Network topology question.

[Grall]

I was wondering if something like this would be possible:

Computers <-- wifi/ethernet --> time capsule <-- wifi --> airport express <-- ethernet --> broadband modem.

The reason is, right now the broadband modem sits at the far end of a rather long ethernet cable (10 meters), which I'd happily be rid of if at all possible. It's also not possible to move it to a better position, since ADSL connections are sensitive to long extension cords plugging into the phone jack. It must sit near the first jack, which is on the opposite end of my apartment compared to my computers.

The AP Express would be nice, since it's quite tiny and self-contained and can sit plugged into the wall socket, but I'm not familiar enough with networks to know if a setup like this is possible.

Any help/input would be appreciated, thank you.

 

[Mize]

Yes, you can even do a distributed wireless with airports...much faster than repeaters., but they have to all be airport or WDS-capable. Look it up on wiki: wireless distribution system.

 

[Grall]

Oh. That's pretty awesome. Any special steps I need to go through in the airport utility to make it work? How will latency be affected? Obviously I would be running 5GHz n-standard, so hopefully performance would not be affected too much...

 

[Mize]

LOL. All I know is that, properly configured, WDS will result in much less bandwidth loss than simple repeaters.

 

[Grall]

Having a spot of trouble here... Not sure what to do, I'm crap at networking stuff. I have to use my iPhone tethered over 3G right now to access the internet, everything's borked at the moment.

I made the airport express join my time capsule's network... Didn't work, internet not available since the time capsule expects to get it via ethernet. There is no option to get it over wifi, the only two alternatives on the Internet Setup screen for the connection are either Ethernet, or PPPoE which my ISP doesn't use.

Do I need to move the wifi network over to the airport express instead perhaps? Having a bit of an issue there, since the darned thing keeps dropping in and out of the airport utility's list of devices for no discernible reason... Right now it's just gone. Maybe I should connect it over ethernet instead for now and try to set it up that way.

Any help appreciated, including step-by-step instructions for idiots...

 

[Malo]

Why would you join your time capsule network? That doesn't even make sense. You should have a single network (1 internal subnet) and everything is part of that network. If your time capsule doesn't have wifi, then it just connects wired to a switch?

 

[Grall]

There's only been one wifi network at any one time (well, 2, when the Time Capsule was the base station in use, due to it having dual-band capable radios). If you check the OP, I made a little diagram of how I'd like to set this up, only that does not seem possible to achieve unfortunately. Or, I'm just shitty at configuring everything.

Right now I got things to work by making the Airport Express the base station, but that kills off the dual-band capability unfortunately, so I can either run on congested 2.4GHz and let my Wii and iPhone access the internet via wifi, or I can run 5GHz and no 2.4GHz device internet access.

So if anyone can give some pointers so I can let my time capsule be the base station, have the airport express hanging off of it delivering ADSL internet access, so my Mac can wifi at 5GHz and my other gear at 2.5GHz (and my PC sit on wired gigabit ethernet to the time capsule), that'd be just swell. Thankyous.

I tried experimenting with WDS like Mize suggested, but couldn't get it working. There didn't seem to be any WDS config option in the Time Capsule, only for the AP Express. It also doesn't seem to support 5GHz connections? From what I can tell it only runs over crappy old 11Mbit/s b/g wifi...

Any help appreciated (non-technical, and specific, since everything networking-related hates me and always crap out in the extreme in my presence...or maybe it's just me, I dunno!)

 

[digitalwanderer]

Not meaning to thread crap, but as a pretty much PC-only user this thread made no fucking sense whatsoever until I googled what a "time capsule" is.

You're talking about the Apple Time Capsule thingy? Isn't that just a glorified wireless HDD?

 

[Davros]

No its a symbol of aspiration

 

[Grall]

Digi, if you by "glorified" mean it's also a router with integrated gigabit ethernet switch, firewall, and equipped with simultaneous dual-band wifi radios, plus a USB2 connector for additional NAT drives. So it's a little more than just a wireless HDD.

And since I started this thread asking for help it's very annoying when people post in it just to make inane and pointless comments. Please don't, if you can't offer any assistance.

 

[Mize]

I'll try to look into it today Grall. FWIW my wifi lan is now 2x Airport Extremes acting as access points with the same SSID on different channels (both are connected to the main router by CAT5). What's cool about it is that if I change my MAC address filtering (who can get on at what hours) on one APE, they automatically synchronize. Also if you wander the house with a tablet it seamlessly moves to the strongest signal.

Anyway, I'm sure what you want to do is possible.


Also Digi, 2 things: the proprietary interface of the Airport products has made them one of the few that hasn't been easily hacked using an http interface. Secondly, time capsule - as in Apple's Time Machine backup product - is simply orders of magnitude better than any backup software I've used in the PC world.

That USB2 connector is for NAS or shared printers.

 

[Mize]

Grall, I take it you've already read this: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4262