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Airport Extreme - Possible WIRED extension?

I live in an old building with a terrible wireless connectivity. I have a cable modem from the local internet provider. When I connect my Airport Extreme (AE1) to the LAN port of the modem I get nice Wifi as expected.


Since the internal connectivity in our building is very bad, I have decided to pull a CAT6 cable from the LAN1 port of AE1 to a little Airport Express (AE2) in the other end of the building.

By doing so I would expect an extension of the wifi network defined by AE1.

In close range between AE1 and AE2 it works wirelessly.

BUT every time I plug in the cable in the LAN port I seem to loose internet connectivity from AE1 to the cable modem. As such the new wifi is working fine between AE1 and AE2 - I even see a solid line in the Airport Utility. But again the Internet connection goes orange.

Any way to fix this? I suspect maybe a security relay issue in the modem config.


Thanks in advance :-)


Best Regards,

Christian



Posted on Jan 12, 2021 2:30 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jan 12, 2021 3:10 AM

I suspect maybe a security relay issue in the modem config.


No, that is not the problem.


It sounds like you configured the AirPort Express originally to "Extend a wireless network", meaning that it will look for and connect to the AirPort Extreme using a wireless connection.


If you then try to connect the AirPort Express using an Ethernet connection........remember it is still expecting a wireless connection......the two types of connections create a huge feedback loop that effectively kills the WiFi on the AirPort Express and slows down the entire network.


If what I suspect is correct, you will need to start over with the AirPort Express and do the following:


Perform a Hard Reset on the AirPort Express

Establish the Ethernet connection first.....before......you try to set up the Express again

Set up the AirPort Express again to "extend using Ethernet"


The setup "wizard" will pick up the wired connection and automatically configure the Express for you with the correct settings





Post back if you need step by step details

Similar questions

2 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jan 12, 2021 3:10 AM in response to chrcph

I suspect maybe a security relay issue in the modem config.


No, that is not the problem.


It sounds like you configured the AirPort Express originally to "Extend a wireless network", meaning that it will look for and connect to the AirPort Extreme using a wireless connection.


If you then try to connect the AirPort Express using an Ethernet connection........remember it is still expecting a wireless connection......the two types of connections create a huge feedback loop that effectively kills the WiFi on the AirPort Express and slows down the entire network.


If what I suspect is correct, you will need to start over with the AirPort Express and do the following:


Perform a Hard Reset on the AirPort Express

Establish the Ethernet connection first.....before......you try to set up the Express again

Set up the AirPort Express again to "extend using Ethernet"


The setup "wizard" will pick up the wired connection and automatically configure the Express for you with the correct settings





Post back if you need step by step details

Airport Extreme - Possible WIRED extension?

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