What is Airport Express?

Could someone please explain (in simplified terms, if possible) what the Airport Express is used for? (I did not understand the description on the Apple Store website). I have a wireless computer and usually work in a place with internet access via a router. But sometimes the signal is weak (I am pretty far from the router) and sometimes it is not functioning at all. So it is not reliable and I am wondering what if anything the Airport Express would do for me. And I am generally just trying to learn more about Wi-Fi. Thanks for your help.

I still need clarification on a couple of points -
1. Is the AE plugged into the router to improve the signal, or into something in the location where you are trying to use a wireless device? I did read the description in that link and still do not understand how it works. It says that the AE enables you to access WiFi from a distance away - such as in the garage or in the garden. I was hoping that it would be a way to improve the WiFi access in my room, which is physically distant from the router in my apartment.
2. The link also seems to say that if you are in a place which does not have wireless but does have an ethernet connection, then the AE enables you to somehow use your wireless device (such as an iPod Touch) and connect to this internet channel. Does it somehow plug into the ethernet outlet and transmit a signal to your wireless device?
Thanks again for your help.

Similar Messages

Trying to clarify what these are: is airport extreme a router? What is airport express?

Trying to clarify what these are: is airport extreme a router? What is airport express a router as well?

SimonJester753 wrote:
It was a long time ago. I remember wanting to connect my desktop mac via an ethernet cable, but the setup assistant was insisting on wireless. I think I finally took out the wireless card from my Mac so it would use the ethernet cable. Eventually I put the card back.
The zillion and one setting to wade through might mean more choices to the tech-heads, but I just wanted it to work.
I don't recall the type of router we had at my previous job, but I just plugged it in, went through a simple set up and forgot about it because it just sat there and worked.
I have had to go back to factory settings and start from scratch with my Extreme many times. The last time the amber light started blinking I just ignored it for months, because it didn't effect my internet connection, I just lost the ability to get iTunes over to the Express I have hooked up to my stereo.
BTW, what's a wall wart?
The big box on the cord.

What does airport express do?

What's the difference between airport express and a wireless router?

The AirPort Express is a wireless router with some extra unique abilities. It can also be used as a wireless or wired network extender and it can be used in 'Client Mode' to allow devices that don't have wireless capability to join a wireless network. It can be used as a wireless print server allowing a printer that has no networking ability to be accessible to computers on a wireless or wired network. It also supports AirPlay so that you can hook it up to an amplifier, A/V receiver or powered speakers so you can stream music from iTunes or iOS devices.
http://www.apple.com/airportexpress/

How do I tell what version airport express I have? Airport Utility says this version does not support this base station. What to do, how to update?

I tried to add an older airport express to my network that I had not been using. It shows up in Airport Utility but Airport Utility says that this version of Airport Utility Dies not support this base station. I am running airport utility V6.3.4 on a mac mini running OS X 10.10. Not sure which airport express it is, nor how to check. I assume I need a firmware upgrade on the Airport Express, but not sure how to do this without Airport Utility. I tried to download an older version of Airport Utility, but could not install because it does not support OS X 10.10 Any ideas other than throwing a perfectly good airport express away?

Don't throw the AE away. It is still very useful as I have both the old & new each work well (sometimes the sound keeps dropping out but I think that has to do with the wirless settings!!!)
You need Airport Utility 5.6.1 which works in 10.10 - I managed to download a .dmg from the net but not sure how I could get it to you.
The new utility doesn't support the old AEs unfortunately which I have and Apple have no intention of allowing a utility that will cover all
AEs.
Try and get a version 5.6.1.

What does Airport Express Support

I have been researching the airport express and i have heard that people have connected their xbox to it and of course the printer and stereo, but I would also like to plug in a hard drive with a powered usb hub. Does anyone have a setup like this or any advise?

The +*Airport Express*+ supports a printer, but not a disk: http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB321LL/A/AirPort-Express-AirTunes?fnode=MTY1N DA0Mg&mco=MTA4NTc4MTE
You may want the +*Airport Extreme,+* which supports a printer and/or external HDs (but not Time Machine backups): http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC340LL/A/AirPort-Extreme?fnode=MTY1NDA0Mg&mco =MTMzNzU2NDk

HT3728 how do I know what my airport express time capsule needs to be replaced?

I believe I have router problems. I have installed a new cable modem and I have good bandwidth from comcast but my base station, time capsule, router seems to now be able to handle the wi-fi in the house. I have the router serial number but I don't know the abilityof this instrument.

