Apple Airport Express MB321LL/A [NEWEST VERSION]
by Apple Computer
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Apple Airport Express MB321LL/A [NEWEST VERSION]
Customer Review: Airport Express Set-up Instructions
Summary: 5 Stars
August 22, 2009 Update
The software that comes with new Airport Expresses is much more user friendly. You may find going through the instructions listed below is not required.
Regards,
S. Monroe
The CD that comes with the Airport Express has been useless to me in setting up a Windows XP computer to work with an AE. The instructions below should get you up and running.
1. First download the latest version of both the Airport Update and Airport Express Firmware Updater from [...]
2. Run the latest version of the Airport Update (4.1 at the time of this writing)
3. Disable your firewalls, plug in the Airport Express (AX) to an electrical outlet and attach it to your computer or router with an ethernet cable. The AX will have a steady or blinking yellow light.
4. Launch the Airport Admin Utility...it should detect the Airport Express in the "Base Station Chooser" within a minute or so and the light on the AX should turn green. You may have to hard reset the unit a few times by pushing the small reset button with a paperclip for about 10 seconds. If, like mine, it does not show up in the Airport Admin Utility leave the AX attached by ethernet and reboot, launch the Airport Admin Utility, and hopefully it will show up quickly.
5. As soon as it does show up, launch the latest Airport Express Firmware Updater (I used 6.1.1) and update the AX...this seemed to make a significant difference in the ease of detection later. This will take a minute or so. The AX will reset and you may have to leave it attached by ethernet, reboot, and relaunch the Airport Admin Utility to detect it again.
6. Once detected by the Airport Admin Utility, click the "Configure" button in the lower right hand corner.
7. A new set of tabs will pop up. Click on the "Airport" tab and select "Create Wireless Network" from the Airport Network dropdown box. This will be changed to "Join an Existing Wireless Network" later.
8. Now click on the "Network" tab and and check the "Distribute IP Addresses", the "Share a single IP address" button, and from IP range drop down list choose the IP range for your router (192.168.x.x being the most common for Dlink, lynksys, Netgear, and other non-Apple routers).
9. Go back to the "Airport" tab and change the "Create a Wireless Network" to "Join an Existing Wireless Network".
10. In the "Network Name" box type in the name of your wireless network (also called your SSID)
11. On the same page rename your AX to whatever you want it to be called in iTunes (often the physical location of the speakers the AX will be attached to, ex: Living Room, Bedroom, Ambient Sound), give it a new password (required), and give it a location.
12. If you are using security click on the security button, choose your encryption settings, and add your WEP key or password, etc. It might be handy to have your router security info open in a window so you can copy and paste the key right into the appropriate box.
13. If you now go back to the "Network" tab you will see everything is greyed out but now your new IP Range settings are visible.
14. With the AX still attached by etherlink, click the "Update" button and wait a minute or so for the AX to update. The changes you made should be reflected in the Airport Admin Utility when the update is complete.
15. Now you can launch iTunes and you should see a button in the lower right hand corner that says "My Computer". Click this button and you will see you have the choice of your computers speakers or the AX. Any further changes you want to make to the configuration such as the name you see in that button are easiest done while attached by ethernet so try to get it the way you want it with further Airport Admin Utility updates before unplugging the ethernet cable. As long as your Airport Admin Utility can see the AX you can update without being connected too.
16. When you are satisfied with the configuration and the AX is updated and is showing up in iTunes go ahead and unplug the ethernet cable. Now you can move The AX to your chosen locations electrical outlet, and hook up the audio cable. The AX light will blink yellow for a few minutes while being detected and then turn green. You can now choose your AX in iTunes and start playing your music as normal. Itunes will show it is busy connecting to the AX for about 30 seconds and then hopefully you will hear your music played from your remote speakers. I hope pulling this information together helps someone a little. Let me know if I missed something and I will update asap. Good Luck!
Customer Review: Amazing!
Summary: 5 Stars
Music used to be a huge part of my life; I almost always had something playing on the stereo. Then we moved to a larger house, and it seemed like the music stopped. Our nicest stereo was in the living room. Our CD collection was upstairs, though some of it was on the computer in the office. And we spent most of our time in other parts of the house. It's long been a dream of mine to play the same music throughout the house; with the Airport Express, this dream became a reality, and I'm listening to music all of the time again.
I bought one to give it a try; this let me stream music from my Vista PC to the living room stereo on the same floor (while still playing via the PC speakers). I was hooked, and immediately copied the rest of our CDs to the computer.
