Apple ’s AirPort Base Station was a revelation in 1999 . While it be $ 299 plus involve a $ 99 AirPort Card in every Mac you wanted to employ with it , this was much gimcrack than all other choice and it came with the friendly AirPort service program for configuration — far easier than competition ’ tools . ( Apple actually licence the hardware and package to box in its unique way . )
Apple desolate its Wi - Fi foundation station year ago , it seems choose to not compete in a market that increasingly produced inexpensive — but difficult to configure — infrastructure stations . And it sat outthe mesh - networking rotation , which dramatically simplify Wi - Fi net apparatus , but can cost two to four times comparable older - style Wi - Fi router .
Apple AirPort Extreme
I increasingly get electronic mail from readers who have failing or kaput AirPort base station equipment and want to set up a electronic internet with the same simplicity , but at a lower monetary value than mesh choice . Such readers are in the same position I am in : we have some ethernet wiring or have string some ethernet cables in the firm to connect base post and just desire to swap out what we have for the late . Mesh may vocalize great , but why not expend the wiring we have ?
Readers ask for what was a breeze with AirPort configurations : a single connection that allows devices to roam seamlessly without inapt handoffs between cornerstone stations . Any twist that has a Wi - Fi adapter that let it connect to a net — whether an iPad , laptop computer , Nintendo Switch , Android headphone , or smart fridge — automatically roams among base stations that divvy up the same web name and encoding setup , admit countersign . Apple made it soft to set up a series of foot stations that could have unequaled individual names ( to place them for configuration ) , but could be jell to share the same web name to appropriate devices to stray .
( Because this roaming is dependent on individual devices , you could see dissimilar carrying into action among them . Roaming devices should shift automatically from a weak signal to a stronger one , but iPhones in peculiar seem to sometimes adhere to a weak signaling even when it provides a very slow link and much closer routers are available . )
The tricks to setting up an ethernet - connected AirPort substitution connection are straightforward :
One of your Wi - Fi gateways needs to act as the “ main ” building block . It connects via its WAN ( Wide Area Networking ) port to your broadband modem .
The main connection takes the Internet Protocol ( IP ) computer address handed off by the broadband modem and creates a private mesh scope and passes out address to Wi - Fi- and ethernet - connected devices . ( This the compounding known as NAT and DHCP : NAT manages the secret internet range ; DHCP hand out addresses . )
Connect each extra router via ethernet to the LAN embrasure on the main router . you’re able to also enter ethernet switches for gadget or to span greater distances between the main router and extra 1 .
Configure each additional router as a bridge or access point . The terminology varies by Wi - Fi gadget maker . You desire these routers toneithercreate a private networknorpass out addresses . alternatively , they pass on through the NAT / DHCP combo from the main router .
Name each additional router ’s web the same . This name , the SSID ( Service Set Identifier ) , is what you see in a inclination of Wi - Fi networks in a computer menu . ( Name the base stations themselves uniquely in whatever way the gimmick let you to identify them for shape . )
expend the same meshwork password for all Wi - Fi web , too .
That ’s in the main all that ’s demand . The only exclusion is if the broadband router cover connection assignment with DHCP and NAT . In that cause , configure your primary base station as a bridge / admittance point , too .
For a configuration like this , some manufacturers have finally got the faith of simplicity . I ’ve gradually switched from Apple to TP - Link for the three Wi - Fi routers on my meshing . The first still required an surly and complicated Web administrative user interface to configure . But later on two use TP - Link ’s Tether .
TP - Link ’s Tether app offers chasteness in configuring a set of standard Wi - Fi gateways . At left , top : A leaning of local gadget ; bottom , setting access compass point way . At in good order , top : enable Smart Connect to help in mobile roaming ; bottom , a configured gadget .
Tether lets me connect to the router out of the loge , configure it to be part of my set of handle networks , and then choose the simple choice , like net name and access point modality , with a few taps . It ’s not quite AirPort Utility , but it ’s among the least - frustrative setup I ’ve had for non - mesh and non - Apple gear .
This Mac 911 article is in response to a question submitted by Macworld reader Kenneth .
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