[doolally]

Hello,

We have an Airport Extreme creating our wireless network. It has 'allow this network to be extended' checked. I plug in an Airport Express and when I begin configuring it, either manually or automatically, I get a message that asks me if I want to switch networks.

If I choose NO, I am returned to step 1 of configuring the Express, and end up in an endless loop

If I choose YES the network switches over to whatever open wireless network is available and my Extreme network vanishes from the list. I try to configure the Express and when it comes time to choose a network to extend, our network is not there.

I have done resets of both units and re-created the network from scratch and the same issue comes up. I think the Express is a few years old, could that be the problem? Do the older ones not let us use the extend network feature?

advTHANKSance for any help you can provide.

dool

[Simon]

Plug the Express into a Mac through Ethernet. Configure it to join the wireless network hosted by the Extreme and act as a WDS remote. Only once that is done restart it and unplug it. From then on both AP stations should appear in AP Utility and clients should connect to one or the other depending on signal strength.

[doolally]

Hi Simon,

Thanks for the guidance. Configure the Express to join the wireless network using which application?

I plugged the Express into my Mac and it's connected via ethernet. I tried again to configure the Express via Airport utility and ran into the same roadblock: when I try to tell it which network to join, my Extreme network isn't found.

EDIT: Okay, more fiddling and I'm getting closer. The issue now is that the Extreme (the unit creating the network) doesn't seem to have a WDS tab in it's options. And when I try to add the Express using WDS it says it needs more participants.

I have 'Allow this network to be extended' checked on the Extreme. I wonder where I tell it to act as the main base station for the WDS.

Oy. A further edit: I've gotten green light on both, and I thought things were good but now I'm getting an IP Config error. Bleh.

Okay. My final edit I think that's got it. I'm going to give it a few hours and see how it holds up but right now I've got frosty green lights on both devices.

Thanks for your counsel, Simon.

[Simon]

Seems like you're getting it to work bit by bit.

Sometimes Macs or base stations have trouble "finding" a network for the first time - it's a somewhat annoying bug. In such a case enter the network name (SSID) and password manually and chose "Remember this Network".