I have a Apple airport express wifi. I would like to expand the wifi range around the house. What wifi extender would be best for me?

Incidentally my model number is A 1408.

Not a big deal, but an A1408 is an AirPort Extreme.....not an AirPort Express. This model provides a much better signal than an AirPort Express, so if the budget is tight, you might consider adding a used A1408 to match your current model for the next few years.

Used AirPort A1408's are available on Ebay in the $20-30 range.

The Apple Airport range of products are no longer available from Apple to purchase. It is possible to use up to three Apple AirPort devices to extend the Wi-Fi range of a Apple Airport wireless network.

So another Apple Airport express or Apple AirPort Extreme unit will work if you can obtain one of these.

A Wifi extender will work, for some customers, but its not a recommended way to do this today for YouTube, and for online Video, and with multiple devices.

Simply start with looking at which router you have, replacing a existing router can give a much better wifi range, so no extender is needed.

A third party wireless repeater or wireless extender, works by repeating the wifi signal, however, this is at a cost as any wireless repeater or wireless extender will simply reduce the wireless speed on the repeated signal. This is old technology.

The best solution to get Wi-Fi around a house is to look at a newer mesh system.

The Apple store sells a mesh wireless solution from LinkSys. click here to find out more.

There two different ways to extend a network......one of them is to connect devices using a WiFi connection......and the other much better solution is to use a permanent wired Ethernet cable connection between the WiFi routers.

Depending on the model of AirPort Express that you have, it may or may not be possible to use the preferred wired option.

So, the first question here would be which model of the AirPort Express do you have? Does it have two Ethernet ports? Does it have only one Ethernet port?

If it has only one Ethernet port, look on the side of the Express for the model number. It is hard to see......gray lettering on a white background. The model number starts with an "A" followed by 4 numbers. Example.......A1264.

If you do not plan to connect the second "extending" AirPort using a permanent wired Ethernet cable connection, then you will need another AirPort Express to be able to "extend" the network. The reason for this is that Apple's "extend" function is proprietary......designed to only work with other Apple devices.

If you plan to use a wired connection between the devices, it is still advisable to add another Apple AirPort device so that the products will complement each other and you will able to administer both devices with the same AirPort Utility application.

While Apple has discontinued the AirPort line, you can still find new, refurbished and used AirPort products on Ebay.

Finally, depending on the age of your AirPort Express, your best option might be to retire the device and replace it with one of the newer "mesh" wireless systems that will provide wide coverage. Apple currently offers mesh products from 3 different manufacturers.

Just a further comment.. assuming you do have a Gen1 or Gen2 Express.. don't buy another express to extend with.. replace the Express in its role as router and use airport extreme. They have far superior wifi and gigabit ethernet.. cf express which use very low power small antennas and processor which your phone will beat hands down.

All the airports are getting old. Not sure but loads of AC model Extreme are on sale where I am. People are definitely making a decision it is time to get out of airports. Still a Gen5 (A1408) Extreme matches nicely with the Express. And even the Gen6 which I consider hardware wise inferior to earlier ones might still have a couple of years in it.

Wifi has moved a long way since Apple designed the last Extreme or Express.. so total replacement with a new mesh system is well worth considering if you have wireless issues now. That will give you much better long term reliability than buying second hand airports.

One further question. I did buy a old a1408 extreme on eBay but when connected to power my airport utility does not show this device. Any idea how I can connect this extreme to my base a1408 extreme ? I did reset The newly bought extreme.

thanks.

Please start another new post for your question and include information about what device......a Mac, a PC, an iPhone / iPad......that you will use to configure the old Extreme.

We don't know "how" you plan to connect the old Extreme. Will it connect to your "main" Extreme using a permanent wired Ethernet cable connection or will it connect using only wireless? Please read the information above explaining the upsides and downsides of each method.