So basically my house is about 100 years old. Apparently back then they used some kind of wiring in the walls that causes major interference with WiFi signal. Only a couple rooms of the house can get WiFi signal from our current AirPort Extreme.


Problem: Need to extend wireless network into the living room.

What I think the solution is (but cant get it to work): Run an ethernet cable from Airport Extreme into the living room and attach an AirPort Express.

For the life of me however I cannot make this work as simple as this seems. Trips to the Apple store haven't solved the problem either.

Someone out there PLEASE help me.

(If this is any motivation I will give you a free print of any photo I've ever taken.)

 

You can't extend the signal wirelessly via the airport express? As long as you put the express in a location that gets wifi, but is closer to the areas missing it then it should work.

If you need to use wired ethernet to connect the express, you can set the airport express up as its own wireless network with the same network name and password as the extreme. This will make it so you are unable to connect to machines on the extreme's network, but will work if you must use wired.

I think there may be a way to have the express wired in and use WDS to extend the network, but I've never had WDS work reliably.

 

Express's are ok extenders, but as Pinned stated you use them in a mesh network where each one is wireless and then from that point it extends to the next one and so on.

Netgear or Cisco have better AP's for this this type of set up, the Express is kind of weak. It works well as a wireless printer or audio when there is a strong network signal but as an extender they are only ok.

 

Unfortunately, no. There is a long corridore before you actually get to the couches and whatnot so you cant get the express close enough to the seating area while still getting signal from the AirPort Extreme.

Apparently what I am trying to set up is a Roaming Network but I just cant seem to get it to work properly.

 

well I wirelessly daisy chained a couple expresses together and have got it to work...kind of. Right next to my Extreme I get download speeds of just short of 20mbps while in the living room I get 4mbps

 

No home wiring known to man will interfere with 2-5Ghz wifi, no matter how old or strange it is. I would use MacStumbler or similar and see what other networks exist in the area. It's possible someone is using a large amp or something and blowing away your signal.

If possible, use N-only mode on the Extreme and see if that helps or solves your problem.

You can run the express in ethernet bridge mode to accomplish what you're after, though I suspect there's a larger issue affecting your signal.

 

My kids were having trouble keeping Xbox linked wirelessly to play live. After trying alot of soloutions on my own I had the GeekSquad come and planed on running a hard wire. The tech installed this gizmo that plugs into the router on my 3rd floor where the router is located and then via cat 5 plugs into a transformer looking thing that plugs into the wall power outlet. that makes the wifi signal run in the homes electric wires and now I get awesome WiFi all over the house and about 20 feet outside no issues at all.

Using apple timecapsule with build ing WiFi.

 

Any idea what the name of said gizmo is?

 

It's an ethernet power line adapter. They are not particularly great for throughput but can work when nothing else does.

 

Airport Extremes and Expresses all over our 80-year-old house. Seven or eight in total. Works like a charm. I start picking up the signal a block or two away!