Finally got my Airport Express set up to extend my Airport Extreme network. Real pain in the ass compared to the normal Apple ease of use I was expecting. What they don't seem to tell you in the manuals is that you cannot set up an Express as an extension to a network unless it's in the default (uninitialized) configuration.
When I finally realized this and chose "Setup a new Airport Base Station" I got the option of extending my current network. Took a couple of hours to figure out why it wouldn't work before this revelation. Sometimes, my geekiness gets in the way ('cause in this case I had already mucked with the default settings on the Express in my attempts to do this by hand).
I note that Apple has finally released a firmware upgrade purported to allow the Express to stream iTunes while permitting Internet access - something that I could not do earlier in the year and found most annoying. It was only circumstance that stopped me from returning the unit. As I said to my PUM at Microsoft, it was the first instance of a modern Apple product that I found completely inadequate - both in support and configuration. Hopefully, this has a happy ending. Hard for me to tell while my stereo is in storage.
Posted by artandscience at January 8, 2006 03:16 PM