Restrict Airport Express to n only machines/ restrict networked hard drive

Here is what I want to do:
Connect an Airport Express with "N" capabilities to my existing wireless cable gateway but restrict it so that only N capable network cards may access it. I have four other roommates and only one of them aside from me has a network card that has "n". I want to do this because I understand a wireless network only runs as fast as the slowest card attached.
I would still like to maintain the old wireless gateway for those who have b/g. The only way I can think of is create a totally new network (new ssid, new wep key, et cetera) with the airport express.
Is this possible?
To complicate the matters I would like to attach an external hard drive to the new airport and further restrict it for my personal use. Am I going to have to pony up for an Airport Extreme/time capsule or is there any other routers I can use?

First of all, you cannot attach an external hard drive to an Airport Express. That USB port is only for sharing a printer wirelessly. You need the full Airport Extreme to attach a USB drive. I don't know about non-Apple products.
Looking at my Airport Extreme using Airport Utility, there is a setting to only allow 802.11.n
Radio Mode: +802.11n only+ (the Extreme has settings for both +2.4 GHz+ and +5 GHz+)
I'm sure the Airport Express probably has a similar setting.

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Airport express for airplay only, not extending network

I have just bought an airport extreme and airport express.
The extreme is plugged into modem, and the express is in my living room, plugged into some older speakers. The point of the express is to airplay-enable these speakers, not to extend the network.
I've got both set up and they're working, except that the audio drops out of the airplay every so often, in light of which a couple of questions:
1. Even though I the point of the express is not to extend my network coverage, I guess it is doing that by default anyway?
2. Isn't a downside of that that accessing the network via the express will be slower than accessing it via the extreme directly?
3. Also, might the reason the express drops the audio be that other devices are using it to access the network? If so, and this is the BIG QUESTION: is there a way of continuing to use the express to airplay-enable my speakers, but not allow devices to use it for anything other than airplay?
thanks lots
d

is your point that devices near the Express but far from the Extreme will tend to receive a weaker signal since they're not permitted to use the Express (which in Join mode is restricted to communicating with the device that's streaming music to it) hence must communicate with the Extreme, which is some distance away?
Yes
had thought that communicating with the Extreme rather than the Express might be faster (provided the Extreme is close enough for an adequate signal) since the Extreme is simply a faster bit of kit, but you've already said that might not be right -- I'll do a speed test.
You can make the argument either way that you want, but you won't know what the actual results will be in any given situation until you try things out in your own particular installation. In other words, there is no one "right" way to do things that will be correct in every situation.
I get five bars indicating good wifi signal strength but sometimes (as now) very very sluggish internet connection. I thought the Extreme/Express combo might solve that but not really.
There are so many things that can affect wireless performance at any given time, that it is almost impossible to list them all. And, things are changing all the time.....cordless phones, other wireless networks, radio and TV broadcasts, wireless security systems.
As far as the AirPort Express is concerned, remember that it can only "extend" the quality of signal that it receives from the AirPort Extreme. In other words, if you have an AirPort Extreme at one end of the house and an AirPort Express at the other end, the Express will receive a poor signal to extend.
In this example, the correct location of the Express would be a point that is about half way between the AirPort Extreme and the other end of the house.
The way to solve the wireless strength issue with an AirPort Extreme and AirPort Express.......is connect both devices together using a wired Ethernet cable connection. Then, you can locate the Express exactly where it is needed, since there is no signal loss in a wire......and a lot of signal loss whenever a wireless signal must pass through a wall or other obstruction.

Can Airport Express or Extreme power a USB powered hard drive?

I cannot find the info in the specs.
Best Buy tells me that, in principle, wireles routers with USB ports don't have the power required by USB-powered hard drives.
On the other hand, I am thinking it would make sense for Airport Express to do that, since it would be very useful on a trip.
Thanks

OOs, I just saw the Apr 2011 thread. Answer is no

Which is better for range and speed of wifi, time capsule A1254 or the new airport express? I don't need the hard drive aspect of the time capsule. Thanks!

Thanks for any help with this.

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.

My iPod Touch was not connecting to my Airport Express router (which was "extending" a network as a WDS repeater) -- SOLVED!

