Range extension on Apple network

Hi All

I have a longish house, and my time capsule with wifi has to be at one end of the house, where it plugs in to the router. I have set the time capsule to bridge mode and was hoping to relay the wireless signal along the house first to one airport express, which would then forward the signal to the next airport express, so as to cover the length of the house. The 2 airport expresses have been set to "extend wireless network" but do not appear to be producing the wireless signal. The LED's on the airport expresses are green for most of the time, but occasionally revert to blinking amber.

What am I doing wrong? Is it to do with the time capsule having 2 transmission frequencies, as I understand it, and the airport expresses only 1?

Is it possible to jump the signal from one station to another in this way? The guys in the apple store seemed to think it would work, but weren't network specialists.

Any advice much appreciated.

Peter

How are you determining it is not working?

The Time Capsule does have simultaneous dual band. The Aiport Expresses can only do one band at a time. It will typically extend the 2.4GHz as that usually has the better signal unless you force the network to 5GHz. If you are having signal problems due to being large, I'd recommend against trying to use the 5GHz network.

Anyway in Airport Utility you want it to extend the wireless. Do you have Allow wireless clients checked as well?

Lastly it seems that Access Control has been pushed out to each individual device - do you have Mac filtering on?

It works that way for me.

I use Istumbler to double check my wireless signal. You can also check in Airport utility - in the summary page you can click on the wireless clients to see where you are connected. My MBP does seem to jump depending on where I am. You can force it by turning the Wireless off and on.
http://www.istumbler.net/

IvanLasston said:

How are you determining it is not working?

The Time Capsule does have simultaneous dual band. The Aiport Expresses can only do one band at a time. It will typically extend the 2.4GHz as that usually has the better signal unless you force the network to 5GHz. If you are having signal problems due to being large, I'd recommend against trying to use the 5GHz network.

Anyway in Airport Utility you want it to extend the wireless. Do you have Allow wireless clients checked as well?

Lastly it seems that Access Control has been pushed out to each individual device - do you have Mac filtering on?

It works that way for me.

I use Istumbler to double check my wireless signal. You can also check in Airport utility - in the summary page you can click on the wireless clients to see where you are connected. My MBP does seem to jump depending on where I am. You can force it by turning the Wireless off and on.
http://www.istumbler.net/

Click to expand...

Thanks for advice. I installed istumbler and you're right...the airport expresses are producing radio signal, but not connecting to a network.
I have trawled through the apple documentation, tried setting up a WDS network, checked id's correct etc. but am getting nowhere.

Allow wireless clients boxes are checked.

Seems to be 2 ways of setting up a network....by using create and extend a wireless network, or by invoking a WDS setup (by option clicking the wireless tab....Apple hid that one well). I cannot get either to work. Should I be going for a WDS setup?

What is the deal with filtering MAC? Not sure what this means.

As I understand it, my router (livebox) is distributing the IP addresses to the computers on the network, and so the time capsule is in bridge mode, so as to just pass on these addresses to all connected computers etc..

All internet connections are fine when directly connected to the time capsule by ethernet cable, or by the wireless signal from the TC. The problem is that I cannot get the airport expresses to propagate the internet connection.

Peter

Just a note - pretty much any advanced configuration option is "hidden by Apple." I put it in quotes because they try to present the most used options without cluttering up the interface. Just remember if you can't find what you are looking for try the option button because - well it shows you options. I digress.

My setup is similar to yours. I have a 3 story house that I wanted to distribute signal around. I have a Netgear router that serves the DHCP and my TC is in bridge mode. I have 3 Airport Expresses scattered around the house for airtunes/signal boost. From what I understand WDS is the old system that was kind of hard to setup. You should be able just to select - extend my wireless network on the AEs and everything should extend.

MAC filtering is also known as access control in the Airport Utility. If you have that enabled you have to add the MAC addresses(also called Airport IDs) of the AEs to TC and vice versa. If you don't have access control on then you can skip this step.

The blinking Amber may be an indication that you are still too far apart (or that you need to upgrade firmware) When the light is green it means everything is connected and OK.

Just to be sure - you have it set to extend a wireless network. You have allow wireless clients. Your SSID is correct and the same throughout all hardware. I'm pretty sure all that is true just don't want to be chasing ghosts.

Again - depending on the model of your card it may not jump - it may try to stay connected to the previous network node. So as I said - if you walk to the other end of the house - turn the Airport Card in your laptop off/then on - and see if it connects to the nearest AE. Again you can tell that in Airport Utility under wireless clients.

If cycling power doesn't work you could try hooking up to the AE through the wired ethernet port (this will take some configuration so try the off/on thing first) - then at least you would know that you can get to the internet through the AE.

I have been doing more testing. I did notice that istumbler isn't always picking up all my AEs. I sat down at the other side of my house near one of my AEs, turned my Airport Card off/on - then looked at the Airport Utility. My laptop is connected to the close by AE and can get to the internet. As a matter of fact I am typing this right now on that connection. Even though that is all true - I don't see the AE broadcasting in istumbler. I do have it set to 5GHz which may be MY issue but I haven't fully debugged that.

Anyway - I am getting pretty decent bandwidth and signal over here.

Resolved

Thanks again for your help.

I now have the system up and running. It ended up a hybrid...the AE in the middle of the house is set as an extender and the furthest AE from the TC connects to the internet via an ethernet cable to the homeplug system...has to be set to "create a wireless network" and to connect via ethernet.

I have set the channel manually and so far haven't needed to flip the airport on and off to pick up the wireless in different bits of the house.

Peter