Advice for Clearing out AEB/TC Settings*
- Power device on - wait till it goes through a solid and then a slow blinking amber light
- Once the device has powered up, do a hard reset (new models - push reset for 5 seconds until it blinks rapidly
- Wait until the full power up cycle completes - slow blinking amber light
- Unplug the device, wait a few seconds and plug back in, waiting until full cycle
I can not stress how important above is - just doing a hard reset will NOT clear out all your settings and you will be left with random crap that could impact your setup. This was one of the key pieces I was missing and a great apple tech helped me out
Also - start simple... no printer hookup, no extra network devices, just one computer, one TC/AEB and the internet. Add on from there. Based on this, I setup things as follows
1. Time Capsule - verified internet, etc
2. AEB #1 - again verified internet, etc.
3. AEB #2
Finally, the latest TC/AEB updates provided by Apple did appear to help - not sure exactly how but the process of setting up my 2nd AEB was easier and I ran into many less issues...
*Internet Solution:*
- Comcast Cable Modem
- Hooked up directly to the WAN port of my Time Capsule
- DHCP based solution, per Comcast setup
*Time Capsule*
- Version 7.3.1
- Acts as my main Hub, DNS Server and Router
- Name: used three words all separated with - (no spaces). Ex: my-time-capsule
- Wireless Mode
-- Create a wireless Network
-- Network Name: Z-Autobahn
-- Yes to Allow network to be extended
-- 802.11n only (5 GHZ)
-- Security WPA2 Personal
-- Under Options: Changed Multicast to 24Mbps
- Internet
-- Used Ethernet, DHCP as Comcast requires
-- Connection Sharing: Share a public IP Address
- DHCP
-- Leveraged default network / submasks 10.0.1.1 as my router, dishing out 10.0.1.2 and beyond
-- Reser*ved two DHCP reservations - one for each AEB 10.0.1.2 and 10.0.1.1
*AEB #1*
Here is the key difference - I did NOT use WDS or the Extend Network option. I had problem after problem with these options and although I can not confirm, I believe both of these leverage wireless to extend your range vs. ethernet. I also believe this is the reason folks say to NOT use the WAN port with this type of configuration
Base Station
- Named similar to TC: my-aeb-mb (where mb was a location identifier)
- WAN port is hooked up directly to one of the LAN ports of my Time Capsule
- Wireless Mode
-- Create a wireless Network (NOT WDS or Extend)
-- Network Name: Z-Autobahn (same as TC settings)
-- Yes to Allow network to be extended
-- 802.11n only (5 GHZ)
-- Security WPA2 Personal (exact same security setup and password)
-- Under Options: Changed Multicast to 24Mbps
- Internet
-- Used Ethernet and Manually
-- IP Address: 10.0.1.2 (matches what I reserved from the DHCP settings of time capsule)
-- Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0 (vs. default 255.255.0.0)
-- DNS Server 10.0.1.1
-- Connection Sharing: off (Bridge Mode)
*AEB #2*
I followed the exact same process as AEB #1 with the exception of the following 2 settings
- Name: my-aeb-lr
- IP Address: 10.0.1.3 (matches what I reserved from DHCP settings of time capsule)
*Other Random Thoughts*
Prior to setting up above, I experienced a ton of issues - network would drop, an AEB would disappear, random instability, you name it. Above setup has worked well for a few days now.
I also have a bit of a more complex setup - there is actually a full switch running in between the TC and the AEBs but this should be irrelevant. I just happen to have a full wired house. I am sure someone will ask my the **** I even borrowed with above - the answer is simple. Ports are great when you know exactly where your computer or network device is going to be BEFORE your house is built.
All my machines (with the exception of my work laptop) are setup with a WINS workgroup called "workgroup" so that I can share between my macs and my pcs. You don't need to mess with this if you are all mac.
*Quick Note on Windows XP*
By default, Windows XP does NOT support WPA2 which means you can't use a true 802.11n solution at 5ghz. You can download a hot fix for SP2 from Microsoft. The KB article is: 893357 and can be downloaded from here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/893357. This is NOT an issue with Windows Vista.
Finally - I am not a network expert but I work in the SW industry. I would love to get thoughts from someone that is really experienced in networking to help me understand if I did something that is screwed up. Things seem to work for me.

Answer 1

I realized I only used the abbreviation AEB vs. Airport Extreme. Caught this after the 15 minute edit restriction. Added in case folks are searching by Airport Extreme. In addition, the solution I setup is a Roaming Network solution vs. "one network". Enjoy!