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Take Control of Your 802.11n AirPort Network
Make your 802.11n-based AirPort network fast, reliable, and secure!
Find real-world advice from Wi-Fi wizard Glenn Fleishman on setting up the 802.11n models of Apple's AirPort Express, AirPort Extreme, and Time Capsule. You'll get help with all the picky networking details, such as how to choose between the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands, use older Wi-Fi gear without hurting performance, set up complex Internet addressing, share USB disks and printers, network with and configure an Apple TV, and connect from Mac and Windows clients. You'll also learn how to create a multi-base-station network to extend range, and how to stream music across your network with an AirPort Express.
This 'Take Control' book is a must-have for anyone who needs to
quickly and easily set up an AirPort network. —Phil Kearney, "father" of Apple's AirPort product line
If you're trying to solve a particular problem, you can jump in and read the topics in this ebook in any order, but if you start at the beginning, you'll find a primer on important Wi-Fi networking terminology and concepts, and a look at how Apple's 802.11n gear fits into the world of Wi-Fi networking.
With that background, you'll learn how to locate and set up base stations, with diagrams showing common network scenarios - see two examples above on this Web page - and with step-by-step instructions for configuring key Internet sharing and security options and connecting client computers. For those who have funky Internet connections or tricky IP addressing problems, Glenn provides extended advice for creating a working Wi-Fi network.
Glenn also provides real-world steps for important add-ons to a Wi-Fi network, including:
Getting started with a Time Capsule and Time Machine backups, plus thoughts on making an archive so you can have an offsite backup of your Time Capsule drive and what to do if you want to erase the drive
Detailed advice for setting up a USB-based printer and for making connections to the printer work from Macintosh and Windows computers
Help with connecting an Apple TV to your network and advice on how to start syncing it to your computer
Steps and configuration advice for adding a USB-attached drive to a Time Capsule or AirPort Extreme, with important information about how best to allow and configure client access
Tips and setup advice for streaming music from an AirPort Express to your stereo system
Detailed configuration advice for multi-base-station networks
To make your network fly, Glenn helps you:
Make band and channel choices
Combine your old 802.11g network with a new 802.11n network to split traffic and maximize network bandwidth
Extend your network's coverage while handling any interference
Glenn also discusses wireless-network security, noting oft-suggested security approaches that don't work well and explaining how to implement measures that do work well.
"If anyone knows about real-world Wi-Fi, it's Glenn Fleishman."
—Mark Frauenfelder, co-founder of bOING bOING
Book Info
242 pages
Version 1.0
Published 29-Oct-08
4.1 MB download
Free sample with Table of Contents, Introduction, Quick Start, and section starts.
About the Author
Glenn Fleishman is editor of the daily Web log Wi-Fi Networking News, a contributing editor for TidBITS, the Practical Mac columnist for The Seattle Times, and a regular contributor to The Economist,
Macworld, Popular Science, and The New York Times.
Welcome to Take Control of Your 802.11n AirPort Network, version 1.0. This book helps you install and get the most out of an 802.11n Wi-Fi network. This book was written by Glenn Fleishman, edited by Tonya Engst, and published by TidBITS Publishing Inc.
Who Needs This Book
If you're setting up, extending, or retooling a Wi-Fi network with 802.11n base stations from Apple—including the AirPort Extreme, AirPort Express, and Time Capsule—with either Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard or Windows XP or Vista, this book will help you get the fastest network with the least equipment and fewest roadblocks. The ebook also includes enough coverage of Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger to get you up and running.
Who Doesn't Need This Book
If you're not yet using one of Apple's 802.11n AirPort devices, this book would be worthwhile only for background research if you are considering buying one of those devices. If you use earlier networking hardware on a Mac, consider purchasing Take Control of Your AirPort Network, which covers software and gear released before 2007.
Introduction
Apple introduced integrated wireless networking to the world with AirPort in 1999. Although corporations had already been using forms of wireless networking for warehouse tracking and to connect buildings in large campuses, the cost was high, speeds were low, and complexity was manifest. Other companies were selling similar wireless hardware in 1999, but Apple's products shot off the shelves due to their relatively low initial price, simple configuration interface, and excellent performance.
