Settings for Airport Utility / Airport Express

[y2kgtp]

And the power cable? Here is mine, complete, with my Droid on top.

For traveling, every inch counts.

I don't have to travel too often, just a few times a year for work when they fly me back to Cambridge...but every place I have stayed at lately has WiFi on the network. I would just shove the router in one of my bags, it's weight is pretty light including the small wall adapter. Adapter is not any thicker than the height of the router itself.

 

[Matth3w]

Yeah I travel over 50k miles a year, unfortunately. Hopefully that will change soon. I don't like to shove electronics in my bag because they are usually mission critical, and if they lost a bag I would be effed. Like I am going to Germany and staying where they only have wired internet...I wouldn't want to be out and about not speaking German very well trying to buy a router if that makes sense.

 

[sch]

Gents,

Not to be too obtuse, but I just bought an Airport Express and I see nothing in the manual about setting it up as a WiFi repeater (the hotel room scenario). What do I need to do ahead of going on my trip? Do I need to get it setup on my home Mac first in some manner?

Cheers,

 

[Matth3w]

You need to set it up on your computer the first time.

Apple - Support - Discussions - Airport Express Connection in a Hotel ...

Note that they say it doesn't always work if a hotel is blocking a router, for example, but it has worked the couple of times I have used it as a test.

 

[MikesTooLz]

Gents,

Not to be too obtuse, but I just bought an Airport Express and I see nothing in the manual about setting it up as a WiFi repeater (the hotel room scenario). What do I need to do ahead of going on my trip? Do I need to get it setup on my home Mac first in some manner?

Cheers,

You have to connect to it then open the admin settings and tell it use WDS. Dont set it as a main base station since its not the one connected to the internet. Add in the hotels wifi SSID into the list of networks.

 

[Matth3w]

You can't do that if you don't have a computer with you. You don't have to add the hotel's SSID for it to work, not to mention I don't see the point. This allows you to plug WIRED internet in and make it a WiFi network.

You make your own network and SSID at home on your computer. When you go to a hotel you connect to your SSID which in turn connects to the hotel's WIRED internet. So long as the hotel doesn't have your router blocked (haven't had it not work yet) you will get your hotel's access page when you connect to the SSID you have made. No point in having this AXP if the hotel has WiFi already.

 

[MikesTooLz]

You can't do that if you don't have a computer with you. You don't have to add the hotel's SSID for it to work, not to mention I don't see the point. This allows you to plug WIRED internet in and make it a WiFi network.

His question asked if it was possible to set it up as a wifi wireless REPEATER, not connect to a wired connection to create a new hotspot.

He wants to use the airport as a repeater to have better wireless signal with the hotels WIFI. When you setup WDS and add the hotel SSID it then acts as a repeater for those SSID's. Anything the hotels hotspot transmits the airport grabs and retransmits extending the signal even further. Anything your wifi devices transmit while connected to that SSID gets received by your airport and retransmitted to the hotels hotspot with better signal strength.




PS, if the hotel has a wired connection, wired is always better.

 

[Matth3w]

I just figured he made a mistake on calling it what he wanted ...because he said "the hotel scenario" so I figured he was asking about what I said in the first post. Cheers.

 

[sch]

Sorry gents, I used the term incorrectly... I meant to use the AE to "repeat" the signal in WiFi format from the modem. I am talking about using it as a way to get WiFi from a wired modem in a hotel room.

 

[Matth3w]

Sorry gents, I used the term incorrectly... I meant to use the AE to "repeat" the signal in WiFi format from the modem. I am talking about using it as a way to get WiFi from a wired modem in a hotel room.

That's what I thought. Just read the settings from that thread I posted on the Apple boards and you should be good to go. Basically if you have a wireless router at home set it up with a NEW SSID and password for your AXP....then hopefully when you get to a hotel you just connect to your SSID like you did at home, assuming there are no problems having two routers if that makes sense.

 

[MikesTooLz]

Yep just connect it to the wired connection then and thats it, your devices should connect to it just like if you were at home.