My problem was this. I have a large apartment with concrete walls, so just one wireless router would not work. I used apple Airport routers and used one of them (an airport extreme) to create my wireless network, and a number of other ones -- airport expresses -- to "extend" the network.
That's all great, but I found that a couple of my devices -- mainly my iPod Touch -- would refuse to connect to the repeater airport express routers -- it only wanted to connect to the main Airport Extreme router, not the satellite guys.
Finally I solved the problem. It had to do with how the wireless network's configuration for "Radio" setting was set regarding 802/11 b/g, and the dual-band ability of the Extreme. Below is the description of how I fixed it.
======SOLUTION THAT I POSTED======
I've pretty much solved this problem. I do not FULLY understand why, but now I can have my iPod touch (and I am hoping my kindle) attach correctly to the satellite/repeater airport express. Here is what I did:
I did two configuration changes to my central hub airport extreme router (i.e., the one that my other routers were merely configured to "extend.") I realize now that these are both configurations that must be done at that central router, and the repeater routers then simply mimic or reflect accordingly.
-- First, I used the most recent Airport Utility (v6.0) and clicked on my main router (which, crucially, is an airport extreme that has dual band 802.11, both 2.4ghz and 5ghz.)
-- In the airport utility, I clicked on that Extreme router and then in its funky popup window, clicked Edit.
-- Clicked the tab called Wireless.
-- Clicked on Wireless Options button.
-- the first config change I made on that page was to change the Radio Mode setting to "802.11a/n - 802.11 b/g."
What nobody really tells you is that that hyphenated choice means that the 5GHz band will use the first of those two (namely, a and n, in other words the strong modern N standard will be used on this band ONLY) ... while the 2.4GHZ band will use only the second of those two, b/g, in other words, the devices that only can use that older weaker standard.
So, it's kind of a segregation. I'm telling it "No, don't let the 2.4 ghz band try to handle traffic using N. That band will just take care of the old crappy clients."
-- the second config change that I made on that page was to check the check box to make a totally separate wireless network name for the 5GHZ band. Further segregating things. When I tried my solution without this additional step, my problem did not fix itself, though I don't fully see why.
As I said, a few questions remain in my head, but the darn thing works, so I'm happy. Among many other questions... are those airport expresses dual-band too? I didn't think they were but somehow they are repeating this dual-band strategy? Whatever. it works.
BY THE WAY -- I recommend using the Apple question/answer board on StackExchange to get Apple-related answers. It is at http://apple.stackexchange.com/

To demonstrate, here's a screenshot from the Airport Utility on the iPod Touch in close proximity to the Express, still connected to the Extreme :

Airport Express connecting to an existing wired network

Hello,
I'm trying to connect an Airport Express unit to an existing wired network, can someone please help me to set this up or what I need to do? I originally connected the ethernet cable from the device (airport express) to the switch it was on but it didn't work and the other computers were connecting to that network. Should I setup the Airport Express in Bridge Mode or will i need to fiddle around with the settings a bit?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Regards,
Daniel

Not sure what the difficulty is here.
All you really need to do is connect the Express to the switch with an Ethernet connection, open AirPort Utility on your Windows machine, and click Continue to get the process going.
If you need to download and install AirPort Utility for the PC, it is here:
AirPort Utility 5.6.1 for Windows
Select the "Create a wireless network" option, assign a device name and password to the Express, then assign a wireless network name and password for the wireless network that you want the Express to provide.
Select the Bridge Mode option when it appears and click Update to save the settings.
The Express will restart and you should have a green light on the Express.
Then, log on to that wireless network from the iPad.

HT4259 Airport Express that were part of another network

I have two Airport Expresses that were part of another network and I am now trying to configure them on a new network to wirelessly extend it, but can not discover them on the AirPort Utility and I factory reset them as well and still they are not being discovered. They plugged in only about 4-6 feet away from the base station (Airport Extreme). What should I do?

If you are using Lion 10.7.4 as your profile indicates.....
Open AirPort Utility and look at the rectangular box in the upper left hand corner of the AirPort Utility window.
It should read Other AirPort Base Stations (1) if you have reset the Express correctly.
Click on Other AirPort Base Stations (1), then click on the the AirPort Express xxxxxxx
AirPort Utility will take a minute to analyze your network, then announce that the Express will be configured to Extend your wireless network
Edit the name of the AirPort Express device if you wish, then click Next
Allow a minute or two for AirPort Utility to configure the Express
When you see the message that Setup is compete, click Done
Configure the second AirPort Express the same way.

