[MaskdBagel]

I have what's hopefully a pretty simple question for you all.
I have an Airport Express that I use all the time to stream music. It's my only router at the moment, and I'd like to keep it since I like the music thing and the remote printing. I'm running the new Xbox 360 dash, and Netflix streaming is pretty slow because the wireless adapter for my Xbox sucks.
What I want to do is this:

Modem -> Switch -> Airport Express from one port, Xbox (wired) from another

And still use the Airport Express to access the internet, stream music, etc. from my computer.

Will this work, or am I going to encounter a whole bunch of DHCP/IP issues that keep this from working smoothly?
If I just need to do some setup, can anyone advise me on how to do it?

Thanks in advance!!

[slpdLoad]

Yes, it will work just fine. Just plug stuff in and go. Should be zero setup required.

[mduell]

Assuming the "switch" is actually a router/switch combination and the Airport Express has DHCP/NAT disabled, sure.

[MaskdBagel]

OK. Got home and had exactly the problem I was afraid of. It looks like the router and the Xbox are each trying to grab an IP. Whichever one I start using first after power cycling my modem and switch works fine, and the other one doesn't.

The switch is this one, which may or may not be the switch/router combination described above.

The only way I can find to disable DHCP on an Airport Express is to set it to bridge mode, which breaks any internet access my computer attempts through it.

Any more suggestions? I feel like I must just be some configuration tweaks away from success here...

Thanks!

[ibook_steve]

You don't need the switch, and if you do for other wired components (since there's only one ethernet port on the AE), it should be on the other side of the AE, not directly connected to the modem.

I'm not sure why you're putting the switch between the modem and the router.

Edit: Whoops! Airport Express only has one ethernet jack to connect to the modem. I was thinking of the Extreme. In that case, I don't think you can do what you want to do unless you use the wireless connection on the XBox or get a different wireless router that has an extra ethernet port for wired devices. Or you can get a wireless bridge (wireless to ethernet device) and put the switch after that for multiple devices.

Steve

[mduell]

You need a router/switch combination in place of the switch you already have. Fortunately, they're relatively cheap.

A wireless bridge is slower, less reliable, and more expensive, and there's no reason to buy another wireless router.