Airport Express

kryystkryyst Ontario, Canada
edited December 2004 in Hardware
Wahoooo I just got my Airport Express, so sexy. Plus only $120cdn new.

I've been waiting for this thing for a month now just felt like doing a little internet dance.

:bowdown::bowdown:

Comments

  • GnomeWizarddGnomeWizardd Member 4 Life Akron, PA Icrontian
    edited December 2004
    explain what that is?
  • verselloversello New
    edited December 2004
    Awesome. :thumbsup:



    Pix!
  • HawkHawk Fla Icrontian
    edited December 2004
    Cool, Let us know how easy or hard it is to set up. And give us some input on how your using it and how you like it. I posted a news article on it on the front page for anyone who wants to know what it is and does. Seems like a pretty cool device.
  • fatcatfatcat Mizzou Icrontian
    edited December 2004
    nice...iwant 1 also for my ipod...like hawk said let us know ur imput. i will definetly wanna hear about it.
  • kryystkryyst Ontario, Canada
    edited December 2004
    I'll be hooking it up tonight so I'll post on how that goes once all is said and done. But for those who don't know what it is and are too lazy to read the good article on the front page here's the short on it.

    The Airport Express is basically a Wireless Access Point and repeater, plus some more features....

    So I have my PC upstairs and a linksys WRTG router. On the main floor I have the Entertainment centre + Xbox. So I hook up the AE downstairs behind my Entertainment Centre. I then Run cat cable from my xbox to it and run min-audio to RCA adapter from my stereo to the AE. So now wirelessly I can get my xbox on xbox live and I can also start up Itunes on my computer and stream the audio to my Stereo. Plus It also extends the range of my wireless network by aprox 500'. That wasn't an issue for me but it can be very beneficial for some.

    Linksys also makes a WAP for xbox so you can do the wireless hookup but that alone is $149cdn and all it does is allow you to put one wired device (xbox/pc/whatever) onto your wireless network. I could also then use XBMC to stream audio from my computer to my xbox and then out through my stereo. But that means having to have the xbox on. With this device I don't need to do that. There is also a remote control you can get that allows you to control itunes via the airprot express but I don't need that really anyway. I just turn on itunes set it on shuffle and I'm good to go.
  • kryystkryyst Ontario, Canada
    edited December 2004
    Ok so I got the AE hooked up and running. Took a little messing around but it was pretty easy.

    So here is what I did to get it working.....First these are only my instructions for setting it up with a Linksys WRT54G router.

    First you need to put some third party firmware on your router. This is the one I used and seems to be the most popular.

    http://www.linksysinfo.org/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=viewdownload&cid=8

    Save it to your desktop and then open a browser to your router and flash it. It looks the same as the standard linksys interface but it has a tonne of new features not only usefull for this application but many others such as network segmenting, ssh, VPN bandwidth limiting and more. I'd recomend flashing your router to this software even if not setting things up for an Air Port Express.

    This is the main article I used to do the setup but it neglected to mention a thing or two that needed to be done.

    http://weblogs.java.net/blog/inder/archive/2004/10/using_airport_e_1.html

    So I'll assume the router has been flashed. I should also mention that I don't have WEP enabled for this - yet. I'll do that at a later date for now I'm just using MAC filtering and specking all the MAC's in my network.

    1) In your linksys settings make sure that you have it set act as a DHCP server.

    2) Before plugging in the AE connect a CAT cable to it from your router. I also read someplace to hook a pair of headphones or speakers into the speaker jack. I don't know why you'd need to but I did anyway.

    3) Plug in the AE and it'll go through a series of lights that takes about 20-30 secs before it should come to a solid green light. If it has a solid Orange or flashing Orange then most likely it hasn't picked up an IP from your router so check the DHCP settings on your router. Unplug the AE and try again.

    4) Install the AE software let it do it's thing but when it finally comes to wanting to do the Express Setup don't do it. Instead go to Airport program group and choose AirPort Admin Utility.

    5) It will start up and should show you your AE residing at an obtained IP (probably 192.168.1.100 - 192.168.1.104). Note the two MAC address that it's displaying.

    6) Back to your linksys settings first in the wireless settings set the channel to 1. Then in the WDS settings enable WDS and put in both of the MAC addresses for the AE. Save the changes on each page as you go along and that is all you need to configure on your router.

    7) Back to the AE. Go to the configure screen first stop AirPort tab.
    Give it a name doesn't matter spaces numbers whatever. You can also give it a location if you want.
    In "Use Base Station to:" set the pull down to Create a Wireless Network
    set the Network name to your SSID
    You probably also want to change the password for the AE.
    Channel to 1 (you should have also set your router to 1)
    everything else on the page leave as is

    8) Internet tab set Connect Using: to AirPort (WDS) then plug in the wireless MAC for your linksys wich is obtained in the wireless settings. Your router will have three MAC addresses xx:xx:xx:yy the xx's will all be the same the yy's should be three different values so mine for example were 67, 68, and 69. the Wireless MAC should normally be the highest value so in my case it was xx:xx:xx:69.
    Then set Configure using DHCP (default anyway)

    9) Network tab make sure that page has nothing enabled

    10) next several tabs do nothing

    11) WDS tab checkmark Enable this base station as WDS remote base station
    and check mark Allow wireless clients on this base station
    and put in the linksys Wireless MAC again.

    12) Music Tab put in a couple check marks and give it a name.

    click on update to save all the changes and you are done. The AE will flash a few times and will either go solid green or Orange. Your router will also probably start going wonky. This is because you have the same device trying to connect twice to the router once via the cat cable and once via wireless which is a big no no. However that means things are set up right

    Unplug the AE unplug the CAT and plug it back in after 20-30secs you should be back at a solid green light. At that point you can start up AirPort Admin again check the IP and ping it. If you get a reply you are done.

    If not check your settings or worse case reset and start over.
  • HawkHawk Fla Icrontian
    edited December 2004
    kryyst, Thanks a bunch for doing that. I know that took a lot of time to document the whole process. I think everyone else that reads it will appreciate it too. Cudos to you my friend for a well done setup article.
  • kryystkryyst Ontario, Canada
    edited December 2004
    Not a problem. Little bit of effort now could save a lot of frustration for others later.
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