The 'extending' wireless access point, in this case the AirPort Extreme, must be reconfigured as a bridge.

The 'main' Internet router, in this case your DSL gateway, must perform as a router.

The wireless access points must be interconnected by Ethernet.

In this type of network, the following would be required: An ego-deflating message for your Wi-Fi device, perhaps, but it will make for a much happier network.Since you plan on connecting the AirPort Extreme base station back to the DSL gateway by Ethernet, then you will want to configure both devices for a roaming type network. That tells your Wi-Fi device that it’s nothing special-just another device on the base station’s network. So instead, connect an Ethernet cable from your AirPort Extreme Base Station to the LAN (Local Area Network) port of your Wi-Fi device. It’s simply passing the connection from the remote devices to the base station. But our Wi-Fi device isn’t “serving” anything anymore. It tells the device that this is the source you should be using to distribute IP addresses to all the devices you’re serving. Normally, when you set up any router, you connect it to the Internet through the WAN (Wide Area Network) port. You still have one more very important step.

It’s not quite as bad as crossing the streams, but letting two devices act as routers on the same network can lead to bad things. Here, choose the setting to disable the DHCP server. Depending on your device, this may be under an Advanced tab, but look for a section that says DHCP settings. In order to work with our upgraded setup, you’ll need to turn off the Wi-Fi device’s routing function. Let’s start with the AirPort Extreme Base Station, since we’re already familiar with it and there’s not a lot to do here.įollow the manufacturer’s instructions to set up your Wi-Fi network, including its SSID name and security settings. Now that we’ve settled on a location for our devices, we’ll need to configure them. This means I can take my aging, slow AirPort Express off the network, where it could have slowed down all my wireless devices. (For simplicity’s sake, I’ll continue to refer to the Wi-Fi device as a router, even though it won’t be providing that function.) This is another benefit of not replacing my AEBS-it gives me the flexibility to put my devices where it makes the most sense (provided, in this case, that I can run an Ethernet cable to it, as I discuss later). Because of this, I want my Wi-Fi router to be located on the first floor. In fact, I had previously used an AirPort Express to extend coverage. What that location is not good for is providing a strong Wi-Fi signal to the rest of my house.

The Archer C8 has nice features and is cheaper than a new AirPort Extreme. In other words, the basement location serves me very well there-and, in fact, would be hard to move. My current AEBS is connected to the cable modem and I have several other devices wired to it, including a VoIP box for my phone system and a line to a basement office. In my house, my cable modem is connected to the Internet on a networking shelf in my basement.

(Apple’s newest base stations also have these first two features, but don’t support the push button implementation of WPS.) Location, location, location The Archer C8 (about to be replaced by theĬ9) is a highly rated Wi-Fi router that provides nice features such as a dual-band guest network, “beamforming” for better signal and faster throughput, and Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) for easily connecting a wireless printer. $128 on Amazon) to a network running on a second-generation AirPort Extreme Base Station. TP-Link Archer C8 Wi-Fi router (currently

Airport extreme extender