[bsupran]

I have extended my time capsule router-based wireless network using an airport express to boost the signal in far off places in the house. Every few hours the wireless internet connection to my imac (snow leopard) will fail and the only way to restore it is to unplug the express and plug it back in again. This immediately restores the connection. The light on the airport express remains solid green even when the connection is lost. Oddly, if I do not extend the network, the same imac (which is within decent range of the time capsule router) never seems to lose it connectivity. Any suggestions?

[Eug]

I found my Airport Express flaky with this sort of thing. Well, not quite the same, but I found that my Airport Express would lose the connection every once in a while if I tried to use its wireless bridge functionality to stream iTunes to my stereo. Unplugging it and replugging it in would restore functionality.

So, I took a different approach. I bought a powerline networking setup from Netgear. It was similar to this one reviewed by MacNN. (I used a different model which uses a different chipset, but the specs are the same.)

That gives me a "wired" network, and I run my Airport Express off it in wired mode, and then stream iTunes that way.

I also have used it as a backbone for a 2nd wireless access point, to extend wireless to far off places in the house, without having to resort to flaky WDS modes.

Note though that powerline networking can also be flaky, if your wiring is old or if there is a ton of noise on the system. However, I found if it works, it's usually works well, and much better than what you've others have described for the Airport Express WDS network.

[bsupran]

Thanks Eug. I happen to have a poweline adapter from netgear from my old set up, but was hoping to scrap using it in light of the new set up. If I starting using that adapter to allow me to "hard wire" the express, then does that mean the express is now a second network from the time capsule or is it still operating more or less as an extension of the time capsule network, now just a "hard wired" one? Will this also mean that the express will deliver a fuller signal in its area, since it is not a relay for the original signal, but rather has a "direct" connection to it?

[Eug]

Which powerline networking do you have? Some work better than others. (Mine is the "HD" 200 Mbps, and the one MacNN reviewed is the "AV". Neither actually achieve anything close to 200 Mbps, but reportedly are more reliable to achieve usable speeds than the 85 Mbps units.)

You can set up the 2nd access point to be the same network, and yes, both will operate at full strength. I can't remember though if you can force the Airports to use independent channels. They can share channels, but preferably they should use independent channels (eg. 1 and 6).

The main issue is whether or not your powerline networking can give you a reliable fast connection to the remote part of your house.