Can't get AirPort Express to join LINKSYS WRT54G wireless network

After several unsuccessful attempts to follow Tesserax's advice to get my AX to join my LINKSYS wireless network, I depressed the reset button, plugged the AX in, and waited for the flashing reset confirmation. Reconfiguring from scratch to join my WPA network, all seemed to go well. After selecting to Update, the following window pops up:
<The settings for this AirPort Express have been successfully updated. You can close this window or wait for this AirPort Express to restart.
Waiting for the AirPort Express to restart…>
After a couple of minutes the following window appears:
<AirPort Utility was unable to find your AirPort Wireless device after restarting.
The settings for this AirPort wireless device have been successfully updated, but there was a problem re-joining the wireless network or finding the AirPort wireless device. You may need to select your network from the Wi-Fi menu and try again.>
At this point, AirPort Utility will no longer recognize the AX, no matter how many times I rescan. The only way I can get it to be recognized is to once again do a hard factory reset. I then go through the whole set up process again, only to end up in the same dead end. I'm thinking that there has to be some sort of problem between the AX and the LINKSYS. Prior to the above activity, I was able to send iTunes to the AX just fine. I just wasn't able to surf the Internet at the same time.
Any ideas you might have will be appreciated.

Thomas - I have a very similar problem - I've got a Wi-Fi/ADSL2 router supplied by my telecom company AirTel (the router's called 'beetel', 802.11g model) and I'm having problems extending it with Airport Express - the Airport Utility doesn't seem to be able to detect the AE after restart. The only difference with your case seems that you have a Linksys piece.
Here's what I tried:
1. Had my Wi-Fi network up & running with the beetel router (network name: PASTA)
2. Booted Airport Express
3. Launched Airport Utility 5.5.3 from Windows 7, detected the Airport Express, chose Manual Setup and went for option "Extend my Wireless Network" and chose PASTA and specified its password
3. Airport Utility restarted the device after saving changes, and Aiport Express went invisible.
That sounds like the same problem you had.
Just to cross check, I tried connecting an Ethernet cable between AE and the beetel router and went for option "Create Wireless Network" and that was a breeze.
@Tesserax - can Airport Express smoothly extend only an Airport Extreme WiFi network? Is there anything I can do to extend my current Wi-Fi network from this router?
Thanks for your notes & time
Forrest

WDS with Airport Express & network hard drive

I am considering getting an extra Airport Express BS to improve range of my current AX-based network. At the same time, I'm considering getting a network hard drive for everyone in the house to use for shared stuff. If I got this presumably I could connect it via USB to the new AX base station. Is this right? Is it sensible?
Also, why don't I ditch the Apple products and get just one Belkin Wireless G+ MIMO Router F5D9230 with its claimed 1000 ft. of wireless range? Any views?
Thanks
D

the usb port is for a printer, so it would not give network access to a hard drive connected to it (you need to connect the drive to a mac and share it from there)
the belkin will only give significantly extended range with matching mimo cards in the client devices, so you'd need to do more than replace the ax with the belkin
given that apple is already shipping hardware with next generation wireless chipsets (but no software to use the extra features) you might want to wait and see what apple does in january

How to change channel on 5GHz on new (2012) Airport Express when connecting to en excsiting network?

Airport Express only provides channel 100 automatically when configuring it to connect to an excisting wireless network at 5GHz. This is out of range for most routers, which typicaly provieds channels 36 through 48 for connecting 5GHz devices.Only when you configure the Airport Express to establish a new wireless network it allows you to change channels manually. This is really weird. I have severeal Airport Express units (older model) around my house for streaming music, and they work just fine on 2.4 GHz, and so does the new (2012) one, but I bought it specifically to use 5GHz in a corner of my house with interference from surrounding 2.4 GHz networks, so I am really disappointed with this product. There should and must be a way to connect it to an excisting 5GHz network, but how to get the channel right in this cnfiguration mode?

When you extend wireless you cannot switch channels.. The Express is locked to the channel used by the Extreme.. there is no choice about this.
Reboot the extreme .. wait a minute and then reboot the express.. Channels will be tested on reboot to pick the best.. there is nothing much else you can do.

How to use AirPort Time Capsule 2TB as an external storage hard drive only?

I have a new AirPort Time Capsule 3TB, now I want to use my AirPort Time Capsule 2TB as an external storage hard drive only, how do I it?
I would like to connect the AirPort Time Capsule 2TB directly to my Mac Pro. using OS X 10.7.5.
I have erase disk and reset the 2TB to factory default, after that, I cannot make it to connect to my Mac. Please help.

The 2TB Time Capsule needs to connect to your 3TB Time Capsule using a wired Ethernet connection.
Connect from a LAN <--> port on the 3 TB Time Capsule to the WAN "O" port on the 2 TB Time Capsule and configure the 2TB Time Capsule in Bridge Mode and turn off the wireless function on the device as well.
Once that is done, you can connect your Mac directly to the 2TB Time Capsule using another Ethernet cable, or your Mac can connect to the network using the normal wireless network, if you prefer.

