Setup Airport express network range extender for Time Capsule

Please help me to set up my AE to work as a range extender for my TC.
Anyone that can help me with step-by-step setup information? Your help would be much appreciated as I'm totally lost by now...
TC <--> AE <--> iPodTouch (i.e)

Welcome to the discussions!
You might want to follow Apple's step by step guide for setting up the "extend a wireless network" feature. I assume that you have an AirPort Express(n).
Reference pages 43-44 in the AirPort Neworks Guide.

Similar Messages

Setup Airport Express as a repeater for Time capsule network?

Can any one provide detailed instructions, or provide a link where I can find these instructions?
Current Setup: TimeWarner Cable Modem/Router (Arris TG852) > Time Capsule router (A1254)
This has created two networks. One from the TW Router and the other from the TC. Even with both networks, I do not have great signal in the last two bedrooms, or bathroom.
I have a Airport Express (A1264)
Can someone explain how to set up the AE as a repeater, and offer any advice on how my network "should be" setup? Thanks
In my reading, I believe this would be Dynamic WDS; correct?

Thanks for the link. It says the below is by far the best way to extend for N networks.
"For 802.11n Wi-Fi base stations, creating a roaming network is by far the best choice. This will provide the best throughput between the base stations and your Wi-Fi devices.
This set up requires that your Wi-Fi base stations are connected via Ethernet.
The primary base station provides DHCP Services, while the extended base station will be configured to use bridge mode.
All Wi-Fi base stations within the roaming network should use the same passwords, security type (Open/WEP/WPA), and network name (SSID)."
But, if my TC and Express are next to each other, how does that fix my wifi problems on the other side of my house?

Airport Express as wireless Extender to Time Capsule

I have an older airport express that I used to use as an Wifi extender for my Time Capsule. I have a Macbook Pro running Os 10.8.4, and the airport utility now gives the following error:
This version of AirPort Utility doesn’t support this base station. Go to AirPort Service and Support for more information.
Since OS 10.8 does not support Airport Express 5.6, I have an old Mac I've been able to access Airport Express on and was able to ensure that everything was setup correctly as a wireless extender. However, None of my computers, Ipads, or Iphones are benefitting from this as an extender. Is it possible to use this older airport express as an extender still or has Apple completely blocked me from using it even as that any longer? It used to work fine, until I updated the OS from 10.7 to 10.8, and now it no longer functions.
Thank you!

That article addresses installing AU 5.6 on a Mountain Lion system, not the ability to "wirelessly extend" an 802.11b/g - only Express. That ability is available for 802.11n - capable base stations only:
Multiple Wi-Fi base station network types
If you need to extend the range of your wireless network, which method should you use?
For 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi base stations:
Roaming Network (Recommended)
Wirelessly Extended Network
For 802.11g Wi-Fi base stations:
Roaming Network (Recommended)
WDS
Which of the above configurations applies to your network?

HT4145 I want to add airport express. I now have time capsule and I am confuse. Do I setup the express and then time capsule to the express?

I want to add airport express. I now have time capsule and I am confuse. Do I setup the express and then time capsule to the express?

Setup the Express to wirelessly extend the Time Capsule, or vice versa depending on which one is already set up. Or you could use bridge mode which involves using an Ethernet cable or Powerline plugs.

How do i set up an airport express as an extender for my airport extreme

how do i set up an airport express as an extender for my airport extreme

Check these discussions:
Best bets to extend/boost signals from Airport and AP Extreme
How to extend and Extreme network using Express

Airport express keeps loosing connection to Time Capsule

For several years I have had no issue with mt Airport Express staying connected to my Time Capsule/router. Now 2 of my Airport Expresses keep loosing the connection and flashing yellow. I have done the resets where I press in the little button on the bottom while plugging the AE back into the power source and reconnecting through Airport Utility and that will do the trick but after a short time the flashing yellow lights will go back on.
Would it help to turn off the router, rest all the AEs? It is so frustrating to keep loosing the connection and nothing else has changed; e.g. the AEs are all in the same place.

Same thing here! I didnt have the problem with airport express until I update the os from 10.6.2 to 10.6.6. I have been calling the apple support and they couldnt help (or thou sounded like they knew for that particular problem). I got from my work MacBookPro and same thing happen. I hope that apple will read this and just want to tell them that this is my 10 computer made by apple and God knows the last one! First of all they made the the fireware with the bad chipsets so I have to but extra cards and then airport. I cant connect at all to any wifi and have to put the cables on the floor from the wifi router to the ethernet input which is more than 10 metres. Apple sort this asap!!!!!!!!!!

