A friend asked me this, but I don't know the answer:

She has a wired-only router in her house serving a number of rooms, and
it's the portal to her broadband Internet service. She wants to add her
stereo in her living room to the network via an Airport Express so she
can play the iTunes library on her Apple laptop, which has an Airport
card, through the stereo via a wireless link.

I'm not sure how to configure this. There is a wired ethernet outlet
across the living room from the stereo, and AirTunes only works between
two Apple Airports. Thus, my idea is to place one AExp at the stereo and
a second one at the wired ethernet plug in the living room, which I'd
use as the center of the network (let's call it the Main AExp). I'd turn
off DHCP serving at the wired router and just use it as a switch, and
move the broadband connection to the Main AExp.

Does this sound correct? What if the broadband connection can't be moved
from the wired-only router? Do I have to give everything static IPs or
will the Main AExp magically recognize the broadband input from the
wired router and serve it via DHCP to the rest of the network? What
about the IP address of the wired router/switch?

Thanks for any help you can provide.

--Fred

Fred Moore <fmoore@gcfn.org> wrote:


Music can also be streamed to an AirPort Express across any wireless
network if the Express is in client mode rather than acting as a base
station. Your friend could attach an Express to her stereo and then use
any brand of base station to create a wireless network. Or, if she
doesn't use wireless to access the Internet from her laptop, a single
Express could be used to create a wireless network that would be used
only for AirTunes.

The base station should be placed where all the wireless devices will
have good signal strength to and from it. Radio propagation can be
quirky in a house, so finding a good location may take some
experimentation.



Virtually all base stations can have their routing (NAT and DHCP)
functions disabled so that they act only as access points, bridging an
Ethernet to a wireless network. For a base station that needs to be
configured with a web browser, a fixed IP address is more convenient.
Apple's base stations use Bonjour, so that doesn't apply to them.

Thanks so much for taking the time to help me out, Neill. You have
mostly confirmed what I thought. I just have one question.

In article <1hmfgjr.xzsmaq1q3tjthN%massello@newsguy.com>,
massello@newsguy.com (Neill Massello) wrote:
[a lot of useful stuff, including the following:]

Suppose she buys a replacement third-party wireless router for the
current wired router, and let's assume for simplicity that there are no
reception problems from using the present router's location. (And, yes,
she could buy an AirPort Extreme, rendering the question moot, but let's
say she doesn't.) I'm not sure how you stream iTunes to another
computer, or in this case to the stereo via an Airport Express,
_without_ using two AirPorts. (I hardly ever use iTunes.) She wants to
use AirTunes, but according to an Apple Store genius, it only works
between two Apple wireless devices. Is there a way to stream her iTunes
to the stereo without using AirTunes (and thus only needing one AiPort
Express)? Let's also assume she wants to browse the Web on the laptop
while playing the iTunes library to the stereo, although I have concerns
about whether this would either cause dropouts on iTunes or slow down
her browsing to a snail's pace.

Thanks again for you help. It's greatly appreciated.

--Fred

Fred Moore <fmoore@gcfn.org> wrote:


The genius was wrong.

From one computer to another, iTunes streaming is done with its sharing
function. This can be done across any proper TCP/IP local network, wired
or wireless, including one that uses non-Apple hardware. It only
requires that Apple's iTunes be running on both computers.

AirTunes is Apple's name for the function in the AirPort Express base
station that converts an encrypted digital audio stream into a standard
analog or optical digital (PCM) audio signal usable with any amplifier
or powered speaker. It requires an Apple AirPort Express at one end of
the connection, between the network and the audio amplifier, and a copy
of Apple's iTunes running on a computer at the other end. The network
packets that travel between the two can do so through non-Apple wireless
hardware.

Without some kind of unauthorized hack, iTunes only streams to another
copy of iTunes (iTunes sharing) running on a Mac or PC on the local
network or to an Express base station (AirTunes) on that network .

In base station mode, an Express can only communicate with other base
stations via WDS (Wireless Distribution System). With a few exceptions,
base stations only do WDS with other units of the same brand. In client
mode, the Express functions like a wireless adapter card and is able to
join any wireless network, including one created by a non-Apple base
station. The Express' AirTunes function works in base station or client
mode.

To minimize cost, your friend could go with a two network solution with
one AirPort Express base station used to create a wireless network
solely for AirTunes between it and the laptop. Internet access would
remain through the laptop's Ethernet port and the existing wired router.

If she also wants to have Internet access via a wireless network, she
can switch the AirPort Express to client mode and replace the wired
router with a wireless router (or just add a wireless access point to
it).



Assuming a wireless network with good signal strength, low interference,
and only two clients (laptop and Express), there should be no problems
streaming audio to the Express while also using the wireless network to
access the Internet across a standard cable or DSL connection. A good
802.11g wireless network can handle roughly four times the throughput
needed for a 6Mbps cable Internet connection and twenty times that
needed for AirTunes.

In article <1hml2lq.112upy44wi2qsN%massello@newsguy.com>,
massello@newsguy.com (Neill Massello) offered these valuable nuggets:


I thought so. His explanation didn't make sense to me, but I didn't know
whether Apple had done something to make the stream proprietary.


Excellent. Just what I wanted to hear!


Good suggestions.I'll pass them along.


Good to know. I haven't had any experience with this so I didn't know.

Thanks very much, again, Neill. Your help was just what I needed!

--Fred

Fred Moore wrote:

The easiest and most ideal way to do this, which I did with my network,
is to get an airport extreme base station and connect the broadband
modem to the WAN port on the APExtreme and then the wired switch to the
LAN port on the APExtreme. Then plug in the Airport Express next to the
stereo and hook up the stereo. Finally, enable WDS on the APExtreme
"Main base station." Hit the little plus button on the right side and
find your APExpress and add it as a WDS client. Then configure the
APExpress as a WDS "remote base station" and disable the "distribute IP
addresses."

Now I haven't done this for a while, so this info may be a bit out of
order, if it works, great, and if it doesn't just respond to me and
I'll try and continue to help and see what I got wrong.

--Greg