Connecting a wired Ethernet to Airport Export?`

Apple says an Airport Express has a "Ethernet WaN Port for conecting a
DSL or cable modem". Can this port be used to connect an Airport
Express to a router in a wired network? The path from an iMac to a
cable modem would then be wireless from the iMac to the Airport Express
an wired from the Airport Expres to the cable Modem. Next when using
this configuration can the iMac access the Inertnet or do I have to run
a cable from the Linksys router to the iMac?

I sure wish Apple had either an Airport Extreme or an Airportr Express
base station that included a four port Ethernet switch like a Linksys
WRT54G. It would make my setup a lot simpler and I wouldn't have to
ask oddball questions.
..

 

Yes. I do this at home.

Run an ethernet cable from the Airport Express ethernet port to
one of the router ethernet LAN ports.

VERY IMPORTANT. Now configure the Airport Express to _NOT_
Distribute IP addresses.
Airport Admin Utility -> Network tab -> Distribute IP address [OFF]

This will disable the Airport Express DHCP server (you do not want
to confuse your other router's DHCP server), and this will turn
off the Airport Express NAT server (also important if you want to
be part of other router's network, and if you want thinks like
Boujour to work across the Airport Express, as well as printer
sharing, file server discover, etc...). This effectively turns
your Airport Express into a WiFi to ethernet bridge, which is
exactly what you want.

Again, I do this with an Airport Express. I have another router
connected to my DSL modem, and an ethernet cable running from that
router to the Airport Express. Works great.

That would be a nice touch.

Bob Harris

 

I don't have access to an Airport Express manual or an AE, but what you
are describing is a "wireless access point". I'd be surprised if Airport
Express did not support this. It appears that Apple refers to at least
some of the functions of "wireless access point" as "client mode".

The general scheme is to configure the AE with an IP address in the
range of your Linksys LAN and turn off DHCP in the AE.

Have a look at the Knowledge Base article at
<http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=108067>
I think it describes what you want to do, in a sparse sort of way.

jim

 

Yes. Uncheck "Distribute IP addresses" in AirPort Admin Utility to
disable the routing functions of the AirPort base station.

Your AirPort-connected iMac will appear on your local network (LAN) just
as if it were connected by Ethernet. The router won't know the
difference.

You can use a Linksys or just about any other brand of wireless base
station with your iMac. And small switches are pretty cheap.

 

Yes. I have two wireless computers connecting through my AirPort
Express, which is in turn connected to a NetGear Ethernet hub, which
is connected to my DSL router and also to two other computers. By
setting the AirPort Express to serve DHCP IP addresses in the same
range as is used by the router and other other computers, all the
computers can see each other and can share my HP LaserJet 1012 printer
via printer sharing on one of the Macs (wireless printing is very
cool). The IPs look like this:

DSL router- uses two static IPs from ISP as gateway and as static IP
address for all the computers on the LAN. Really only one ought to be
necessary, though.

NetGear - 192.168.0.1
G3 - 192.168.0.2
iMac - 192.168.0.3
AirPort is set to assign addresses above 192.168.0.5

The router uses NAT to pass requests on port 80 to the G3 which is a
Web server. The other computers are invisible to the world.

 

Or set it to distribute addresses in a different range.

 

Thanks Bob, Jim, Neill and Tim for your replies. It is good to know I
can use the Airport Express to add wireless capability to my existing
wired Ethernet network.

Howard

 

No. It is not a good idea to have more than one DHCP server on a
network.

 

Bonjour (aka Rendezvous or zeroconf) will not not cross a router
boundary. Allowing the Airport Express to Distribute IP addresses
means the Airport Express is acting as a router, and will block
Bonjour message on either side from traveling to the other. That
means shared printers, some file servers, etc... would not be
visible to all computers on the system.

I've suggested via MacOSX Feedback on the Apple site that Airport
base station setup look to see if the network using 192.168.*.* or
10.*.*.* addressing, and default to "OFF" for Distribute IP
addresses. I wonder if they will actually read it and consider it
for inclusion in the Airport Admin Utility new base station setup
actions?

Bob Harris