Technology Should Work

[fj]

Annoying. My new Apple Airport Express (AE) arrived today, and I can't really get it to work like I want to. Right out of the box, set to manage its own wireless network, it does just fine if I set my laptop to attach only to that network. My laptop can then stream music to the AE which pipes it to the speakers plugged into it, and I am sure Internet would work too if I attached the AE to the cable internet. But I do not want that, I want the AE to become part of my existing network so I can stream music to it while being on the internet normally through my home's wireless network. And it doesn't want to do that. Sure the green light flashes on when I set my home settings, and our wireless router even claims the AE attached itself properly, but my laptop can't stream music to it. Can't even administer it anymore.

Meanwhile it seems that the wired network card on this laptop was not installed properly. Susan, could you check your Fujitsu P1120 and tell me what driver I need to install from the list?

Comments

[qnetter]

I'm reasonably certain it will only accept streaming on the downstream (LAN) side, and presumably, your notebook is a client of your main router and therefore on the WAN side of the AE, right?

the problem may be ...

[henare.livejournal.com]

that the protocol which lets you glue base stations together isn't standardized across vendors, and so apple's equipment isn't necessarily going to work with equipment from other vendors when you want to use this feature.

see footnote 5 on this page to confirm this on apple's own documentation. search google for "airpot express extends d-link network" (or whatever brand you're using) to see the frustrations people are having with this ... apple's support forums may also have some tips for using airport express to extend your particular brand of network.

[danger-chick.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a job for mangosteen.

BTW, did the Pinkerton's call pinkfish? I hear that they have been calling my friends and asking nosy questions.

[earthling177.livejournal.com]

You might want to try using the Airport Admin Utility (you should have a copy of it in the CD that comes with the Airport Express).

First, plug the AE near a computer that has a working Airport base station (might work for other base stations too, I dunno) and use Airport Admin Utility to configure AE, first as if it would be a standalone base station, including base station "name", passwords etc.

Now, tell Airport Admin Utility to configure the main base station; click WDS, Enable this base station as a WDS, main base station, Allow wireless clients on this base station; then click "+" to scan base stations, select the AE from the list, click Auto configure as a WDS remote base station.

When the base stations restart and all the changes are complete, unplug the AE, take it to the other location, plug in the stereo/speakers and then plug in the AE to the wall.

You might want to check the user guide to see how to completely reset the AE to factory defaults (I forget how long you need to poke the tiny switch with a paper clip to do it) before doing all that if you can't administer it anymore.

I find the entire thing counter-intuitive, because my impression is that I could just start administering the AE and switch it to WDS, but the second you do that, you can't do anything else that still may need to be done, like attaching it to the main base station. Yuck. The above procedure worked for me when I was testing an Airport Express before I sent it to my brother in Brazil. Good luck!

[(Anonymous)]

ITYM 'Technology should sell' or at most 'Technology should work, but not until everybody's buying it'.

[malte.livejournal.com]

argh. that was me.

[houseboi.livejournal.com]

I will blow anyone here who can tell me how to set up my Airport equipment at work. Seriously. Wireless works fine, but most of our wired comps don't.