That is the oldest of the TC.. it is more than capable of 24mbps but wireless may become poorer as the power supply declines.. it will eventually stop working.. it is well over 4years old most likely unless you bought refurbished.. reliable operation is about 3years.. (plus 3days to be exact) at which point it can die any second.
You have had a good run.. replace it.
Poor signal on the Express.. which I note you didn't mention in your first post.. should be reset and located nearer to the TC.. they are not picking up enough signal to work well. If you have the latest express.. plug it by ethernet to the TC and bridge it.. turn off wireless in the TC and use the Express only.. that may work better until you steel yourself to purchase a new TC/Wireless router.

Airport express - what does it do?

I just want to check that this will fix the problem I have. I'm in the UK and have a BT wireless router downstairs, the one that on the adverts lets 3 people use it all at the same time all round the house for everything from surfing the net to watching movies. Mine (and I've changed it three times) has a strong signal by the router, cuts out if two of us are on the internet, and drops signal if you're more than about five metres from the router. However the download rate is good - 9-10 mbps, so when I do have a signal, it's a really good one.
My house is not huge, and the downstairs is shaped like an O - I have one wall in the middle of the house and that's it - no doors or anything that could block a signal, but for some reason, I get a rubbish signal at the opposite end of the house, virtually no signal upstairs (have to rely on 3G), but a strong signal by the router. I've had BT round and they've even moved my phone line from one end of the house to the other - whereever I place it I have a good signal, but at the opposite end it drops to 1 mbps. At the moment we've got it near the dining table for when we're working/playing games, but my wife would like to use her iPad upstairs in bed on the weekends, and at the moment she's having to use my iPhone's 3G.
Can I plug in an Airport express somewhere in the house to 'boost' or amplify the signal so that I have a good signal all around the house? I think this is what the airport express does, but the literature on the info page says to plug it into your router to set it up. I would want this plugged into a socket at one end of the house, with the router at the other end, so that I have a better all round signal. Can this be done with an airport express? And can I do that without wires? And without having to plug in another phone cable?
Thanks

Demonlawyer.
Sorry to revive an old post - And I hope you have it set up - but if not, here is some further information for you.
BT doesn’t supply "Repeaters" (That’s what they’re called). You can buy them from big name manufacturers (Netgear, Buffalo, Linksys etc) and they will work with the BT Home Hub with a little coaxing (read configuration).
The product here is used to provide a wireless signal (and a USB access point and an audio jack) to a WIRED modem/router. I.E Say you had an old BT Modem that did not have wireless. You would plug that into this gizmo, and boom, wireless.
This product can also be used as an extender (repeater), but only with compatible Apple products.
Now - To the reason I replied...
The jack (or socket) on the Airport Extreme is what’s called an Ethernet Port. This is used to connect a modem to the Airport Express. The HomeHub is both a Router AND a modem. This is why the Home Hub can be connected to a UK telephone line.
If you have a friend who uses cable (Virgin), you'll notice that generally they have a small blue box, plugged into a wireless router.
Now - To the reason I replied... (Part 2)…
That’s the reason your little black cable with the gray end won’t connect to the Apple Airport Extreme. The socket on the Airport is for a modem, which is connected to your telephone line.
If you haven’t already gathered, this product won’t really work wonders with your problem. Further investigation may be required. From your comments, I would suggest the following:
Change the channel your Wireless network is on. Generally, your Home Hub is set to Auto. A lot of things can interfere with a WiFi signal, including (but not limited to) Microwaves, Cordless Phones, Set Top Boxes etc.
There are a lot of good articles on the internet regarding the above. I would do a Google search for "HomeHub change wireless channel" and see what comes up.
Hope this provides some help!
Thanks,
Nick

Confused on what Airport Express does?

Hello all! I'm getting ready to order some misc. items from the Apple Store and even after reading the web pages on what the Airport Express is suppose to do I'm confused if I need one for my MBP or not. I have an Airport Extreme at home and it works great with my MBP all over the house (even decent outside on the deck) and when we were staying at a hotel this summer I was able to walk into their business office, fire up my MBP and instantly connect to the Net via their wi-fi. Apple's site mentions that to connect in hotel rooms the Airport Express may be used - but I'm curious as to why exactly (I mean if the hotel has wi-fi in the rooms is the Airport Express still needed)?
Thanks for clearing this up for me!

Easum:
What you would have to do is plug in a wired ethernet cord into the bottom of Airport Express. Then you can configure your Airport Express to broadcast a wireless internet signal. You can make your SSID and such the same as at home, with the same security settings, so that you don't have to keep switching networks everywhere you go.
You can also set up "profiles" if you use it at home, so that at home it is used as an Access Point or Range Expander, and on the go it is your wireless router with an ethernet connection.
It's a really great tool to travel with if the hotels you stay at are all wired connections.

My airport express connects then it drops off i am trying to set it up to extend my wifi, what am i doing wrong?