How many airport express can I add to my network for the purpose of using the airport express to send audio signal to different rooms in the house? I'm interested I'm running about six different zones.

How many airport express can I add to my network for the purpose of using the airport express to send audio signal to different rooms in the house? I'm interested I'm running about six different zones.
What I'm looking to do is to have self powered in ceiling speakers in every room in my house with out having to run wires to every room to carry the audio signal. I would like to use the airport express to do the job of carting the audio signal.
Here's my set up now I have an airport extreme and one airport express that I use to carry audio to one room.

FWIW. I have used up to four AirPort Express Base Stations (AX) for streaming sucessfully in pretty much the way you have described. I didn't have a need to try more so I can't attest that more would or would not work.

Using the AirPort Express to Join an existing Wireless Network

Hello,
I am hoping you can provide me with some help on this... I recelty acquired a PowerMac G4 with a 450 MHz processor, CD-RW/DVD-ROM drive, Zip Drive, 1 GB RAM, and two 40 GB HD... The system has OS 10.4 installed, and it is has built-in Ethernet...
I was told I could use the Airport Express to connect to an existing wireless network, so I purchased an Airport Express base Station... Thing is, to e honest, I am having a bit of a problem getting started...
- First, to connect from the AirPort Express to my G4, do I need a special kind of Ethernet cable, or will the usual kind do?
- Second do I need to istall the software first, or have the Airport express connected to the G4 before I do?
How would I go about setting this up, step-by-step?
Any information would be appreciated...
Thanks for your time...

OK, thanks. Hopefully, the Netgear is creating a wireless network using WPA/WPA2 security. That will make it much easier for the AirPort Express (AX) to join the wireless network. It can join networks with using WEP security, but password issues almost always arise using WEP.
Since you must enter the exact security settings and password for the wireless network, it would help tremendously to know this in advance. Otherwise, it's going to be a series of "trial and errors" and likely frustration, later on.
When you have a moment, check the security settings on the Netgear router.
It might be one of the following: WPA2 Personal, WPA/WPA2 Personal, WEP 128, WEP 40.

Second Airport Express doesn't show up in Network

I have an Airport Extreme and an Airport Express used to extend the wireless network. I bought a second airport express to extend the network in another area of weak signal. I appear to go through the setup procedures correctly but it never gets to the final setup and does not show up in the airport utility. I get this message: The settings for this AirPort wireless device have been successfully updated, but there was a problem re-joining the wireless network or finding the AirPort wireless device. You may need to select your network from the AirPort menu and try again.
The light is green on the ae...
any ideas?

Try a hard reset on the Express by holding in the reset button until the amber light begins to flash more quickly, keep holding when you see this for another few seconds and then release.
Move the Express near your computer and temporarily, connect to is using an ethernet cable
Open AirPort Utility - Click Manual Setup
Click the Base Station tab to name the device, assign password and adjust Time Zone settings
Click the Wireless tab
Wireless Mode = Extend a wireless network
Wireless Network Name = Same as your main network
Check mark next to Allow Wireless Clients
Wireless Security = Same setting as your main network
Password = Same as main network
Confirm Password
Click the Music icon to check to see that AirTunes is enabled. It should be by default.
Click Update to save settings
After the Express has restarted, you can disconnect the ethernet cable and move the Express back to the desired location.

Airport Express Card on a wireless PC network??

Hey there, I was curious if it was possible to use a G5 with an Airport Express Card on a wireless PC network. My wife needs to be able to access the internet from another part of the house. Someone mentioned that it might be possible, but I can't seem to find anything explaining how to do it. Thanks for your time!
Jeff

Which wireless router are you using?
Are you using WEP?
One of the problems with WEP is that the actual standard relies on a 10 character HEX key for 40bit WEP and a 26 character HEX key for 128bit WEP.
In order to make things easier for people, vendors use certain algorithms to convert simple alphanumeric passwords (or passphrases) into HEX keys, thus enabling people to use simple memorable WEP password rather than lengthy HEX keys.
The problem is that different vendors use different algorithms to generate the HEX key and therefore a ASCII password on an AEBS will be hashed differently on a Netgear client and vice versa.
One thing is a 13 character 128 bit WEP password will be hashed by all vendors in the same way (if you use 40bit WEP then a 5 character password is required).
Though sometimes not even that works and the HEX key must be used regardless.
AirPort: Joining an encrypted wireless network
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106424
Choosing a password for networks that use Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP)
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=108058
iFelix

Restrict Airport Express to n only machines/ restrict networked hard drive

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