AirPort came out of the same approach that allowed Apple to ship the iMac the year before: combining widely available, standard parts in a unique package that provided more value as a whole.
The AirPort Card fit into a special slot in Macintoshes; its stand-alone, central coordinating hub was called the AirPort Base Station. Apple replaced the original AirPort line with AirPort Extreme: first, in 2003 with a somewhat faster flavor (known as 802.11g), then again in 2007, with a substantially faster version (802.11n or more commonly Draft N). Today, Wi-Fi is built into nearly every Mac.
Despite Apple's 9-year history with wireless networking and the general excellence of their software and support, setting up a wireless network isn't always a snap. This book helps you set up a wireless network and offers tips to help save time, improve security, extend range, and enjoy a technical edge when working with AirPort.
Although this book focuses on Draft N AirPort networks, I also cover compatibility and connections with older hardware, and connecting to Draft N via Mac OS X, Windows XP, and Windows Vista.
I start with wireless basics, move through installation and configuration, explain how to share printers and hard disks, tell you how to connect to a Wi-Fi network, give advice on extending a network's range and quality, look at adding an Apple TV to the network, and finish with how-to information on security for those who want their AirPort networks safe from freeloaders and intruders.
Quick Start to AirPort Networking
You can read this book from start to finish, and you'll find that it covers topics like learning about Wi-Fi, unpacking a base station, starting configuration, figuring out the network you want to build, and then configuring that network. More specific cases follow, such as how to add a printer, separating older and newer flavors of Wi-Fi into two separate networks, and securing a network. Use this Quick Start to get an idea of how you might jump into the book if you are at a particular stage in working with your network, and to find more than one path through the material.
Need a quick solution? If you need to solve a particular problem, flip ahead three pages to the Quick Troubleshooting Guide; also, you may especially wish to consult Overcome Interference.
Learn wireless basics:
Get a quick grounding in wireless terminology and technology. See Key Glossary Terms and Learn Wireless Basics.
Familiarize yourself with Apple's hardware and its alternatives. See Apple & Mac Wi-Fi Gear.
Plan your network:
For ideas on using the AirPort Express, skim AirPort Express Extras to learn about the features and networking arrangements.
For common configurations, see Set Up a Network, and focus on the diagrams and descriptions at the beginning of: New Network, Single Base Station, Extend a Network via Ethernet, Replace an Existing Base Station, and Extend a Network via Wi-Fi.
For more advanced possibilities, consult Connect Multiple Base Stations, and pay special attention to the descriptions and diagrams at the start of Add Access Points via Ethernet and Bridge Wirelessly. Also, note that Appendix C covers creating a Software Base Station and Ad Hoc Networking.
In Consider Your Spectrum Choices, you can get a leg up on band and channel options to make sure your network reaches as far as you want with the bandwidth you need.
To use older Wi-Fi devices with your Draft N gear, read Mix Legacy, New Draft N Networks so you know your options.
Set up your base station(s):
Unpack your base station and start down the path of configuring it in Plug In Your Base Station & Get Started. You'll likely continue in one of these sections:
Learn how to configure a new network with a single base station. See New Network, Single Base Station.
For existing networks, find what you need to Extend a Network via Ethernet or Replace an Existing Base Station.
Separate networks for best performance into different slices of spectrum. See Mix Legacy, New Draft N Networks.
When wireless is the way to go, learn what you need to extend a network using only Wi-Fi. See Extend a Network via Wi-Fi and Bridge Wirelessly.
Hook up a larger network with many base stations. See Connect Multiple Base Stations to build a network that spans a house or office connected wirelessly, or via electrical outlets or Ethernet.
Further configure your network's LAN settings for fixed addresses or special cases. See Advanced Networking.
Work through Set a Band and Channel, and if you haven't already, Pick the Right Place for your base station.
Share a printer or a hard drive. See Set Up a Shared USB Printer or Set Up a Shared USB Disk.