I can get it to recognize it, then it drops off. I am just trying to extend my wifi through out the house. I understand that there can be some interference from other things in the house. What else am i not doing? Thanks

Here is what the AirPort Express literature says. I have underlined the point that the Apple folks should have told you about:
Extend an existing Wi-Fi network’s range.
If you already have a wireless network in your home and want to extend its range, AirPort Express can help. Just place it in range of your primary base station — an AirPort Extreme, Time Capsule, or another AirPort Express — and near the area where you want your wireless connection

How to get Airport Express to authenticate the PPPoE connection so that more than one computer can get online

Hello,
I have to use a PPPoe Connection with my ISP and have some troubles setting up the Airport Express. I can only use the Airport in Bridge Mode and DHPC and authenticate the PPPoE on the mac individually. With this solution, no second computer can be set up to use internet at the same time.
I want the Airport Expres to authenticate and pass on "free internet" so that I can connect as many devices as I wish in a normal manner (without PPPoE). However, as soon as I put all the relevant information into the Airport Express, no Internet is coming through anymore. I can connect the computers to the Airport, but there is no interet and the Airport Utility will tell me the same in its settings.
What can I do? A support member in the apple store told me there is no way to authenticate with the Airport Express but could not tell me what the Airport Express' PPPoE setting was there for in the first place. My ISP told me many customers use Airport Express Routers and that there should not be any problem.
I am stuck:(
Thanks for your help in advance

The AirPort Express can support PPPoE regardless of what the Apple Store employee told you.
To configure the Express to do so you will need to use the AirPort Utility:
AirPort Utility > Select the Express > Edit
Internet tab > Connect Using: PPPoE
Enter the appropriate PPPoE information that your ISP has provided you in the fields on this tab.
Click on Update and allow the Express to restart.
The important thing about PPPoE is that only the device that is directly connected to the Internet should be configured of providing the PPPoE credentials, all other devices should be configured for using DHCP. Note: I am assuming that your AirPort Express is the only router in your current network configuration and that it is directly connected to an Internet modem and not another router upstream of it.

Connecting iTunes to Samsung smart TV using airport express.

Does anyone have any experience of connecting airport express to a Samsung smart TV to use as powered speakers? I have connected using a standard convertor cable from 3.5mm jack to dual connections but this is not showing up on the TV 'Source'. Samsung support have not been very helpful but I dont think I'm trying to do anything ground-breaking?! This worked perfectly well on the previous TV.
If this is a no-go - has anyone managed to stream iTunes onto the TV using the wireless network?
Any help/hints/warnings would be greatly appreciated.

My TV has RCA-type analog inputs but for some reason they do not recognise the input from the Airport Express. The music is streaming ok because if I connect headphones to the port on the airport I can get music playing.
I'm loathe to buy Apple TV to do what the Airport Express should do for me - however, I might end up down that route. Can I play all content from my iMac - even music which was loaded from CDs onto the machine rather than purchased through iTunes. I really dont want to have to pay £25 a year to mirror content I've already purchased in iCloud so that I can play it in my own house.
Thanks for the advice.

Airport express identification and 1st and 2nd generation connectivity

Hi
I have three questions regarding airport express
1. How do i know what model airport express i have? i'm not sure if i bought before or after 2008 if it operates with 802.11b/g or 802.11a/b/g/Draft N
2. Second question is if I have the 802.11a/b/g/Draft N 1st generation can i connect it to a 2nd generation airport express to extent the range of my wifi?
3. If yes, should i connect 2nd generation to router and then use 1st generation to extend the range? or vice versa
Thank you in advance for your help

How do i know what model airport express i have? i'm not sure if i bought before or after 2008 if it operates with 802.11b/g or 802.11a/b/g/Draft N
Get out those reading glasses or a magnifying glass and locate the model number on the side of the AirPort Express. It starts with an "A" followed by four numbers.
A1084 or A1088 are older "b/g" versions of the AirPort Express.....not really compatible with much of anything anymore, since they do not have a setting or capability to "extend a wireless network".
A1264 is the 1st Gen 802.11n version.....which will work with the new Lion, Mountain Lion and Mavericks operating systems.
Second question is if I have the 802.11a/b/g/Draft N 1st generation can i connect it to a 2nd generation airport express to extent the range of my wifi?
Yes, but since the 1st Gen Express is not dual band, it will only be able to extend one band from the newer 2nd Gen Express.....probably the 2.4 GHz band since that is the stronger signal. If you want or need to extend dual bands, then you will need two 2nd Gen Express devices.
If yes, should i connect 2nd generation to router and then use 1st generation to extend the range? or vice versa
2nd Gen would be connected to the router and the 1st Gen would extend.
That way, you will at least get dual bands from the 2nd Gen. If you reverse the process.....remember that the 1st Gen is single band....the 2nd Gen will only extend one band....and you will lose some of the performance capability of the device.

