Airport Adventures

Here is the promised post I made about the Apple Airport Express and the adventure I had getting it set up. The device itself is really impressive - follow the link and you'll see all the amazing stuff it can do. Unfortunately, Apple's documentation has always been severely lacking. I supose they write with Mac owners in mind - in which case it's a trivial matter - everything is truely plug and play. If you have a PC and third-party routers/modems, you're on your own. Fortunately, once you understand what's going on, it's really easy.

So here's the current setup: We have a cable modem that plugs into a Linksys Wireless-G router. The PC then plugs (note: plugs) into the router. This created a little hurdle because the PC itself isn't wireless and isn't configured in any way, shape, or form. We wanted to use the Airport in its "Airtunes" configuration to pipe music from the computer, across the house to a hall closet that holds the wires for our recessed speakers. Below is the closest picture I could find of the desired setup sans Apple products, of course.

I'll save you all the issues, websites, and hair-pulling I went through with the exception of saying that no documentation Apple provided helped. Here's what I ended up doing...

1. Install the software package that came with your Airport Express.
2. Plug the airport into a power outlet and then hard wire it to your router. If you find yourself short a network cable, you can do what I did and use the cable connecting the modem and router. Make sure you move the cable from the "Internet" (i.e. input) port to the number 2 slot on the router.
3. Run the "Airport Admin Utility." By default, it's at Start --> All Programs --> Airport --> Airport Admin Utility
4. You should now see the factory default name of your Airport Express under the "name" column. Select it and click the "Configure" button at the bottom right of the screen.
5. It may or may not ask for a password. I can't remember the first time.
6. You should now be looking at a series of tabs of properties you can set for the Airport. The first thing to do is click on the "Airport" tab and next to the "Wireless mode" select "Join an Existing Wireless Network (Wireless Client)
7. Click on the "Wireless Security" button to set up the encryption and password for your netowk. THis reminds that in trying to get all this figured out, I disabled encryption for our network! I need to fix that... I seem to recall there being an issue with WEP or WPA encryption. Once I get that solved, I'll make another post...
8. Enter the name of your network name in the field provided.
9. All the other proerties are moot for the setup we're trying to do except the last tab - Music. On there, you need to click on the boxes to "Enable AirTunes on this base station" and "Enable AirTunes over Ethernet." Be sure to give the "iTunes Speaker Name" something meaningful - this is what will be displayed in iTunes.
10. Once all this is done, you can click on the 'Update' button at the bottom of the window to save all your changes. When you do, the Airport will reset itself (indicated by the solid amber display light). Once done booting, the Airport will begin flashing an amber light indicating its searching for your network. After about ten blinks, it should turn a solid green. Congratulations! You can remove the wire connecting the router and Airport to verify that the signal is being sent wirelessly. Furhtermore, try opening iTunes and look for an additional display at the bottom of the window for output. By default, it should be set to 'My Computer.' Selecting your Airport name should take a second or two to synch up but then it should work great. When I tested it, I had headphones plugged into the Airport and directed iTunes to output to both the PC speakers and Airport. There was no desernable delay between the two.

Anyway, that's what it took to get my Airport working. I hope this helps someone!