Airport Extreme as a wireless network extender?

milltown

Trying to boost the speed and range of the wi-fi at home. The UPC modem is also a wireless router but trying a few different locations around the house still leaves a few black spots. I've been trying to use an Airport Extreme router to extend the network, selecting that option in the menu and giving it the same SSID and password as the UPC one. When I save the config in airport utility it remains orange, with the status "extended network".

I expected that it would show a green light once everything was in order.
Also, there's no improvement in wifi coverage.

Is there anything obvious I'm missing here?

milltown

Ended up turning off the wireless end of the UPC box, just using it as a modem, and letting the AE take care of wireless routing duties. Still confused why the AE didn't like acting as an extender for the UPC router.

Zcott

I think an Airport Express can only extend from an AirPort Extreme.

Type 17

You can actually extend an Express-created network with an Extreme, but as the OP found, Apple stuff can only be used with other Apple stuff to wirelessly extend a network. If you want to use other makes of hardware to work with Apple stuff in a wi-fi network, they have to be linked to the Apple stuff by Ethernet.

milltown

That explains what I discovered alright. Thanks!

Nemeses

Airport devices can only extend WIFI networks that support WDS. More than likely, the router you have doesn't support it.

If its the UPC Horizon box you have like myself.. then don't expect much from it as a router... it's pretty restrictive.. including its support for enabling 5Ghz WIFI networks ...