Set up Time Machine backups with a Time Capsule base station. Read Work with Time Capsule.
Connect to your base station:
Find out how to connect Macs and systems running Windows to a base station in Connect Your Computers.
Access your network when you're not physically on it. See Reach Your Network Remotely.
Add music and video:
Use the AirPort Express to stream music. See AirPort Express and AirTunes and Share with Airfoil.
Get jiggy with a video- and audio-streaming set-top box, the Apple TV. See Appendix A: Apple TV and Wi-Fi.
Secure your network:
Decide if you need encryption. Read Likelihood, Liability, and Lost Opportunity.
Avoid security tricks that don't work, while using a newer method that does. Consult Simple Tricks That Don't Work.
Apply encryption using the best—and often simplest—method. See Use Built-In Encryption.
Learn still more advanced topics:
Find out what the future will bring for end-to-end connections with intermediaries in Explore the Internet's Future with IPv6.
Stop pulling your hair out over a problem with new firmware you install that doesn't work. See Revert to Older Firmware.
Get a few details about special configuration options for AirPort Utility that I don't cover elsewhere by reading the AirPort Pane topic in Appendix D.
Act wonky and fire up Terminal to learn more about your AirPort adapter. Read Appendix E: AirPort Command-Line Utility.
Quick Troubleshooting Guide
If you need quick help, here's the starting point. I first look at handling a locked-up base station and then give tips for solving a variety of common problems.
Reset a Locked-up Base Station
If an AirPort Extreme Base Station, AirPort Express, or Time Capsule neither appears in the AirPort menu as an available network, nor in AirPort Utility as an available base station, try these steps in order:
Check a local connection: Make sure that the computer running AirPort Utility is on the same local network as the base station. Try connecting the computer via Ethernet to one of the base station's LAN ports. Try AirPort Utility again.
Failing a direct Ethernet connection, try power cycling. Remove the power adapter's plug from the wall socket or remove the end that plugs into the base station. Wait 10 seconds. Plug it back in, and try to connect via AirPort Utility. Everything may be back to normal.
Warning! You might damage the data on the internal drive by pulling the plug on a Time Capsule. Make sure Time Machine backups or other transfers aren't in progress when you power cycle a Time Capsule: in the Time Machine menu, choose Stop Backup and wait for it finish; or open the Time Machine preference pane and flip the On switch to Off, and wait until Time Machine is inactive.
Failing power cycling, try a factory reset: This step erases any custom settings you've made (I recommend backing up these settings; see Create and Manage Profiles). To reset any of Apple's three base station models, straighten one end of a paperclip, and with the base station plugged into power, hold down the base station's reset button with the paperclip end. The reset button is recessed in the rear right of the AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule and next to the audio jack on the AirPort Express; with all three models, the button is beneath the reset symbol, a white arrow reversed out of a gray circle.
Failing a factory reset, try another method to reset the base station: Unplug the base station from power, push in the reset button and hold it down, plug the base station into power, and keep the reset button pressed for at least 20 seconds.
Failing all the above: Call Apple for return instructions.
Printer Problems
Printer on 802.11g part of network won't print
You'll need to connect it to your Extreme N base station. Put Printers in the Right Place explains how.
See Troubleshoot an Unavailable Shared USB Printer.
Other Troubleshooting
Did you set the base station to the 5 gigahertz (GHz) band? Only Mac models released starting in 2006 with 802.11a or 802.11n built in can connect. See Set a Band and Channel.
Further, computers can sometimes temporarily lose their capability to find Wi-Fi networks. Try turning the adapter off and back on—on a Mac, choose Turn AirPort Off from the AirPort menu, and then choose Turn AirPort On. Another common fix is to restart the computer.
Flaky adapter: In some cases, the AirPort adapter may have gone flaky—"flaky" isn't a technical term, but an apt description. The original AirPort Card and its AirPort Extreme replacement are known to behave erratically the older and more used they become. All Macs sold in the last few years include AirPort Extreme built in, which has turned out to be much more reliable.
