2 hours to setup Airport Express!
After a couple of weeks delay, my Airport Express finally turned up. As with all Apple kit, the packaging is great and the contents consist of the Airport Express unit and plug, installation CD and user guide. That's it. Whack the CD in the drive to install the AE configuration software and a few minutes later you are asked to reboot your Mac/PC.
So far so good but now it all went a bit pear-shaped for me. In theory you're supposed to be able to run the Airport Express Assistant that gets installed into /Applications/Utilities. Following the steps, it asks you whether you'd like to create a new network or connect to an existing one. Since I already have a wireless network I opted for the latter. The problem here is that my wireless network didn't show up. I see my neighbour's (really should tell them about that one day!) but not mine. Hmmm. I click back and next a few times to refresh the list and still nothing. After a switch back to my wireless network (from the Airport Express default network) I do a Google, only to discover that this seems to be fairly common. Basically, the assistant software isn't picking up my network because it's running with WEP.
Plan 2 - use the Airport Admin Utility that is installed next to the assistant software. This tool gives you the ability to search for Airport base stations on your network and configure them. Well, the express is not yet on my network so I switch my Mac to use the default express network and rescan for base stations. Hurary! The express pops up and I can open the window to configure it. Essentially, the admin utility lets you manually setup the stuff that happens behind the scenes with the assistant. Just as when you connect to an existing WEP-enabled wireless network, the admin utility lets you enter the name of the network and the password/passkey. Great. Click Update and wait for the express to restart. Fire up iTunes. Look around iTunes for any indications of AirTunes. Nothing. Go back to the express user guide. Scan the guide and pick up a tiny bit at the back that says you should choose your express from the speakers popup. What? Where's that? Back to Google and I find the AirTunes page has a screenshot with the popup. Check iTunes version is 4.6 - yep. Restart iTunes. Nothing. Hmmm. Read express user guide again. Unplug express from power and plug it back in again. Status light goes green, then amber, then flashes amber. Look in user guide - amber light means there is a problem with my ISP. Great, thanks for that useful insight, Apple.
So far I'm about an hour in and still nothing. Next I decide to check whether the express works by using the assistant to create a new network. Oh, the assistant doesn't see the express anymore. In fact, neither does the admin utility. Oh, that's because the express can't join a network. Hunt round the house for a staple and force a reset by holding the reset button in for a few seconds. Express restarts and the default network is back again. Follow assistant and after a few minutes I restart iTunes with my new network. Speaker popup appears! Choose the express and enter password. Error - express isn't plugged into any speakers. Very true - it isn't (how do they know that?!). Dig out cable, plug into line out and amplifier kicks into action. Hurray, the Airport Express works but I have to switch networks, which means I can't do anything like surf or get e-mail while streaming music.
Plan 3 - try the admin utility again. Reset express. Reboot mac. Join default express network. Start admin utility and scan for base station. Choose configure from the menu and ask the express to join an existing network. I've had problems with WEP passwords before so I decide to enter the full hex value. Click to update the express and the status light goes green to amber to flashing amber again. Hmmm. Perhaps the hex password needs to be prefixed with 0x. Restart admin utility and no express. Here we go again. Grab staple, reset express, rejoin default network, rescan, reconfigure and enter new password. Ditto the status light story. Time for Google again. Oh, perhaps the hex password needs to be prefixed with $. Admin utility doesn't see express. Grab staple...
Restart express and mac. Status light green to amber to flashing amber. B*llocks. More Googling followed by the Airport Express forum. Read that lots of other people are having grief with WEP. Read about prefixing with 0x. Read about prefixing with $. Scroll through a few pages. Read about people moaning about DHCP not working. Hmmm. Grab staple, join default network, open admin utility, configure base station, prefix password with $, go to Internet tab and enter static IP address information (see screenshot). Click to update express. Status light goes green, stays green, I try not to look away, light stays green! Quickly boot up iTunes and I can see it in the speaker popup. Damn, by now I've moved the express so that's it sitting next to me to poke the reset button easily. Unplug power and move next to the amplifier. Plug back in. Hold breath while express starts up. Green light again! Choose express from iTunes and at last we have music!