After a few weeks, I bought another AirPort Express to stream the music to a pair of powered speakers upstairs (Creative Labs GigaWorks T40 Premium 2.0 Multimedia Speaker System with BasXPort Technology). All three music sources (the computer and the two Airport Express-connected speaker systems) are always in sync and drop outs have been very rare. It's really quite amazing; you can walk throughout the house and hear the same music everywhere. Of course you want to be able to control the music from where you are in the house, so I bought an Apple iPod touch 8 GB (2nd Generation) to use as a remote (the iPhone works as well). The whole setup is just so cool!
I recently bought a third Airport Express. I don't stream music through this one; I use it as a wireless bridge to allow an old iMac without a wireless card to access my network. This one performs flawlessly; you set it up and forget it. I could also stream music through this one if I had another pair of speakers to connect to it.
Although I think this is an amazing product, I almost docked it one star because the setup and interoperability with non-Apple hardware isn't as seamless as it should be.
I connected my first two Airport Expresses to a non-Apple Wireless G access point (a 2WIRE DSL router). For security reasons, I do not broadcast the SSID on my wireless network. I could not get the AirPort Expresses to join my network with the SSID broadcast off (even though I typed in the network name); I had to broadcast the SSID, join them to the network, then stop broadcasting the SSID. That wasn't that big of deal, but it took me at least 30 minutes to figure it out and it's not how it should work. These units also had a tendency to drop out of the AirPort utility software when they connected via this access point.
When I got the third one, I bought an Apple AirPort Extreme Base Station (Gigabit) MB053LL/A to use as my main access point (these can't act as a bridge on a non-Apple wireless network). I set this up as Wireless-N only, I still use the old access point for B/G.
The third AirPort Express also had setup problems- the AirPort Utility software couldn't communicate with it until I did a factory reset. After the factory reset, it was easy as pie, though. I had no problems joining the AirPort Expresses to the Apple base station, even with the SSID broadcast turned off. So, in my experience, these do work with non-Apple access points, but they work much better with an Apple base station. On the plus side, the AirPort Utility works well under Windows; I don't think you need a Mac to get the most out of this.
Those minor hassles aside, this is the most impressive computing/home entertainment product that I've seen in a long time- it's somewhat expensive, but you get a lot of features for your money. Highly Recommended!
Customer Review: PC User = Very Satisfied
Summary: 5 Stars
I have a unique set up and was very skeptical when I purchased the Airport Express. Being primarly iTunes in nature and having a large library, plus the addition of a new surround system really pushed me over the edge to give this unit a try.
I am a PC user and software developer (making my living aligned with the evil empire with ASP.NET and c#). I have thoroughly researched all reviews on this item. I have delved into Apple products in the past and been very satisfied (iPhone 3G being the most recent). So without further banter, here are my findings:
- My set up is FIOS (Fiber Optic) 30 Meg down/5 Meg up. My primary data access point (router) is a Linksys N router. I bought this unit late in 2007 and just recently did a firmware upgrade.
- I have four PC computers that run Windows XP SP2. There are no Macs in my house but when my little ones need one for school, that is the first computer I am going to buy them.
Here is the installation I performed:
1) Hooked the Airport Express into my Linksys router via ethernet port as suggested in instructions. Did not plug Airport Express in.
2) Installed Airport Express software on my most used laptop.
3) Plugged Airport Express in and opened the Airport Express software. The software tried to locate the Express and could not find it after dozens of tries. I then (Mac users, you can laugh now) decided to REBOOT my laptop considering most software installs require one on PC's. After reboot I re-opened the Airport Express software. It was located successfully.
4) Ran through the Airport Express wizard where I wanted to add to an existing network. All steps are very straight forward. When I got to the encryption key to enter for my secured wireless network, things began to break down. My network was set to WEP 128 bit encryption and the Airport could only handle WEP with a 13 character key. I then logged into my Linksys router settings and decided to use WPA2 Personal and reset the key (Express can handle three types of security). I re-ran the wizard, entered the key and viola, my laptop connected to my Airport Express.
5) With my home receiver unit set up with the splitter wire I purchased at the Apple store, I opened iTunes. There was a new control at the bottom of the app which says: "My Computer" or "The name of your Airport Express you entered during the Wizard". I pointed my iTunes toward the Airport Express and held my breath (after turning up the volume very loudly on my new system). Within seconds, my music was effortlessly streaming wirelessly to my home stereo as advertised.
