AirTunes over the air only?

On or about 2/23/08 4:00 PM, thus spake "Paul Welty" <paul.weltygmail.com>:

> I have an Airport Express that's not near my cable modem and wireless
> router. Instead, it's near my stereo. So, I can't connect the Express
> to the router via ethernet (well, not easily anyway). So, could I
> somehow get the Airport Express to wirelessly connect to the main
> wireless router, such that I could play iTunes through the wireless
> router, to the Express, then to the stereo?

That is certainly *supposed* to be the way to use Airtunes. You'll have to
hook the Airport Express to the network via Ethernet in order to configure
it initially, though (using Airport Admin Utility or whatever you've got).
Tell the Airport Express to join your existing network as a normal client
(with the same status as any wireless computer that you would use in the
house). Once that's configured, unplug the Airport Express from the Ethernet
cable, plug it into a power socket near the stereo, and everything should
just work. However, as I mentioned before, when I do this, I find that after
playing music from iTunes over the Airport Express in this way for about an
hour, the Airport Express craps out - it loses the network and can't find it
again. I hope you have better luck. m.

--
matt neuburg, phd = matttidbits.com, http://www.tidbits.com/matt/
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At 16:00 -0800 2/23/08, Paul Welty opined:
>So, could I
>somehow get the Airport Express to wirelessly connect to the main
>wireless router, such that I could play iTunes through the wireless
>router, to the Express, then to the stereo?

That's pretty much the default mode of operation. In Airport Utility
select "Connect to my current wireless network" and follow the
prompts.

--Ron
--
Ron Risley
www.risley.net

On Feb 23, 2008, at 7:00 PM, Paul Welty wrote:

> This sees like it should be possible, but I can't seem to get it to
> work. Maybe it's not possible. Anyway...
>
> I have an Airport Express that's not near my cable modem and wireless
> router. Instead, it's near my stereo. So, I can't connect the Express
> to the router via ethernet (well, not easily anyway). So, could I
> somehow get the Airport Express to wirelessly connect to the main
> wireless router, such that I could play iTunes through the wireless
> router, to the Express, then to the stereo?

It certainly can - that's how I have my AE connected to my living room
stereo. In Wireless options, have it join a wireless network. In that
mode, you can only enable AirTunes and printer sharing - it can't
share the connection to the Ethernet port (which would make it a lot
more useful).

On Feb 23, 2008, at 4:00 PM, Paul Welty <paul.weltygmail.com> wrote:

> This sees like it should be possible, but I can't seem to get it to
> work. Maybe it's not possible. Anyway...
>
> I have an Airport Express that's not near my cable modem and wireless
> router. Instead, it's near my stereo. So, I can't connect the Express
> to the router via ethernet (well, not easily anyway). So, could I
> somehow get the Airport Express to wirelessly connect to the main
> wireless router, such that I could play iTunes through the wireless
> router, to the Express, then to the stereo?

Use Set-up Assistant to do that. It comes on the disk with Airport
Express.

Dave Clark
Sent from my iPhone

On 2/23/08 at 4:00 PM, paul.weltygmail.com (Paul Welty) wrote:

>I have an Airport Express that's not near my cable modem and
>wireless router. Instead, it's near my stereo. So, I can't connect
>the Express to the router via ethernet (well, not easily anyway).
>So, could I somehow get the Airport Express to wirelessly connect to
>the main wireless router, such that I could play iTunes through the
>wireless router, to the Express, then to the stereo?

If your wireless router supports WDS it should be possible to
make this work. In my case, I have the following set up:

DSL modem connected to Airport Express via Ethernet cable in one
room. This Airport Express is configured as a WDS router

I have a second Airport Express in another room connected to my
stereo. This Airport Express is configured as a WDS remote unit.

With this configuration I can send music to via iTunes to the
stereo and connect to the Internet via the other Airport Express
with no problems.

Details of how to set this up are described in the TidBITS ebook
Take Control of Your Airport Network.

On Feb 24, 2008, at 8:12 PM, Bill Rowe wrote:

> On 2/23/08 at 4:00 PM, paul.weltygmail.com (Paul Welty) wrote:
>
>> I have an Airport Express that's not near my cable modem and
>> wireless router. Instead, it's near my stereo. So, I can't connect
>> the Express to the router via ethernet (well, not easily anyway).
>> So, could I somehow get the Airport Express to wirelessly connect to
>> the main wireless router, such that I could play iTunes through the
>> wireless router, to the Express, then to the stereo?
>
> If your wireless router supports WDS it should be possible to
> make this work.

WDS is only necessary to use the Airport Express to extend your
wireless network. WDS is not necessary to make the Airport Express
join your existing wireless network as a client, only that it be
configured as such.

I it's also not necessary to connect to the Airport Express by wire
to configure it as a wireless client. All I did was use my MacBook
Pro to connect to the wireless network it created by default then
used Airport Admin Utility to change its configuration. When the
config was saved, it stopped creating a network and joined the
existing wireless network instead.

AirPort Express: How to join an existing wireless network in client mode..

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=302153