If you can see its network name, try these fixes:
Did you inadvertently set the base station to allow 802.11n-only connections in the 2.4 GHz band? See Connect Your Computers (look for the Warning on p. 97).
Access control may be preventing access. See MAC Address Filtering.
Interference from other networks may be the problem. Consult Eliminate Conflicting Signals.
Error occurs after connecting to a base station with the correct encryption key
You might be using a Mac with the older AirPort Card with a base station set up with WPA2 encryption. See Turning on WPA/WPA2 Personal.
Firmware update makes base station act erratically
Try to Revert to Older Firmware.
Network works erratically
Another network might be interfering with yours. See Eliminate Conflicting Signals.
Conflicting signals seem to cause network problems
Read Eliminate Conflicting Signals.
About This Edition
This book is based largely on two previous books: Take Control of Your AirPort Network (2005) and Take Control of Your 802.11n AirPort Extreme Network (2007). The former book covered 802.11g AirPort networking; the latter, the newer 802.11n (now more commonly called Draft N) networks. Both books focused on using Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger.
This new book covers much of the same material in slightly to extremely different ways. Apple thoroughly revised the new AirPort Utility base station configuration program between the release of its second version of the AirPort Extreme Base Station with Draft N (August 2007) and the release of Time Capsule (February 2008).
These changes meant reworking much of the earlier part of the book explaining how to use the Assist Me mode in AirPort Utility; in the process, I split apart advice into scenarios covering the different kinds of networks you might be building or updating. This should make basic configuration easier, as well as help you easily find help if you return to the book to configure or add base stations in the future, or to set up multiple networks in different places.
This new book has also been overhauled to incorporate information about the Time Capsule, Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, the revised AirPort Extreme and Express, and network troubleshooting issues.
Further, I've added more information about IPv6, the next-generation Internet numbering standard, which is starting to have practical applications, and which can be used quite easily with all of Apple's current Wi-Fi gear, and Mac OS X since version 10.3.
Previous Book Covers Older AirPort Base Stations
If you own an older 802.11b- or 802.11g-based AirPort base station and don't plan to buy a new one soon, check out our older title, Take Control of Your AirPort Network, which covers the older AirPort Extreme, as well as other old AirPort base stations, under Panther, Tiger, and Windows XP.
Operating Systems Covered in This Book
The AirPort Extreme Base Station comes with utility software, AirPort Utility, that runs on Mac OS X and on Windows XP and Vista. This book assumes that readers might run that software on a Macintosh or on a Windows computer. The book also covers connecting to an AirPort Extreme Base Station (and to any shared disks or printers on the base station) from Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, 10.5 Leopard, Windows XP, and Windows Vista.
Ask a Question
Feel free to ask us if you have a question about this book!
Ebook Described as a "Must-Have" by Phil Kearney
This "Take Control" book is a must-have for anyone who needs to
quickly and easily set up an AirPort network. It is a clean and
concise guide to get you past any stumbling blocks you may encounter
in the process of configuring your wireless network. Even the more
advanced chapters and topics will be a great help to anyone who
designs and installs 802.11 networks for a living. —Phil Kearney, "father" of Apple's AirPort product line
Blazingly Fast Internet Connection Now in Place
I bought the book because I'd just purchased a Time Capsule and I
wanted to know (a) if my old Graphite Base Station was now a white
elephant and (b) if the older Macs on my home network would prevent
me from getting top speed from my new Time Capsule.
Glenn's book showed be how to use Airport Utility to set up a 2.4 GHz
and a 5 GHz network in parallel, answering both questions. Thanks to
that guidance, and the tip about OpenDNS, I now have a blazingly fast
Internet connection. —David Travis
Restarting Wireless Zero Configuration to the Rescue
Your book saved the day for me. In fact, it saved several days. A Windows laptop connected to my AirPort network via a WEP connection suddenly failed to recognize the AirPort signal. After 2 wasted days of troubleshooting, I thought to consult your ebook. It described precisely the problem I was having and advised me to restart 'Wireless Zero Configuration.' I was up and running with about two mouse clicks! Many thanks for your on-target advice. I won't be so slow to consult your material in the future. —W.P.
