Linksys wireless router to airport express?

[NickLarson]

Hi, I have a 2.4 GHz wireless linksys router connected to a modem and a windows desktop in my houses upstairs. Downstairs I have a macbook, a wireless printer, a Playstation 3, 2 Xbox 360's, and soon an Apple TV unit. With the printer in the far room of the basement its signal is not strong enough for wireless printing. Also, when I log onto my PS3 it knocks the macbook off the wifi. I was wondering if I could connect an Airport Express wirelessly to the my upstairs router then rebroadcast the signal downstairs? Would this be possible and would this make the signal stronger?

 

[michaelsanford]

Yes, you can set the Airport Express up as a WDS (Wireless Distribution System). This will connect your AirPort to the existing network and rebroadcast the signal. I've had very mixed results with that, though.

However, a more pressing problem is why one machine is getting booted off the network when another one logs on: signal strength won't cause this behaviour. Are you sure you haven't set the Maximum DHCP Clients to something low, like 2 ?

 

[djackmac]

However, a more pressing problem is why one machine is getting booted off the network when another one logs on: signal strength won't cause this behaviour. Are you sure you haven't set the Maximum DHCP Clients to something low, like 2 ?

I agree, it sounds like there is a very limited address range configured in the router or something wrongly configured. If not go into the routers web interface and look for something to backup your routers configuration to a .cfg file. Then go to the linksys web-site and look up the hard reset procedure for that model of router. This clears the firmware and sets the router back to factory defaults. Then you can restore your routers settings back from the .cfg file backed up to one of your computers.

 

[michaelsanford]

That's not a bad suggestion either! Just remember to reflash firmware ONLY over a wired connection. Never, ever flash a router over wifi.