I’m going to have a Canopy system installed in about two weeks, but I have a couple of questions. I use Mac OS 10.3.8. We plan on connecting the SM Cat5e cable to the LAN port on my AirPort Express in the living room. I will then connect to the AirPort Express from either my G4 iMac using 802.11b or from my G4 PowerBook using 802.11g. Has anyone done this? How did it work? Would it be better to connect the SM cable to the WAN port on my AirPort Extreme Base Station?
You MUST connect the Canopy SM to the WAN (Wide Area Network) port of the AirPort for it to properly serve local DCHP (802.11b and LAN) and route Internet traffic.
The one Ethernet port on the Airport Express is an intelligent port that can be WAN or LAN, so your proposed connectivity should work.
Apple has a caveat that “some ISPs are not currently compatible with AirPort Express”. Just a guess, but that may be because of how they use DHCP or NAT or other protocols. Your ISP has a million options on how they set their SMs and how they use various protocols in their network. Best bet is to try first with the Airport Express since I’m guessing you want that near your living room stereo for AirtTunes, and be ready to swap in the Airport Extreme Base Station while the installer is there only if you need to.
Tell us how it goes.
johnh wrote: The one Ethernet port on the Airport Express is an intelligent port that can be WAN or LAN, so your proposed connectivity should work.
Apple has a caveat that "some ISPs are not currently compatible with AirPort Express". Just a guess, but that may be because of how they use DHCP or NAT or other protocols. Your ISP has a million options on how they set their SMs and how they use various protocols in their network. Best bet is to try first with the Airport Express since I'm guessing you want that near your living room stereo for AirtTunes, and be ready to swap in the Airport Extreme Base Station while the installer is there only if you need to.
Tell us how it goes.
Yes, the AirTunes is one reason, but another is that the AirPort Express is closer to where the SM will be mounted AND there is already access through the exterior wall. To use the AEBS, will require another 50'+ run of cable and the making of another hole in the exterior wall at that location. Alternately, I'd have to run an extension Cat5 cable along the edge of the wall, around the wood stove, past the sliding glass door, and then around through the door into the room where the AEBS is located. Of course, I could also get a second AEBS just for the Canopy system.
I'll let you know what happens after the install on the 18th.
airPort seems to work without a problem. We connected to the WAN port - assigned the airPort the Static IP address we wanted it to have and away it went.
Jerry Richardson
airCloud Communications
romad wrote:
Yes, the AirTunes is one reason, but another is that the AirPort Express is closer to where the SM will be mounted AND there is already access through the exterior wall. To use the AEBS, will require another 50'+ run of cable and the making of another hole in the exterior wall at that location. Alternately, I'd have to run an extension Cat5 cable along the edge of the wall, around the wood stove, past the sliding glass door, and then around through the door into the room where the AEBS is located. Of course, I could also get a second AEBS just for the Canopy system.
I'll let you know what happens after the install on the 18th.
Everything is up and working. I wasn't successfull in getting the AirPort Express (AE) to connect to the SM, so I moved the AirPort Extreme Base Station (AEBS) out to the living room. I initially had the same lack of success setting it up (I was using my PowerBook), but finally discovered that I was selecting the wrong setting in the AirPort Admin Utility. After correcting that, the AEBS grabbed the settings it needed from the Canopy system and I was off and running. I probably could have used the AE if I'd used the correct setting, but decided to leave the AEBS out in the living room. I can still connect to it from the iMac in my computer room via Airport.