Airport
Difficulty getting an Airport Extreme onto a WDS network
27/11/07 05:11 Filed in: Apple
Since I already have a WDS network main station
(trendnet) that I thought it would be easy to use the
existing WEP hex password like I did with my Airport
Express (simply take the hex password and add a "$"
before it.)
Unfortunately the new Airport Extreme only allows 13 characters in its WEP Transitional Security Network so I could not get all of the long string of hexadecimal characters in from my old password. I could not use the old WEP password either for some reason.
Finally I thought I would make the new Airport Extreme's WEP Transitional Security Network and then take that hexadecimal code and put this into the old Trendnet device. My problem was that I could not find the hexadecimal equivalent of the password I typed into the AirPort Utility software.
I finally found out how to retrieve this hexadecimal code from the Apple support site. After you have entered a password into the Airport Extreme you can get the hexadecimal version of it with the following steps.
Now my DSL modem offers the Internet through my Trendnet wireless bridge at 54mbps and my MacBook can log on to the Airport Extreme at 130mbps with 802.11n to access the Internet and the rest of my local wired network.
Note: I have to use WEP for the WDS since I cannot get the Trendnet device to authenticate with anything better.
Unfortunately the new Airport Extreme only allows 13 characters in its WEP Transitional Security Network so I could not get all of the long string of hexadecimal characters in from my old password. I could not use the old WEP password either for some reason.
Finally I thought I would make the new Airport Extreme's WEP Transitional Security Network and then take that hexadecimal code and put this into the old Trendnet device. My problem was that I could not find the hexadecimal equivalent of the password I typed into the AirPort Utility software.
I finally found out how to retrieve this hexadecimal code from the Apple support site. After you have entered a password into the Airport Extreme you can get the hexadecimal version of it with the following steps.
- log onto the Airport Extreme using the Airport Utility software
- select the "Base Station" menu item from the top of the screen/ window
- select the "Equivalent Network Password"
- and voila, a little window will appear showing you your WPA Password/ ASCII WEP Key and it's hex equivalent.
- take this hex code and enter it into the other side of your WDS connection.
Now my DSL modem offers the Internet through my Trendnet wireless bridge at 54mbps and my MacBook can log on to the Airport Extreme at 130mbps with 802.11n to access the Internet and the rest of my local wired network.
Note: I have to use WEP for the WDS since I cannot get the Trendnet device to authenticate with anything better.
Printing from Vista to Airport Extreme
Although Apple's Airport Extreme can share a printer
it was not quite so easy to use from my Vista
Business computer. The instructions from Apple had me
able to print only half a page to my USB HP Deskjet.
Then the print job would error out. To make matters
worse I could not delete the print job either.
So, here's what worked for me and hopefully for anyone else with this problem.
I don't know if it will work for every printer but I can now print from my Vista computer.
So, here's what worked for me and hopefully for anyone else with this problem.
- In your Printer Properties > Ports tab, disable "Enable bidirectional support". This allowed me to delete the print jobs.
- In your Printer Properties > Advanced tab,
disable "Enable advanced printing features". This
allowed me to print whole pages.
I don't know if it will work for every printer but I can now print from my Vista computer.
Airport Express extends a wireless network
22/10/06 08:04 Filed in: Apple
Problem, one of my desktop systems has a bad wireless
card and I want to skimp on buying a new wireless
card. Available tools, my Trendnet 411BRP wireless
bridge and an Airport Express from Apple. Eventually
both worked but with a few quirks.
It seemed an easy fix, the Airport Express has an Ethernet interface and I could just make it a client of the main Trendnet Access Point and connect the Ethernet cable to the desktop's unused Ethernet interface. The little difficulties started soon afterwards.
It appears that the Airport Express disables the Ethernet interface whenever it is a client of another Access Point. However, it could be activated if it was EXTENDING an existing network. Normally extending the network is just to make the signal stronger because the two wireless devices work together using pretty much the same configuration.
Apple's instruction manual only mentioned this working with other Apple products but since it used a process called WDS (Wireless Distribution System) which the Trendnet device also supported I figured it would be worth a try.
After hooking everything up, the extension was not working but I could talk with the Airport Express device. On the Airport side I received an error saying that Channel Autodetection could not run with WDS. Okay, I set the actual channel of the Trendnet Access Point without any problem.
Fortunately the Apple side of things was pretty well documented. So I already knew I needed WDS to work to reach the Ethernet and now I had to pick the channel. I was getting worried about the Trendnet device because it's documented support for WDS was all of two lines of text in the manual saying it supported it. Since the Apple portion was at least funtioning I thought it time to look at the Trendnet side.
Sure enough, a hidden nugget of information surfaced. Although my device had next to nothing written about it and WDS, a TEW 450APB was clearly stated as NOT supporting WPA encryption over WDS links. I was using WPA on both sides. After reconfiguring everything for 128bit WEP in place of WPA, all worked fine.
So in summary:
A lot of work to avoid buying a new network card. On th plus side, nNow my Airport Express not only extends the coverage of my wireless network but its Ethernet port shares the remote Internet connection with my desktop computer.
It seemed an easy fix, the Airport Express has an Ethernet interface and I could just make it a client of the main Trendnet Access Point and connect the Ethernet cable to the desktop's unused Ethernet interface. The little difficulties started soon afterwards.
It appears that the Airport Express disables the Ethernet interface whenever it is a client of another Access Point. However, it could be activated if it was EXTENDING an existing network. Normally extending the network is just to make the signal stronger because the two wireless devices work together using pretty much the same configuration.
Apple's instruction manual only mentioned this working with other Apple products but since it used a process called WDS (Wireless Distribution System) which the Trendnet device also supported I figured it would be worth a try.
After hooking everything up, the extension was not working but I could talk with the Airport Express device. On the Airport side I received an error saying that Channel Autodetection could not run with WDS. Okay, I set the actual channel of the Trendnet Access Point without any problem.
Fortunately the Apple side of things was pretty well documented. So I already knew I needed WDS to work to reach the Ethernet and now I had to pick the channel. I was getting worried about the Trendnet device because it's documented support for WDS was all of two lines of text in the manual saying it supported it. Since the Apple portion was at least funtioning I thought it time to look at the Trendnet side.
Sure enough, a hidden nugget of information surfaced. Although my device had next to nothing written about it and WDS, a TEW 450APB was clearly stated as NOT supporting WPA encryption over WDS links. I was using WPA on both sides. After reconfiguring everything for 128bit WEP in place of WPA, all worked fine.
So in summary:
- Apple Airport Express will deactivate its Ethernet port if it is used as a client to an Access Point
- The Airport Express network extension feature can work with non-Apple products
- When making a WDS wireless extension make sure that the radio channel be manually configured as the same channel on both wireless devices (and possibly the SSID are configured to be the same too which the Apple manual said should be the case and so that is what I am using in my working setup)
- Some versions of Trendnet products (my 411BRP for example) do not support WPA over WDS extension links
A lot of work to avoid buying a new network card. On th plus side, nNow my Airport Express not only extends the coverage of my wireless network but its Ethernet port shares the remote Internet connection with my desktop computer.