Using airport express as range extender?

I have a airport express that I use as my primary router.
I also have the direct plug in airport express that I'd like to use as a range extender. I'd like to make this one fully wireless so that I can connect in an another room. However, I'm not sure that's possible. Does anyone know how to go about using this as an extender ?

Temporarily, connect an Ethernet cable from your Mac to the older A1264 AirPort Express
Power up the older Express for a few minutes, then hold in the reset button on the side of the Express for 10 seconds and release. Allow a full minute for the Express to restart to a slow, blinking amber light.
Open Macintosh HD > Applications > Utilities > AirPort Utility on your Mac
Click on the Other Wi-Fi Devices button, then click on AirPort Express xxxxxxx
AirPort Setup will open up and take a minute to analyze the network and announce that the A1264 Express will be configured to extend the new AirPort Express network.
Enter a device name that you want to use for the older Express and click Next
AirPort Setup will configure the older Express for you. When you see the message of Setup Complete, click Done.
Now you can disconnect the Ethernet cable that you used for the setup and move the older Express to a location that is about half way between the new Express and the general area that needs more wireless coverage. Power up the older Express and you should be all set.

How do I set up my Airport Express and not interrupt my TIme Capsule

I have ATT UVerse recently installed and have my Time Capsule Router Behind their installed router. I recently purchased Airport Extreme and want to install it as well so I can connect an older Version of a Sony PS3 which doesn't have bluetooth capability via rj45 since the time capsule is no where close to my PS3. Is there a way to install this Airport Express and not mess up the settings of the Time Capsule?

Hello hbwilli. Welcome to the Apple Discussions!
I recently purchased Airport Extreme and want to install it as well so I can connect an older Version of a Sony PS3 which doesn't have bluetooth capability via rj45 since the time capsule is no where close to my PS3. Is there a way to install this Airport Express and not mess up the settings of the Time Capsule?
Yes. You will want to configure the new 802.11n AirPort Express Base Station (AXn) as a ProxySTA. In this configuration, the AXn will join the wireless network created by the Time Capsule and share Internet access through its Ethernet port to the PS3.
To activate ProxySTA, you must set up the Express to join a wireless network and then enable the Allow Ethernet Clients setting; both settings are located in the Wireless tab of AirPort Utility. The feature should work with any wireless network: a, b, g, or n; and 5GHz or 2.4GHz. (Note that the Express, which ships with firmware 7.3, must also be updated to firmware 7.3.1 for this feature to appear.)

Using Airport Express as separate wifi network vs extender with Time Capsule?

Hello all. I recently converted my home computer network from Windows/PC based to an iMac with Time Capsule. On my previous setup, I had a Cisco/Linksys router with wifi, and I also had two Airport Expresses in separate areas of the house where the Linksys had a weak signal. Obviously, I had the Airport Expresses set up as "separate" wifi networks, as they could not be used as network extenders with the Linksys. This setup seemed to work really good, as the 3 wifi networks provided good blanket coverage in all parts of the house. Each network also seemed to "hand-off" to the other pretty well, meaning that Airport Express 1 would show as the active network when you moved far enough away from the Linksys (or insert any of the network names here, even though I'm pretty sure that the device accessing the network has more to do with this than the networks themselves). In particular, the speeds that I got from the Airport Expresses actually eclipsed the speeds that I would get from the Linksys wifi.
My issue is that after I converted everything, I left the Airport Expresses as "separate networks" and essentially removed the Linksys/Cisco router and replaced it with the Time Capsule. So I still have 3 separate wifi networks, just like before, with the Time Capsule network taking the place of the Linksys wifi network. While the Linksys and the Airport Expresses seemed to co-exist together nicely, I get the feeling that the TC and the AEs are somehow working against each other or at least competing with each other for bandwidth. For example, if I have my iPhone right beside my iMac and TC, and I run a speed test on the iPhone using the TC wifi network, I get download and upload speeds in the range that I am expecting (30-40 mbps download). However, when I walk down the hallway to the other end of the house, the TC tends to remain the dominant wifi network, even when I am in the same room with one of the AEs (this is where they used to "hand off" nicely between networks). When you run a speed test in this location still on the TC wifi, the speed drops down to 5-7 mbps, and worse, I believe the signal becomes inconsistent because webpages and data often seem to be freezing in the middle of downloading. I understand that the distance from the TC is causing this, because my solution has been to manually switch from the TC to the closest AE, and that fixes the issue. Run a speed test after I manually switch to the closest AE when I am in the same room as an AE, and the speeds pop back up to 30-40 mbps.
My question is this: would switching the AEs to "extenders" of the TC wifi network help this issue? Honestly, my laziness was one reason that I did not do this when I setup the TC initially, because I have several devices that access the AE wifi networks that I'd have to update with the new network name and password. Everything was working great before, and I just didn't want to upset the apple cart. But if I have created an unfriendly environment between the TC and the two AEs, I certainly have no problem making the change now. I just wasn't sure if making this change would fix my problem or not. I know it's a mundane thing, but I'd like to be able to roam the house without continuously having to manually switch between wifi networks to get a consistent signal.
Sorry if this is a simple issue. I am admittedly a newbie with the TC and its interaction with the AEs.
Thanks in advance!!

