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Airport Extreme, AppleTV, maximizing 802.11n

P

pkrekelb

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 21, 2008
17
0
Hi all,

I have an early 2009 Airport Extreme before they added the dual-radio 802.11g/802.11n capability. We have an older Airport Express and iPhones so we still need the 802.11g support. I want to add an AppleTV but I'm concerned about streaming over the marginalized 802.11n you get when 'g' devices are connected (seems like 100Mbps vs. 300Mbs?).

My question is, do I need to bother worrying about this? I thought about replacing the old Express with a new 'n' one. Would that allow me to run the Extreme at 'n' only and use the Express as a bridge for the iPhones, or doesn't it work that way?

If anyone has this same setup, an older Extreme with both 'n' and 'g' devices, how is streaming to ATV working for you?

Thanks,
-Patrick
 
Plug the Airport Express' ethernet into the Airport Extreme and configure it as a simple bridge. Let the Express handle the G traffic and the Extreme handle the N-only traffic. No throughput degradation and you don't have to buy anything new.

I realize that's not exactly the answer to your original question, and you may have your devices located such that running a cable isn't convenient. But, this is what I do and it works great.

A.
 
That's exactly how I have mine set up.I have a time capsule running on N along with my aTV and my iMac and connected to it with an ethernet cable is an airport express on G. My iPods, laptop, wii etc connect to this but it is the same network just a different wireless connection. I use my iPod to control the aTV even though one is on N and the other is on G.

It was very easy to do following this guide:

http://tntluoma.com/apple/notes-on-a-dual-mode-airport-extreme-network/

also apple do a support document for the same set up , there is alink to it on the above website. It sounds like you have all the necessary gear to set it up.
 
The Express is probably going to end up living a couple levels from the Extreme, and I haven't run cable there. I have run some cable but never even put ends on it, haven't needed to!

I really wonder if the 'n' Express can just join as an 'n' client and extend as a 'g' router for iPhones and stuff. One of you guys wanna test it out for fun?
 
My N is on 5 GHz so I can't run it as G compatible. If you have a N with G compatibility network, (has to be on 2.4 GHz) then when a G client connects the network drops down to G Speeds, even the N components.
 
do you guys use a HDD on the Extreme as your iTunes library volume?

the ATV will be going to an iMac to get the library, which will (hopefully) be using a USB disk attached to the Extreme as its volume.

Is this practical, or too convoluted?
 
Mine is now on a NAS directly attached to my iMac. I did have it connected to the TC and it worked fine then, even on my old N/G set up, it was sometimes slower to load up a show to watch on the aTV , and it did take longer to add files to from the iMac, or when using MetaX to edit the metadata.

Someone on here explained to me that the movie has to go from the NAS(in your case USB) to the TC then the iMac then back to the TC then to the aTV!!!

EDIT: I'm going to try the NAS back on the TC, and perhaps even sell it and do what you are intending with a USB drive instead. I don't really need a NAS now I've got the TC, I could get 2a few USB drives for the same price as the NAS.
 
Shuttleworth said:
Someone on here explained to me that the movie has to go from the NAS(in your case USB) to the TC then the iMac then back to the TC then to the aTV!!!
Click to expand...

Yeah totally... I'm thinking of replacing some old Solaris servers with a Mini so maybe that should be the media server, more direct. I could still use the USB disk on the extreme as a much-needed backup volume.
 
I have a space in my cupboard for a mini to do the same thing. Unfortunately I have a bigger space in my bank account that makes it kind of tricky to accomplish at the moment :(
 
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