I have had zero drops with my PC, Linksys and Apple set up. I have played the music for at least 6 hours so far. I am very pleased with the purchase. Outside of a a Windows reboot and resetting of wireless security on my main data access point (Linksys) set up was very easy.
I have another Airport Express unwrapped waiting to see if all of my peripherals will allow for a wireless print server on my Dell all-in-one. I'm not holding my breadth here as my Dell is very restrictive. But if the Express holds serve here, I may buy a Mac computer that day.
Customer Review: Powerful, Does What It Says It Will
Summary: 5 Stars
I am responsible for two of these devices. I have one at home hooked up to the speakers over my shower, and I have one at work which is used by people on my team within a larger company. So I have two use cases, both of which the Airport Express excels at.
Case 1: Music Distribution and Home Internet
The device has both stereo and optical audio out capabilities. This allows me to stream music and podcasts from the upstairs AppleTV to my downstairs bathroom using my iPhone as a control. At this, it has been extremely reliable for the last 6 months, although it sometimes takes several seconds for the iPhone Remote app to find the AppleTV. You do need either powered speakers or an amplifier. It is also convenient having an "N" router when I need to transfer large video files to or from my MacBook to the various servers in the house. (Yes, I have a lot of Apple stuff.) At this, it is quite good, although the LinkSys router FIOS requires me to use will not reliably provide Internet access to the Airport. I don't believe this is the fault of the Airport, as I've seen the same problem with other switches. And, recent Apple firmware updates have improved interoperability.
I can also stream audio content directly from my Mac (or PC) and this has been useful for me when I want to listen to a podcast while showering.
Case 2: Small business workgroup
At my company, we have 100 people on site but only 3 people in my immediate team. In the past, wireless access was managed by the company's IT department. It was not a high priority and was highly unreliable. We've moved to a model where my 3 person team manages our own wireless connection: the Airport Express, and limits access to it via password. (I believe the device only supports 10 concurrent connections), and this has been extremely reliable. I have not had to restart the device in nearly a year of use, except for periodic firmware updates.
The message I want to spread is of reliability. I have had many wireless hubs in my life and the cheaper ones fail quickly, and I have sworn off the idea that a decent hub or switch can be bought for less than an Airport Express. You might think you are saving money, but in the long term you will not. And this reliability has come from Apple over generations of improvement, the original Airport was not reliable if for no other reason than it had a substandard power capacitor, and the 2nd generation flying saucer hubs were not much better in my experience. But I have nothing but praise for Apple current generation of wireless devices including the Airport Extreme which acts as a file server and ethernet switch in my TV devices cabinet.
Customer Review: SAVE TIME & CALL APPLE SUPPORT TO INSTALL
Summary: 5 Stars
I absolutely love this wonderful tool, which enables me (as I write this) to listen to Santa Monica's KCRW over my Bose Wave radio in my Tennessee kitchen. I also listen to the BBC, which comes in as well as it does in the UK. It's SO cool to be able to hear the world's finest radio programs--as well as my Itunes library--while I'm cooking! Love, love, love it!
Only negative: Please save yourself the time and frustration involved in trying to install the Express yourself and call an Apple Support person before you're reduced to tears (like me). The Apple techie who helped me said that Apple support gives high priority to people who call up with Airport Extreme and/or Airport Express issues, and I only had to wait a few minutes (with no pre-arranged appointment). I'm fairly tech-savvy, but before calling Apple, I tried following the horrible instructions included with the item, as well as every installation tip I could find online. (I also tried unsuccessfully to follow the instructions posted on Amazon by a reviewer). The result was complete--or nearly complete--disaster, as I lost my Airport Extreme and Internet connections. The Apple support person I got was terrific. He led me through the steps involved in resetting BOTH my Airport Extreme and Airport Express hardware (with a paperclip), and soon everything was restored and working perfectly.
I should mention that in order to use Airport Express to listen to anything other then your iTunes library, you have to purchase Airfoil (about $25 at [...]
. Airfoil makes the magic work, but I did have a few issues getting it to work properly. I emailed Rogue Omega's tech support staff, and got a very quick solution, which was to use Firefox rather than the default system to route the signal to my Airport Express. I couldn't be happier.
ADDENDUM (July 14, 2010): After a few days of use, we experienced extremely annoying signal dropping (Both BBC and iTunes streams would simply stop for a few seconds and then start up again). I called Apple support once again and was instructed to change the channel (evidently certain kinds of cell phones interfere with the Apple Express). Eventually I had to change the channel a second time--and haven't had any signal drops since. Be sure to ask about this if you seek help with the initial install.