It is not a simple issue.
Exactly which method works best is going to take some experimentation.
The way you are trying to set it up as a roaming network is generally considered the best.. but the devices like iphones do not hand off neatly.
It is interesting that they in fact used to hand off better using the Linksys.. which could be due to its poorer range. The new TC having so much better range is causing the phones to not swap "towers" to the local express.
Test it with a Mac laptop.. as generally they do hand off better.
I cannot quite figure out if you are using roaming correctly. All the wireless should have identical names, with identical security setting and passwords.
The only thing that should be different is wireless channels on each item. And you are likely just using auto anyway.
So each device is creating a wireless network. And for 2.4ghz one should be channel 1, then another channel 6 and another channel 11. For 5ghz it will be same idea but there are more channels available.
When you extend wireless, everything runs the same channel. But the wireless speed is reduced. You must disconnect ethernet to each of the expresses.. and the problem is your 30-40mbps will reduce permanently to 15-20mbps for all clients. So take your choice.. 15-20mbps for all clients forced to double hop is better than 5-7mbps which you experience now when you walk around.. although I am not sure how much browsing you do whilst walking. You may need to compromise which is the better out of several not great alternatives.
I would have a test.. which is wrong btw.. but I have heard that it works.
In your roaming network at the present time. Try setting each router to a manual wireless channel.. and fix all of them the same. So for instance, set 2.4ghz to channel 11. Try fixing the 5ghz as well, say the TC is defaulting to 149, it might not actually respond to manual wireless channels.. you will need to test this.. say set to 36 or 40 and see if the TC is actually changed.. if not just set all the expresses to 149 as well. What you are doing is trying to reinforce the wireless in each area.. but this is actually wrong. So all will have same wireless name and same security wpa2 personal is the only valid one.. and all the same password.
Test with a few clients and see if the results give you decent local speeds as well as better roaming.. once you decide which to do, then you will need to change all the clients.

Airport Express - using range extender and Ethernet at the same time?

So, I am thinking of buying an Airport Express. I am would be using it to extend the range (wirelessly) of my current Wi-Fi and also use the Ethernet ports on the back to connect my DVD player (so I can use the Internet-enabled apps on it). My question is whether the Airport Express can extend the range of my Wi-Fi as well as provide an internet connection to my DVD player simultaesnously.
My current setup in my house is:
- A wireless modem from my ISP (www.telenet.be)
- A Cisco range extender - however, this one often drops the connection so the Airport Express would be a replacement for this.
The current Cisco range extender is plugged in near my TV and it picks up the wireless connection from my ISP modem and extends it as well as being connected to the DVD player. However, I am tired of losing the connection so I thinking of buying an Airport Express.
I have no other Apple network devices (Airport Extreme, Airport Time Capsule, etc.)
Can you help me out?

No, Apple products will only wirelessly extend the signal from other Apple products.
Another way of saying the same thing is that you must have two Apple AirPort routers if you want to extend the signal wirelessly.