I can safely say that setting this thing up is a pain in the a*se. Now it's working, it works a treat. Very cool but more "plug and pray" than "plug and play".
PLEASE HELP -- Airport Express only
However, the Airport SetUp application only describes connecting to a new Airport "Base Station".
I was told that you do not need a base station -- that an Airport Express can work by iteself. Is this incorrect?
If Airport Express does work by itself, how can I configure it?
--Parthage
Re: 2 hours to setup Airport Express!
easy directions to install airport express for home stereo stuff
(very easy directions)
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=3695083�
hopefully this will alleviate some stress...and swearing!
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4 hours to setup Airport Express!
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Re: 2 hours to setup Airport Express from Billy McKeown
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Re: 2 hours to setup Airport Express!
In the middle none of our Powerbook would connect anymore due to problems with the Ciscos Web-Interface (what we learned later)
Learned a lot about Cisco and Apple quality, about a "$" being better than "0x" since changes are always good and about all the different styles and some funny bugs in Mac OS WEP password interfaces. Listening to music now.
After reading your blog and disabled DHCP, which was the problem and the fact we didn't want to believe.
Used a ballpen, though.
Thanks
-Stefan
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I ended up finding that all I really needed to do (besides entering the hex WEP key) was to enter a machine name on the internet options.
My Linksys access point/router requires a distinct machine name before it will hand you an IP address via DHCP, apparently; DHCP works fine now.
Incidentally, I did not have to enter a $ before my WEP key, and this was BEFORE getting the software update.
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I feared the worst after reading this and was very pleasantly surprised!
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In the end I remembered that I had the IPnetShareX (Natd software router) set-up and disabling this solved all my problems - now it works great!
Re: 2 hours to setup Airport Express!
Re: 2 hours to setup Airport Express!
Safari and Explorer crash after awhile
Re: 2 hours to setup Airport Express!
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Re: 2 hours to setup Airport Express!
-- Joe Posted by Anonymous on 23 August 2004 00:59:54 BST
I had to plug some cat 5 already connected to my network into my APEx after resetting it. Launch APEx Assistant, and not make any changes except let it change my settings to DHCP. Then, close it, load AP Admin Utility, do the "create network" hack to set the real ip. Now select "join network" instead. And it almost worked. I never heard the thing about prefixing the WEP passwords with 0x or $ before... but one thing I had learned in past was my D-Link DI614+ on 128 WEP, did not agree with Apple 128 WEP... My solution there was to simply drop to 40 bit, and voila it worked.
Now, here is the real fun part. My APEx arrived in the mail today. I plug it in, I don't have APEx Assistant... So I slap in the CD... "Can't install, newer version exists" Riiiigh. So I call Apple. An hour and a half later he told me I would have to do a clean install of OS X. Like hell, I seacrhed for every AirPort file, and deleted every last one (including the Receipts he told me not to). Slapped the disc back in, installed the older AP 4.0 software. But now software update doesn't work... ARRRRRGGH!
PS: Guess who took credit for solving the problem? ;) The Apple tech of course.
If anyone gets as frustrated as I, drop me a line I'll do what I can to help - cls@clubnet.org
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Beside myself with frustration
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PowerBook with Mac OS X 10.4.2 and one Airport Express using WAP connected to a corporate Windoze network.
My only goal was wireless networking. No USB printer sharing. No music. Three hours down the tubes.
I coaxed the AX to grab an address via DHCP from the server on the corporate Winpooch LAN, but I was unable to get AX to serve IP addresses via its own DHCP server including passing through the DNS servers' addresses.
After getting an IP address from the AX's DHCP server, I was able to ping the gateway, the corporate DHCP server, and the AX only by IP address from the PowerBook, but not by name as no DNS servers were made known to the PowerBook. I was also unable to ping a well connected entity such as cisco.com via its IP address; so, the AX was not forwarding anything to the gateway although it identified it as one. The PowerBook never picked up the DNS servers' addresses when AX served an IP address.
