Help needed as I seem to losing the plot.
I've moved the family to Mac's over the past few years and now have the following setup:
24" Imac as the main system,
Old mac mini as the media server
various macbooks and ipads etc
I have an Airport Extreme which connects to my internet provider.
I have a wired ethernet network which connects the Imac, the mac mini and then another switch in the kitchen.
Hanging off this switch is an ethernet printer.
I also have an airport express in the kitchen primarily to stream music from the mac mini in the other room to the audio setup in the kitchen.
So here's the rub.
The wireless signal to the kitchen isnt great and the Airplay drops out.
Ive tried the following:
1) Add a wireless extender to the network in the kitchen. This appliance is connected directly to the ethernet and acts as a wireless access point. So far so good. I get a great signal and the Airport Express works fine. Then, after a period of time, (30 minutes or 3 days - very random) the Airplay stops responding and I can no longer connect to the remote speakers. If I remove the wireless extender from the network and restart the airport express it all works again. However the signal is still weak and I have lots of drop outs.
2) I decided to try and make this an apple only network. So I removed the switch the network in the kitchen and plugged the ethernet directly into the Airport Express. This seemed to have worked. I set it to create a wireless network of the same name as that on the Extreme. However whilst the wireless signal is now very strong I get a really slow network performance and sometimes cannot get the Airplay to connect.
Im sure Ive missed something or indeed doing something daft.
Any help would be much appreciated!
Cheers,
PM.
I've moved the family to Mac's over the past few years and now have the following setup:
24" Imac as the main system,
Old mac mini as the media server
various macbooks and ipads etc
I have an Airport Extreme which connects to my internet provider.
I have a wired ethernet network which connects the Imac, the mac mini and then another switch in the kitchen.
Hanging off this switch is an ethernet printer.
I also have an airport express in the kitchen primarily to stream music from the mac mini in the other room to the audio setup in the kitchen.
So here's the rub.
The wireless signal to the kitchen isnt great and the Airplay drops out.
Ive tried the following:
1) Add a wireless extender to the network in the kitchen. This appliance is connected directly to the ethernet and acts as a wireless access point. So far so good. I get a great signal and the Airport Express works fine. Then, after a period of time, (30 minutes or 3 days - very random) the Airplay stops responding and I can no longer connect to the remote speakers. If I remove the wireless extender from the network and restart the airport express it all works again. However the signal is still weak and I have lots of drop outs.
2) I decided to try and make this an apple only network. So I removed the switch the network in the kitchen and plugged the ethernet directly into the Airport Express. This seemed to have worked. I set it to create a wireless network of the same name as that on the Extreme. However whilst the wireless signal is now very strong I get a really slow network performance and sometimes cannot get the Airplay to connect.
Im sure Ive missed something or indeed doing something daft.
Any help would be much appreciated!
Cheers,
PM.