Set up an Airport Express as an extender for an Extreme base station

Thanksgiving Friday arrived, and I was excited to see my Airport Express arrived in the mail. My plan was to use it to extend my Wifi from my Airport Base Station. I will fast forward past some of what I did (unless you need the details to help me), but I am now at a point where my Macbook recognizes the Extreme in Airport Utility (I lost even that at one point last night) as it always has, but It does not recognize the Express. In other words, when I open the utility, the Extreme shows up in the left pane, and the Express is nowhere to be found.
In going through the set up procedures the Mac did recognize the Express at first, but I must have screwed something up. I have done hard resets on the Express, and I have done resets and reboots of the Extreme, modem and Mac. The Express is plugged in and giving my the flashing amber light. I am definitely in range of the Express, and the Express is in range of the Extreme.
HELP!

You'll need to jot down a setting that the AirPort Extreme (AEBS) is using in order to give the AirPort Express (AX) the correct setting.
Open AirPort Utility, select your AEBS and click Manual Setup
Click the Wireless tab below the row of icons
Jot down the setting that you see for Wireless Security
Close AirPort Utility
Hold in the reset button on the AirPort Express until you see the amber light begin to blink more quickly and then release.
Temporarily, position the AX near your AirPort Extreme and connect an ethernet cable from your computer to the AirPort Express
Open AirPort Utility, select the AX and click Manual Setup
Click the Base Station tab below the icons to name your device, establish a device password (write this down) and adjust time settings
Click the Wireless tab
Wireless Mode = Extend a wireless network
Wireless Network Name = Exact same name as your AirPort Extreme wireless network
Enter a check mark next to Allow wireless clients
Wireless Security = Exact same setting as your AEBS that you wrote down
Wireless Password = Same password that your AEBS network is using
Confirm Password
Click Update at the lower right and the AX will restart. You can close AirPort Utility and disconnect the ethernet cable once you see the message that the settings have been saved to the AX.
After 30-45 seconds, you should have a green light on the AX. Now you can move the AX where it is needed and power it back up again. The ethernet port on the AX is also enabled in this type of configuration if you need to connect an ethernet device.
Assuming no major obstructions, a good starting location for the AX is a point that is about 1/2 to 2/3 the distance from your AirPort Extreme and the area that needs more coverage. The AX can only "extend" what it receives, so if you position it too far away, it will extend a weak signal.
Message was edited by: Bob Timmons

Use Airport Express as Internet hub, bridge Time Capsule for N-only?

OK I checked on the forums, but I could not find anything quite specific it what I was trying to accomplish.
I recently got a 500GB Time Capsule. I changed my network around, which was based off of two Airport Express stations – on in the office hooked up to internet & printer, one in living room hooked up to sound system – and made the TC the main hub, connecting modem to it's WAN port and bridging the office AX via LAN port in bridged mode, sharing the living room AX as WDS. This way, I had the TC in N-only mode in 5ghz spectrum using wide channels for fastest performance. All this worked well.
Except that I noticed that with the TC in the office – where the laptops rarely are – my data transfer speeds were no better than .11g speeds. So I mucked around a little, and noticed that it really was just the case that the separation of distance & obstruction was slowing the transfer speeds over .11n-only that much!
Well, it occurred to me that there may be another way. What I had intended to do was to hook up the modem back to the office AX, move the TC to the living room where it'd be "line of sight" to the laptops most of the time, and bridge the TC and living room AX over LAN. So the idea was to keep the networks separate wirelessly still, and have the internet "bridged" wirelessly from the office AX to the living room AX and then over LAN to the TC. The thinking was that the hit on the internet connection would not be noticeable as the threshold for that is well below the streaming capabilities of the AX network still, so I'd not lose anything there, but gain MUCH faster speeds with the TC in line-of-sight of the Laptops (3x as much in testing; with TC in office and laptops in living room, 1.3gb folder took 9 minutes, same folder line-of-sight testing took only 3 minutes).
However, I CANNOT get this to work properly. I thought I really just needed to move the TC to the living room and bridge it there, as the services should be shared over the LAN port since the 2.4ghz AX are in "bridged" mode, but that didn't work. I kinda-sorta got it to work by forcing both the AX network AND the TC network into "bridged mode," but that didn't seem right or wise, so I tried some other settings, putting the TC to bridged and having the office AX distribute IP addresses, but then it wouldn't show up under restart, and I'm just confused now on how to set that up!
What i need is: To have the "Office AX" hooked up to the modem & printer, on 2.4ghz since it's the older .11g model, with the "Living Room AX" on that same network. Then the TC in 5ghz N-only bridged to the Living Room AX via LAN, so it can share the services (internet & airtunes) and still get high data transfer speeds to the laptops via the advantage of Line-of-sight, non-obstructed networking.
How do I need to set this up? It's possible, right?
Message was edited by: Anthony Caltabiano

