Designating a bandwidth to an Express

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I have an Airport Extreme (not the new dual band) running a wireless network in my house. I'm considering getting Airport Express (n-band) to use for the Airtunes and extend my network signal throughout the house better.

I have an MBP, iPod Touch, Nintendo Wii, and will likely end up with an iPhone if it ever switches to Verizon.

My question: is there any way to use the Express for the b/g bandwidth toys in my house (Touch, Wii, etc) and run the Extreme on the n-bandwidth for my MBP signal? I'm trying to avoid dropping my n-signal to a b/g signal while using other things when I want to stream things on my MBP.

Or am I working against myself because I want to use the Express for streaming Airtunes music to my stereo, am I better leaving it up to the network to run what bandwidth it can.

Thanks.
 
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The entire network will default to the fastest speed of the slowest device connected to it. If you have a B device connected, the entire network becomes B. You can not select specific devices for specific speeds individually.

The work around is to disconnect any slow (B) devices when not in use and the network will kick up to N on it's own. Since your Main Router (Airport Extreme) in a B/G device, this really isn't practical. The easy fix is buy a new N Airport Extreme.
 
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My solution is to run the iMac and MBP on 11n off Time Capsule and have 11g Express for iPhone and wireless Printer. Note seems to work better with Express off of one of the TC ports rather than having both TC and Express off router
 
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So you have split your network into two? If they are connected in any way, they will all default to G (or the slowest device).
 
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The easy fix is buy a new N Airport Extreme.

Right didn't mention that my Extreme is an N.

Collin, correct me if I don't get it, but you must have your Express close enough to your Extreme to hook up an ethernet cable, right? That won't work with my plan. My stereo is in another room. Nor will it help to expand my signal into the stereo and other parts of my house right?

Honestly, I've heard that home router speeds rarely reach optimal n speeds anyway, so this all my be moot. But I figured, if I'm buying an Express for music, might as well try to optimize my n network if I could.
 
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Hard to picture what u r trying to do - if it is just extending the 11n to the express that hangs off Stereo then it is possible to extend a 11n network. If u also want to extend Network to run 11g for iPhone at other end of house the express will do that but one unit wont extend 11g and 11n at the same time
 
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but one unit wont extend 11g and 11n at the same time

That answers it then. That's about what I expected. I was wondering if I could split the signal and have 11n for my MBP off the Extreme and 11g for the other accessories of the Express. I think this may now be possible with the dual band Extremes, but I'm not sure with our home router if I'd notice and major speed increases.

Thanks for the help.
 
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I think this may now be possible with the dual band Extremes, but I'm not sure with our home router if I'd notice and major speed increases..

As I said before, I do not believe it is.

Unless you split the network in two and have them in no way connected, the whole network will default to the fastest speed of the slowest device. In your case that speed would G as long as there are any G devices on the network. If there is a single B device, then the whole network will slow to B as long as that device is connected no matter what the speed of the other devices.
 
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My guess is that there is no advantage in running music over a 11n set up but there is an advantage in have MBP running 11n if you have great download connection. My 11n is on the 5GHz set up so the 2 units can benefit from a fast wireless LAN. My iPhone cannot even show the 11n 5GH network. In your case you could extend the 11g network for music and everything else. If there are big distances involved you may need to have 2 units to cover the distance for the 11g network.
 
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As I said before, I do not believe it is.
devices.

From Apple's website on the latest Extreme:

Simultaneous dual-band support.Some Wi-Fi devices use the 2.4GHz wireless band, including iPhone, iPod touch, and devices using 802.11b/g. Other devices can use either 2.4GHz or the higher-speed 5GHz band, such as the latest 802.11n-based Mac computers and Apple TV. Instead of choosing one of the bands, AirPort Extreme now operates simultaneously on both bands, and your multiband devices automatically use the best available band. This means all your Wi-Fi devices get the fastest possible wireless performance and the best possible range.

Now, that may be splitting the network and we are saying the same thing baggss, but I'm not sure.

EDIT: Found this on a Macworld review for the new Extreme. Seems it is 2 networks with 1 SSID.:

Simultaneous dual-band works around this by having two dedicated networks, one for each band, allowing the highest speeds for every Wi-Fi adapter.

The two networks, by default, share the same SSID (or name), since there aren’t many reasons why you would want to separate the two.
 
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From Apple's website on the latest Extreme:

Simultaneous dual-band support.Some Wi-Fi devices use the 2.4GHz wireless band, including iPhone, iPod touch, and devices using 802.11b/g. Other devices can use either 2.4GHz or the higher-speed 5GHz band, such as the latest 802.11n-based Mac computers and Apple TV. Instead of choosing one of the bands, AirPort Extreme now operates simultaneously on both bands, and your multiband devices automatically use the best available band. This means all your Wi-Fi devices get the fastest possible wireless performance and the best possible range.

Now, that may be splitting the network and we are saying the same thing baggss, but I'm not sure.

EDIT: Found this on a Macworld review for the new Extreme. Seems it is 2 networks with 1 SSID.:

Simultaneous dual-band works around this by having two dedicated networks, one for each band, allowing the highest speeds for every Wi-Fi adapter.

The two networks, by default, share the same SSID (or name), since there aren’t many reasons why you would want to separate the two.

You just gave me a reason to go buy a new Extreme! Thanks!
 
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Looks good but i want more - do the latest Time Capsules also do dual band - fingers crossed.
 

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