My solution was to turn the AX into an 802.11g only bridge. The PowerBook has two network ports: wired Ethernet and wireless Airport. I shut off its Ethernet port and turned on only its wireless Airport. Because the AX was merely a conduit, i.e. a wireless bridge, TCP/IP configuration was completely under the PowerBook's control.
I was able to tell the PowerBook to ask the Winpooch DHCP server for an IP address through the AX bridge, and that worked well. I did have to set the DNS servers' addresses by hand, but after that the PowerBook runs almost as fast as it does when it is wired into the corporate LAN. By the way, I also had to set the DNS servers' addresses by hand when the PowerBook is wired into that LAN.
That LAN has multiple T3s going to the net, and surfing was subjectively as fast through the AX as it is when wired. Also, tunneling an X Window System session through Mac OS X's ssh client from the net through the corporate LAN and the AX worked well enough to be usable although noticeably slower than when the same is done locally.
I see nothing but woe ahead of me as I still have to configure another AX to serve several IP addresses via the AX's own DHCP server, and turning that one into a bridge won't be enough, but maybe some of the experiences above will come in handy.
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I think that the problem i had was not using the $ prefix. Everything else i followed to the T, including the pairing button on the livebox,(somehting bizarre that Wanadoo put in so only the people who own the thing can connect, even if you know the WEP key.)
i will try this tonight, and post up if it works, failing that, i'll also try this non-DHCP route, giving it a simple 192.168.1.x IP for now.
i have to say, apples although are nice-looking, and im sure if EVERY pice of kit i was using was manufactued by them, we wouldn't be having this problem, but as soon as you introduce somehting non-apple, it all goes belly up, and its the apple thats the hardest to reconfigure. My lapotp, which btw - is a six year old dell latitude, connected in seconds. Sorry Jobs, i'm not convinced!!!!!
Re: 2 hours to setup Airport Express!
ok, using the $ preix worked, and its now conected, but alas, further problems persist!!!
its connected, like i said, but reboot the mac and it doesn't connect again, it defaults to the open network i spoke of before, not ideal at all.
It seems the problem is adding the WEP to the keychain, now before anyone says so, this is what happens:
i used the assistant to enter the key originally, and it recognises it as a WEP network (this is not changeable, its the way the LIVEBOX does it, WPA would be preffered, but is unavailable, ONLY WEP) and when i reboot, click on the Wireless menu thing on the main MAC toolbar, selct the Wanadoo connection from the list, and it brings up a box saying enter password - fine, however the authentication method in the drop down is set to WPA, and cannot be changed to WEP, so no matter how i enter the password it wont work. This is really stupid and i can't belive that MACs are so damn fidgety, this particular menu is the ONLY way to get the key added to the keychain that i can see.
They're supposed to be a real alternative to Windows, but to be fair, if you need a complete MAC network to get it running i stand by my original claim...
macs are nothing but fancy handbags for the rich and ignorant.
ok, maybe not, my g/f uses it for a lot of photoshop processing which im told is better in mac than windows (i run Photoshop CS2 on my laptop with NO problems but i'll take their word there's something special about macs that mean she HAD to spend an absolute fortune on a crap 1.25 processor).
Ok, my question is...
Anyone know how to manually add a WEP key to a keychain, using a text editor or similar tool?
This is the only way i'm going to get this working for her unless she never reboots her machine, and thats just goddamn silly if you ask me, the GUI is just lacking the options i need.
Help!!
Re: 2 hours to setup Airport Express!
Re: 2 hours to setup Airport Express!
Try starting again, from scratch, just keep it simple, and use the assistants wherever possible. I found the best way to keep settings saved was to use the drop down menu from the main apple toolbar that represents your airport settings for your airport card, once you have your base station set up correctly, use WPA if at all possible, and remember, its only not working cos of something simple, its ALWAYS something simple. (i recommend reading the mnual to trouble shoot set up problems most of the hints in this blog are actually well documented by apple themselves) I assure you that updating firmware etc etc may help in the long run with glitches, but it aint gonna magically fix any set up problems.
good luck - let us know how it goes mate.