OK while I was working out this morning, I was trying to think of WHY my setup wasn't working. I had an epiphany, and decided to try once more. This time, it worked.
The problem was that originally I had the Living Room AX set up as a Remote, so it was hooking INTO the network, not extending it. I know that with that setup you can't hook up to THAT station and get internet or anything, you hook into the MAIN station and you can SEE the remote's services that are "plugged in" to it.
I didn't think this would be an issue with the TC physically attached to the ethernet port, but apparently this behavior extends to the ethernet port on remote stations for internet access... I had a feeling that MIGHT be it, so I started from scratch, and this time set up the Living Room AX to extend the network instead of just joining it. Then hooking up the TC to the Living Room AX's ethernet port and selecting "Bridge Mode" on the TC got me the good ol' green light!
So, if anyone out there is trying to build a dual-band network, with their TC on .11n-only and bridge to services supplied by a 2.4ghz network, AND route their internet access through the 2.4ghz network instead of the TC so that they can keep their TC more centrally located for better performance... make sure you do it like this: Set up the alternate (2.4ghz) network as relays, "extending" the network, so that when you plug into it, the TC essentially thinks it's plugged directly into the main router, no matter where it is. The throughput hit for internet access over WDS shouldn't be a problem for US-based peeps, as our speeds are typically well below the .11g threshold anyway.
I also found that it helped to NOT hide the SSID of the 2.4ghz network; doing that kept rendering failed attempts to force the secondary AX to join as WDS. Once I redid it without hiding the SSID, all went well.

Trying to set up Airport Express as range extender

I successfully set up my new Airport Extreme base station. Now I want to add on my new Airport Express to extend the range of WiFi. I plugged in the Express, opened Airport Utility, selected the Express icon on the left. I get this message: "Setting up this AirPort wireless device requires switching wireless networks. Switching wireless networks may interrupt your connection to the Internet." What does this mean? Should I go ahead and click "Switch"? None of the directions in the manual or discussion forums mention this message in their instructions. I am timid! Can anyone advise me?

Bob, I had a big failure today. I clicked on Airport Extreme and "Switch," and chose the option "Extend the range of network." I answered the other required questions (password, etc.) then waited for Airport Utility to "Upgrade" the system. After about 3 minutes Airport Utility says that the network cannot be found! The whole internet service was down! Did not even appear in the Airport menu. The base station no longer appeared in the left column, and I had to reset and re-enter the base Extreme all over again.
Then I tried again but this time used Airport Express first. It said that my network "could not be found." I tried again the original way - I am embarrassed to tell how many times I tried this. Finally I gave up. I will be returning the Airport Express gizmo to amazon.com for a refund. I don't know how other smart people accomplished this, but apparently the range cannot be "extended' on Airport Extreme, so I sure don't need the Extender.
I wish I could learn something from this frustrating experience, other than I am not very capable, and Apple products are not all they are cracked up to be.
Any comments?

How do I use the new Airport Express as an extender for a non-Apple router?

We have an "Arris" router in our house and are thinking of buying an Airport Express to extend the internet. How can we use the Airport express as a repeater on a non-Apple router without having to use millions of ethernet cables?

Apple designed their "extend a wireless network" to only work with other Apple routers wirelessly, so it would be extremely unlikely like it would work with an Arris wireless router.
Your best bet is to always use products from the same manufacturer if you need this type of feature on your network to insure compatibility.
If Arris does not offer a product for this purpose, a "universal" extender like the Netgear device linked below might be able to do what you want. It was not "universal" enough to extend an Apple network when I tested a device recently.
Universal WiFi Range Extender (WN3000RP) - Netgear

Dlink Wireless Range Extender with Time Capsule Setup

Looking to setup a D-Link DAP-1320 on my time capsule to extend my wifi network. The D-link instructions are pretty basic, only two choices. WPS Setup, which the Time capsule does not have. And Web browser setup by going to dlinkap.local which only times out and does not load.
Any sugestions? thanks

Nope this cannot work.. Apple to Apple .. Dlink is banana.. Apples don't talk to bananas.
If the DAP-1320 has a WAP mode.. then plug it by ethernet into the TC and use like that. Not going to work any other way.

Setup Airport express network range extender for Time Capsule

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for