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One fix for an Airport Express / Extreme problem Apps
I bought a new Airport Extreme 802.11n base station in July, and hoped to use it in conjunction with my existing Airport Express. Unfortunately, I was completely unable to connect the Express to the Extreme's network as a node, bridge, WDS, or anything else. I found on Apple's support site that many others suffered the same problem, but none of the suggestions worked. The new Airport firmware, as well as the latest update to the Airport Admin software, didn't fix things. So this had been bugging me for over a month.

When commenting on this on TAB's site with regard to the new AirPort software, someone made a suggestion that solved all my problems: Use WPA/WPA2 instead of WEP security. Well, I was using WEP. I switched and ... now it works! At least the Express can now join my Extreme network, and I can play iTunes music through the speakers. I haven't been able to set up a WDS network yet, but at least basic functions are possible now. Give this a try if you are having similar problems, and someone at Apple needs to make this part of their support suggestions.
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One fix for an Airport Express / Extreme problem
Authored by: frgough on Aug 17, '07 08:01:08AM

You really shouldn't be using WEP for anything these days. The tools and knowledge to crack it are too widely available.



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One fix for an Airport Express / Extreme problem
Authored by: mclbruce on Aug 17, '07 10:39:21AM

I agree with the first poster that WEP security is much worse than WPA. I think this should be mentioned in the article.

I don't believe WDS was designed work under WPA. I think it's impossible to do.



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One fix for an Airport Express / Extreme problem
Authored by: locklin on Aug 17, '07 03:44:25PM

Actually, I'm doing WDS under WPA in both my Airport networks at home and at my office (both are Airport Extreme main base and Airport Express remote bases)



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One fix for an Airport Express / Extreme problem
Authored by: marook on Aug 17, '07 04:29:30PM

Correction:

WDS is designed to ONLY work with WPA(1/2), so the whole issue is that user has the first basestation set wrong.

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/Marook



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One fix for an Airport Express / Extreme problem
Authored by: iordonez on Aug 17, '07 12:17:03PM

Reset the Express to factory mode
When it comes up again connect to it (should be generic SSID name)
Open Airport Utiltiy and let it walk you though assisted setup
Setup the Express to Extend your network

Airport Utility will configure both your Express and Extreme the CORRECT way allowing for WDS to work. Manually configuring WDS can be tough and most of the times wont work as it needs to be EXACTLY perfect.

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Isaac Ordonez
[url=http://web.mac.com/ordonezi]Mac OS X Server Tips and Tricks[/URL]



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One fix for an Airport Express / Extreme problem
Authored by: frankxiv on Nov 20, '07 02:57:04PM

This is exactly right. Before trying this I had tried to manually set up the WDS and every time the main device (AirPort 802.11n) would have a WDS error. After resetting my old AirPort Extreme and following the guided setup instead of trying to do it manually it works. It took a bit of time for both routers to reset themselves at the end but when they finished everything was as it should be. The funny part is that I was on the phone with Apple tech support waiting for someone to pick up and I found this tip. By the time the person picked up everything was up and running.

Interesting.



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One fix for an Airport Express / Extreme problem
Authored by: themacmedic on Aug 23, '07 06:00:09AM

Actually WDS will work with WPA, WEP, or an open network.



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