Anybody use an Apple AirPort Express Base Station (windows)

http://store.apple.com/uk/product/MB...mco=MTIxODk3Mw
Im thinking about getting one of these and just wanting people opinions on it working with windows.
Just im a little confused, can i use it as a wireless router insted of my net gear, or will i still have to use my net gear router. My internet comes from the telephone wire if that helps?
Many thanks James

Hello jshrubb. Welcome to the Apple Discussions!
Since you didn't include the model of your Netgear router, it will be a little hard to determine if the AirPort Express Base Station (AX) could replace all of its functions.
So, here's what the AirPort Express is, and is not to help you decide:
o The AX is an Internet wireless router.
o The AX does not have a built-in modem: DSL, ADSL, Satellite or cable ... so one of these will still be required.
o The AX does not have a built-in Ethernet switch. It does have an Ethernet port, but that ports primary function is to be connected to the modem. However, it could be used to connect a wired client, but only if the AX is reconfigured as either a remote or relay base station in a Wireless Distribution System (WDS). The bottom-line here is that if you need to support wired clients, the AX would not be the appropriate choice for your network.
o The AX does support iTunes audio streaming so that when connected to either a pair of powered speakers or an audio system, you can stream iTunes to speakers wirelessly.

I just replaced my airport extreme and now the amber light on my airport express is flashing and so it is not being recognized. I have been on the computer and gone to airport utility and it is simply not showing up at all. What can I do?

I just replaced my airport extreme and now the amber light on my airport express is blinking. When I go to utilities and try to find the airport express it does not show up.
What should I do?

Anytime you change networking hardware it is always a good idea to perform a complete power recycle of that hardware. Check out the following AirPort User Tip for details. Please post back your results.

What is the proper way to extend 2nd generation time capsule network to 2nd generation Airport Express?

I have a Simultaneous Dual Band Time Capsule. Up until now, I have been extending the network with the Airport Express (2nd Gen, the 802.11n model). Since it was not simultaneous dual band, it was extending over the 2.4 GHz band so as it could extend b, g, and n and support my iPhone at 2.4 n as well as my iPad and MacBook Pro at 5 GHz.
I just bought the new simultaneous dual band unit, which theoreticalkly should be able to extend both bands.
Now, it is not that simple. I also run a guest network, which I assume also gets extended when WDS is on. I also still have the old Express which I have relegated to another part of the house.
When I set up the new Express, it asked me which one of the networks I want to join, either <SSID> or <SSID 5GHz>, the automatically generated name for the the 5 GHz band on the Time Capsule. Which one do I join? How do I know that both are extended? When I connect to the <SSID 5GHz> now my iPhone can see that one and connect to it, so I am assuming it is NOT going at 5 GHz.
And I have no idea at all what the guest network is doing....
Does anyone have any insight into tthe proper way to configure all the units, and what I can expect? My network is as follows:
Airport Express (Simultaneous Dual Band)
Cable Modem > Time Capsule (Simultaneous Dual Band) >
Airport Express (802.11n, last gen)
I want to run guest network (hopefully simultaneous dual band) and personal network. I want the new express to run both bands just like the Time Capsule, and for the old express I want to know which of the two bands I am extending.
Thank You!

I also run a guest network, which I assume also gets extended when WDS is on
Unfortunately, the Guest Network cannot be extended.
When I set up the new Express, it asked me which one of the networks I want to join, either <SSID> or <SSID 5GHz>, the automatically generated name for the the 5 GHz band on the Time Capsule.
This likely indicates that the Time Capsule has been setup to use separate names for the 5 GHz and 2.4 GHz bands, instead of the default, which uses the same wireless network name for both bands.
In order for the AirPort Express to be able to extend both bands, the Time Capsule will need to be configured so that both bands use the same wireless network name.
Then, configure the AirPort Express to extend the wireless network name of the Time Capsule, and it will extend both bands. At least, that is the way an AirPort Extreme works, and I assume that the Express is the same. I don't have an Express here to test, but will in another day or two.
The location of the Express is important, since the 5 GHz signals are not as strong as 2.4 GHz signals. You may need to experiment by placing the Express closer to the Time Capsule than normal. With an AirPort Extreme, I find that the Extreme must be located no more than about half the distance from the main router to the area that needs more wireless coverage.
If you continue to use the previous model Express to extend as well, it too must be configured to extend the wireless network name of the Time Capsule. Configured this way, the Express will extend the stronger of the 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz signals, so it will likely extend the 2.4 GHz band unless it is located close to the Time Capsule.
To find out which band the previous model Express is extending, locate a Mac laptop close to the Express and hold down the option key on your Mac while you click on the AirPort icon at the top of the screen. The info displayed will indicate whether you (and the Express) are connecting using 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz.

What is Airport Express?

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for