DEATH
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PS re: Airport Admin Utility setup
Forget Airport Express Assistant
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SOLVED: Setting up Airport Extreme with Wanadoo Livebox - third party base station
My husband has an ibook G4 (the latest as of today), and we spent the usual many hours trying to get him wifi'd to the Wanadoo LiveBox. Nothing worked, inspite of the fact that his ancient G3 was fine and so is my titanium powerbook. I tried all the suggestions here and elsewhere. His new iBook simply did not show any indication of reading the LiveBox, even though the LiveBox seemed to be picking him up ( all this ascertained because we could access the LiveBox config page on one of the other two computers). He was, however, asked for a password, it was always refused, even with a $ or "" or whatever added to the password.
But I found something on a French site that worked. Basically I went to the base station page on my machine, and chose: Configuration, Advanced, Wifi, and chose the option WEP password only. (The default position is "WPA or WEP")
IT WORKED!
Here are the French instructions and comments from the site I found: http://forums.macgeneration.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=3763957
Sur le site de configuration de la livebox Inventel: Configuration
Avancée
Sans fil
cocher: aucune sécurité
Soumettre
Voila l' ibook se connecte...plus de problème mais cela permet à n' importe qui de se connecter sur ma livebox sauf que je peux surveiller dans: Sécurité Périphériques associés:les adresses des dits périphériques
Je suis toujours à la recherche, et le problème ne vient pas de l' IP de l' ibook puisque dès l' annulation de la clé:la livebox a déterminé une IP différente du Mini à l' iBook...
EUREKA J' ai trouvé....
Il faut cocher pour l' Iventel: Sécurité WEP seulement!!
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Re: 2 hours to setup Airport Express!
One Year to Set up Airport Express!
After picking at my AirPort Express for a year, off and on, using both Mac and Windows, I finally got it working tonight. Now I’m streaming music and printing wirelessly from both Mac and PC.
In my case, the secret apparently was to tell the setup assistant that the AirPort Express was connected directly to my DSL modem, even though it was actually connected to the router.
Apple’s instructions for setting up Windows printing are incomplete as well. The instructions at <a href=
Re: Schneller Flughafen
Re: 2 hours to setup Airport Express!
Re: 2 hours to setup Airport Express!
Recently, my ISP upgraded me with a new wireless router. I want to set-it as my main wireless network, but I still want to enjoy my itunes remote speaker which can only be granted with AE.
The idea is to add my AE to my existing wireless network.
1- I reset my AE and try the Set-up assistant. What I need is part of the choice. Great!.. but do not count on it...
2- I reset my AE and try the Admin Utility. After HOURS trying, I luckily find this blog. Apparently, I am not alone; this page seems to be the place to be! After what (I do not count the number of reset), I do the set-up proposed by Simon (except that I do not have issues with the '$' as my assistant proposes Hex / Ascii option (I guess the blog started with an older release of the firmware). Looks better : the led is green, and I can see my AE when connected to my wireless network. Unfortunately, I cannot update anymore the AE through Admin Utility (error xxx when I try to connect), and I still cannot find my remote speakers on Itunes.
3- Some more hours later, I notice user mentioning of firmware release 6.3 for AE. Mine is 6.2 !. lets go on apple web site and ... Yes, it exists for Windows as well ! Reset again AE and upgrade the firmware.
4- Forget about set-up assistant again. But through the Admin Utility, I just do a simple set-up: 'Airport' tab is set so that I join my existing WIFI network (using the 'Hex' option for WEP password). I keep the 'Internet' tab using DHCP, and I name my remote speaker in the 'Music' tab. I reboot everything, clean-up my wireless connection and recreate it, AND IT WORKS !
--> for those struggling, make sure first your firmware is up to date, as my previous v6.2 seemed to be buggy ....!
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Re: 2 hours to setup Airport Express!
1) you have to have the airport express PLUGGED IN when doing a reset. I was pushing the little button on the AE, but it just didnt occur to me that it had to be ON for it to work. Dumb, yes... but ... I didnt have the docs and it seemed counterintuitive to be resetting while plugged.
