[Peter]

I have an existing belkin router with a wifi network, could i use my Airport Expres thing to extend the current network to other areas of my house? Or do i need an Apple basestation router?

[peter myson]

Not sure if that this helps but yesterday I added a base station set up as a remote to my belikin ADSL network (using 10.4.3) The network works but because I've had to use the same name on the base station I have no idea if I'm connecting to the internet via the original belikin or the remote Furthermore the Epson printer attached to the base station is "seen" by the base station but will not show in the add printers list on my powerbook And (if your not bored by now) I have attached the base station by Ethernet cable to a pc running windows 2k (I need both), the pc will not access the net.
So it is not straightforward and I would appreciate any help you or the rest of the world can give. The apple troubleshooter is no help at all. Thanks for reading, war and peace next!

[ghporter]

This sort of depends on what you mean by "extend my network." Theoretically, you can use any wireless access point to creat an Extended Service Set and thus build a "roaming" network. To do this, you plug BOTH/ALL access points' ethernet connections into the same wired router, give them the same network name (SSID, or in this case ESSID), and put them on different channels. With an AirPort Express, I don't think that's what you're aiming for.

I believe, Peter, that you want to use the Express as a "range extender." It will do that, but only for an AirPort Base Station. This seems to be true of ALL wireless systems; they only work to extend the range of the same brand's products (and not all of those, either).

peter myson, if you change the channel on one of your wireless devices-it doesn't matter which one-you'll be able to tell immediately which one you're connecting to. As for what's going on with the Win2K machine, I'd need to know more about how everything is set up to be able to say anything about it.

[peter myson]

Hi Glen thanks for the reply, at present I have a belkin wireless ADSL, which I have accessed from both my laptop (airport) and a w2k pc via a Dlink USB receiver. This worked well except that printing was a problem, I had two printer connected via USB to the pc which, in order to work had to be permanently on. However it worked and I’ve been too busy to change. But now the Dlink has failed and I got the opportunity to acquire an Airport Extreme Base Station and therefore for reasons of house geography and my aversion to wires I thought I would set up a network as follows:
Belkin ADSL by the phone point.
Airport Base station set up as a remote and attached via Ethernet to the w2k pc with one of the printers connected via USB to the base station:
Powerbook as before only now able to print without the pc powered up.

But in this configuration whilst the base station “sees” the printer the pc will not connect to the Internet or the printer (not vital) and the powerbook will not see the printer!

I believe the powerbook is connecting to the Internet via the Airport extreme

Many thanks

Peter

[ghporter]

The PC connecting is a simple issue. Go into the AirPort Admin Utility for the AirPort Base Station and in the Network tab UNcheck the "Distribute IP addresses" checkbox. Restart the PC and it should be fine.

The PC may require reloading the printer's USB driver before it can see it, since now the printer is networked (from the PC's point of view) whereas it wasn't before.

[peter myson]

Hi Glen Tried that and still no joy from the pc. Incidentally I've also foud out that on the powerbook I am connecting to the internet via the belkin NOT the base station.
Again many thank for your time

Peter