04-21-2012, 08:56 AM

Purchased airport extreme and one airport express extender. Works great. However the extender doesn't bring enough consistent Wi-Fi service to a PetCam we have installed on the lanai, causing PetCam to lose connection periodically. Toying with notion of adding our retired D-Link 655 router as an extender in an attempt to bolster the signal in lanai. Does anyone know if this is possible and if so, how would I go about doing this.

04-21-2012, 09:02 AM

How large is the area you're trying to cover? In so many cases, I see people doing backflips over trying to compensate for what they don't realize is simply poor placement of their primary wireless router.

I have a D-Link DIR-655 - I will look to see what options it has, but I'm not sure how nicely it will play with the Apple networking gear (which offers a weak feature set by comparison).

04-21-2012, 12:06 PM

Our carriage home is approx. 1700 sq. ft. Airport extreme is located in the media room and it does not appear that I will be able to relocate it to a more centralized location. You make a good point in this regard.

We retired D-Link 655 before installing Airport extreme and 1 express extender in February. We have 3 PetCams in the condo; one is located in the lani and the 655 signal was strong enough to manage all 3 w/o issue. The Airport signal to this lani PetCam appears to be weak and inconsistent [meaning it is programmed to email pictures each hour on the hour from 8a - 6p each day and now it only sends pics about 50% of the time]. We can remote in the PetCams [we have 3] and the lani signal is weak. You're probably wondering why we made a change; we also have an AT&T M-Cell and it kept dropping the wireless signal; so we upgraded to the Expreme and it fixed the M-Cell connectivity issue.

Can I convert the express into a wireless router of its own and connect that to the extreme in an effort to bolster the signal to the petcam on the lani. Right now the express is plugged into an outlet in the living area; that area is adjacent to the lanai; the express shares the same wall as the PetCam [with the Petcam being mounted in the lani and the express is on that same wall, inside of the condo]. For some reason the signal just can't make its way thru the wall and the sliding glass doors into the adjacent lani. Your assistance would be appreciated.