2) I discovered by trial and error that to connect from a cable modem to Airport Express, you have to use a CROSSOVER cable, not a standard ethernet cable (such as the one supplied by the cable company to go from modem directly to computer) I'm not certain, but I imagine that's true with a standard router set up as well, but again... it just didnt occur to me to use a different cable. Finally, in desperation, I swapped with an old crossover, and my airport popped up immediately.
Hope this helps!
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I have never had any problem with connecting my speaker wirelessly to my notebook through my Airport express but so far I do not have any luck with the Internet connection.
The PowerBook recognizes the Airport Express, but not the Internet connection.
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Any suggestions?
Thanks!
RCC
Re: 2 hours to setup Airport Express! Bell Sympatico Setup.
p.s. - I'm not sure if I could have done the normal connection using the Airport Setup Assistant and then changed the router "User" information and had it work, however after spending over a day trying to connect this, I'm not going to disconnect and try it another way. Good luck.
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This blog is what gave me the ideas to solve my problems with the airpor express too. I have an XP Pro laptop with a Netgear dg834G wireless router. When I used the Setup Assistant, I follow the process through to the end, then the yellow light would flash on the AE and my laptop would no longer connect to my wireless network. One of the problems I found was that the WEP security on the AE only comes in 40 or 128 bit. My router had been set to 64 bit, so I changed it to 128 bit. This is what I did to successfully set up my system:
1. install AE
2. install software
3. manually set up AE with Admin Utility. AE didn't appear with admin utility, so use Setup Assistant to the point where AE is recognised. Go back to Admin Utility and scan, find AE. set up and hard code an IP address, subnet mask, and servers. setup 128 bit password (no extra characters!).
That was all, it took all of 10 minutes after reading this blog. I had spent about 3 hours before hand. Very frustrating.
I hope this helped, thanks to everyone that posted.
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Re: 2 hours to setup Airport Express!
Spent 3 hours on Friday and another 2 hours today trying to get it to work - just cracked it and its cooking!!
Followed a post by Andrew and changed my current PC wireless network to 128 bit WEP instead of 64, then reset the airport express, went into the admin utility and gave the details of my network, pasted in the hex password, and selected "join an existing network" Clicked "update" expecting the worst, but got a delicious green light on the airport! Now streaming music through itunes, and my broadband connection still working at the same time. I was VERY close to giving up and sending it back, glad I stuck it out!!
Thanks Andrew!!!
No WEP, still problems
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Re: 2 hours to setup Airport Express!
Thanks to this forum, I finally solved my Airport problems.
It took me something like 5 hours, including discussions with stupid engineers from Apple hotline.
So now I must spend 5 minutes to give you my feedback and how did I solve my problems.
But I still do not know what exactly was wrong before.
My equipment is :
VAIO laptop with Windows XP - pack 2
D-link G604T router with a 64 bit WEP key (10 digits)
Airport Express Base
The target was to have the APX joining my existing network, and after 10 or 20 different attemps, rebooting the APX, I found a solution, with the following procedure :
Download the latest version of the Airport Assistant, which includes 2 softs : the Assistant and the Admin Utility
Use the Airport Assistant to create a new network between the laptop and the APX, which disconnect from the main network. If it works and if you can stream audio to the APX, then :
Update if needed the APX software (soft downloaded from apple.com).
And now open the Airport Admin Utility (more detailed than the first one)and change configuration of your APX. You will have to change some settings :
- select to join a network
- write perfectly the name of the main network to join
- change security settings, and choose 64 bits wep key with hex characters, instead of 128 bits (standard from Apple) then enter the 10 characters of your wep key of your main network, without $
At this stage, configuration was ok, and I updated the settings.
APX connected to main network, which stayed linked to the Net.
GREAT !!
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Anyone know where to get Airport Express Assistant?
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Here's my issue: our new apartment is setup in such a way that I get no signal from the WRT54G in our bedroom. So, I bought (big mistake!) a WRE54Gv1 (range extender) which is a pain in the ass to setup, but if I restore Factory Defaults on the WRT, then connect the WRE, I can connect it to the WRT and extend my network. But, the moment I add the APX to the network, the WRE drops off and flashes red.
I am at my wit's end.
FYI: DHCP and no security (at this point).



