View Full Version : I love Airport Express
gerbilly
16-03-2007, 12:42 PM
Set this up to play I tunes stuff over my av amp and it works beautifully!!!:smashin:
Great wee piece of hardware and software.
Would I be eable to connect my x box up to tinternet via this way also???
You may know of this already but Airfoil is a great little app. Lets you send the audio from any other application to your airport express! So your not just limited to iTunes!
http://www.rogueamoeba.com/airfoil/mac/
Matt_C
17-03-2007, 10:00 AM
I have not heard of this Airfoil before - now that sounds VERY interesting!
Lets say I had a laptop with a wifi PCMCIA card in it. Could I buy an Airport, plug it into the wall, and run an optical cable to my AVR, and then stream music from my laptop via Windows Media Player, to the Aipport and into the amp via optical cable?
itsamac
19-03-2007, 8:37 PM
The Airport Extreme is fab. I bought a Linksys WRT350N in Hong Kong and sold it off on fleabay. The reception on it would drop out (unlike my Linksys WRT54G which was super reliable) and the hard drive had to be formated as FAT32 for it to recognise any of the information on it (it is currently formatted as HFS+J - UNIX format).
Bought the latest Airport Extreme (it looks like the Apple TV) instead. Setup took about two minutes. Installed the Bonjour client on my macbook pro (to get the 802.11n upgrade) and on my wife's windows xp machine. Both machines are able to read and write to the hard drive. All in all a big :smashin:
LFCRules
19-03-2007, 8:53 PM
What hard drive are you using, and what is it formatted too, still HFS+J?? I'm tempted to get one of these to allow my 500Gb WD My Book to be connected up for wireless access, as it's a bit of a pain with the wired connection to my MBP.
Cheers, Andy
itsamac
19-03-2007, 9:04 PM
I am using a WD 320Gb (it's one of the cheapest ones they stock on Amazon and I trust their hard drives more than the other brands). The hard drive was already formatted as HFS+J and had lots of stuff on it (I would have died if it ever dies - backups, what are they)? I originally formatted as HFS+J because of the issues with FAT32 size restrictions on partitions. For my wife's Windows machine, I used MacDrive 6 from Media Four.
With the Airport Extreme it is no longer needed. Bonjour starts up with the computer and mounts the hard drive as CIFS drive on the XP machine and as an iDisk in OSX and you can browse to it through almost every application (other than Mercury which only accepts the local hard disk).
At the moment, I am running at 130Mbps while my wife runs at 54Mbps. Once I can get her a wireless N card, I can switch to N only. :clap:
LFCRules
19-03-2007, 9:14 PM
Damn, after spending oodles of cash on the MBP itself, and parallels/vista, I wasn't going to spend more, but I think the Airport is a calling me :grin:
itsamac
19-03-2007, 9:19 PM
I just wish I bought with my MBP in HK. It was £85 there but I am sure he would have chucked in a discount as it as Chinese New Year and I have bought my last two machines from the same guy.
theronster
19-03-2007, 10:34 PM
Quick question.
Does the WD drive spin down and sleep when not in use, or is it constantly on and whirring?
I'd really like to do this if the drive will sleep when not in use.
itsamac
20-03-2007, 6:40 AM
It spins down and sleeps when not in use. When you access the drive, it will spin up if not cache (Mac) or as soon as you access it (Windows).
LFCRules
20-03-2007, 2:16 PM
Well I've just bitten the bullet and ordered one myself, should be here hopefully on Thursday :smashin:
itsamac
20-03-2007, 4:32 PM
You'll love it :thumbsup:
LFCRules
21-03-2007, 4:32 PM
Well it arrived this morning and I've been playing all day. Setting up both MBP & IBM Thinkpad for internet connection was dead easy. However, what has got me stumped for most of the day so far how to connect to my WD Hard Drive via the Thinkpad.
For my WD 500Gb harddrive, I partitioned it first, into 2. 1st partion is for my SuperDuper backup, 2nd partition as a dumping ground for other files. On my MBP, these get automatically mapped, showing up as 2 drives, no problem. I'm also running a SuperDuper network backup to one of the partitions, and it works fine.
However, on the Windows Thinkpad this is a whole different story. Internet is there, no probs. However, I just can't get the disk's mounted. Using the Airport Disk Agent, it can see the base station, but just won't let me connect to the drives, even when I logon as Guest, which comes up with error:
"Unknown user, incorrect password, or login is disabled.....etc"
Guest access is fully open, but it just won't connect to the disks. I've been scanning the net and others have suggested mapping the drive direct, using:
\\10.0.1.1\"drive name"
But that ain't working for me. Both partitions are named differently, and named as 2 words, e.g. "My Backup", and "My Dump". I've tried My_Backup, My-Backup, and My Backup, but none work.
It's got me stumped, for now. I'll keep on searching the net, but if anyone wants to jump in, I'd be grateful :smashin:
By the way, the WD 500Gb is in HFS+J format, but that shouldn't matter.
EDIT: WOOHOO Got it sorted. An easy fix in the end. Updated the Zone Alarm firewall to make IP address 10.0.1.1 "trusted". And hey presto, the Airport Disk Agent is now working!! I have 2 mapped network drives :grin:
I've been thinking of getting Airport Express for my setup which sounds very similar to itsamac's, but I wanted to know if it would be possible to share a printer as well as the hard drive with the one unit.
Has anyone done this?
theronster
21-03-2007, 8:50 PM
According to the manual, all you have to do is attach a USB Hub to the router in order to use however many USB devices you want, including printers.
itsamac
22-03-2007, 7:58 AM
Glad to hear that you got it working LFC.
ChiliJelly
22-03-2007, 5:18 PM
Can anyone tell me if you can use airtunes with the airport extreme?
I would love to have wireless 'n' so Airport Extreme, but would also like airtunes which as far as I know is only available on Airport Express.
Any ideas?
theronster
22-03-2007, 7:01 PM
I can confirm that AirTunes using an Airport Express plug works just fine with the new Airport Extreme base station, as I got a new AE plug yesterday, and am sitting here listening to music streamed to my Home Cinema!
I want more AE plugs now, to stream to all areas of the house!
breadbun
11-04-2007, 10:43 PM
Would I be eable to connect my x box up to tinternet via this way also???
Yes. This is definitely possible. I have an ethernet cable running from my Express into a 4 port switch. From there I have patch cables to the ethernet ports on both my standard XBox (for XBMC use) and my XBox 360 (for XBox Live/streaming use). Works a treat. The Express acts as a bridge. Rock solid performance from it. I also use Airtunes and Airfoil occasionally.
Davidgilmour
20-04-2007, 5:46 AM
According to the manual, all you have to do is attach a USB Hub to the router in order to use however many USB devices you want, including printers.
Can I use a USB HD wirelessly with the airport *express* as well or is that only possible with Airport *extreme*?
Dan.Scott1234
24-04-2007, 3:54 PM
The airport express needs updating to support the draft N standards I think. Now Apple is going N all the way accross the product line it's a bit of a black sheep.
I use my Airport Express both as an access point for my lounge and to stream my itunes library stored on an old Powermac G4 in my spare room via my Macbook as a "remote control" to my Naim AV2 AV processor using the Naim as a DAC and it sounds superb!
Using the analogue outputs the AE can sound a bit dull but then for £80 you can't expect wonders!
The system is certainly a lot cheaper than say a Sonos network, albeit not with as much functionality but the important bits are still there.
Some sort of tablet like remote control would be nice Apple!
gerbilly
24-04-2007, 6:48 PM
Yes. This is definitely possible. I have an ethernet cable running from my Express into a 4 port switch. From there I have patch cables to the ethernet ports on both my standard XBox (for XBMC use) and my XBox 360 (for XBox Live/streaming use). Works a treat. The Express acts as a bridge. Rock solid performance from it. I also use Airtunes and Airfoil occasionally.
Mate what I was hoping was to connect a ethenet cable from the AE to the back of the x box. However would this enable my computer which is on the other side of the room to work with the x box.
itsamac
25-04-2007, 6:02 PM
Mate what I was hoping was to connect a ethenet cable from the AE to the back of the x box. However would this enable my computer which is on the other side of the room to work with the x box.
You should be able to plug the xbox straight in. I have my PS3 plugged straight into the back of my Airport Extreme
gerbilly
10-01-2008, 11:20 PM
Just thought I would bring this thread back again.
I now have three i-macs connected wirelessly to the tinternet and also a ps3, and I may even set up our printer to work wirelessly as well.
Not bad for something that cost £65!!:thumbsup:
Davidgilmour
11-01-2008, 8:54 AM
Just thought I would bring this thread back again.
I now have three i-macs connected wirelessly to the tinternet and also a ps3, and I may even set up our printer to work wirelessly as well.
Not bad for something that cost £65!!:thumbsup:
I use my MacBook and Mac Mini with my AE. It prints wireless as well and it plays all of my iTunes music with my Harman Kardon Soundsticks. Best 65 quid spend.
gerbilly
21-05-2008, 9:07 AM
Just thought I would bring this thread back again.
I now have three i-macs connected wirelessly to the tinternet and also a ps3, and I may even set up our printer to work wirelessly as well.
Not bad for something that cost £65!!:thumbsup:
Just to update again I have three i-mac's, Apple TV, a Nintendo Wii and a PS3 and also a printer working wirelessly (is there such a word?) all via the airport express and all at decent speeds.
Not bad for £65 and probably the best but unheralded Apple product out there!!!:thumbsup:
babybearbarker
07-07-2008, 12:39 PM
quick question - currently have wireless (talk talk and their wireless router) but want to be able to play same music around the house - am I right in thinking my choices are to replace the wireless router with the airport extreme, then airport expresses in other parts of the house to connect speakers to, or just add a couple of expresses with speakers to my current wireless network.
Would replacing the talk talk router get me a better signal as it tells me it is "excellent" signal strength but it doesn't seem it!