do you have the apple audio kit? it has a cord in it for the ae.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Scott Rutkowski" <[email protected]>
To: "General discussions on all topics relating to the use of Mac OS Xby
theblind" <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, December 22, 2008 4:36 PM
Subject: Re: Airport express configuration assistance please
Hi again Esther.
I'm using wpa2 on my wireless network here so I assume as you said the
setup
should be easy.
I actually thought you would get a decent power cable with the airport
express but it's just a power plug on the corner of the square unit.
that should not be a problem.
Looking forward to streaming some good quality iTunes music over the
network.
Thanks again for the help and assistance.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Esther" <[email protected]>
To: "General discussions on all topics relating to the use of Mac OS X by
theblind" <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, December 23, 2008 6:11 AM
Subject: Re: Airport express configuration assistance please
Hi David and Scott,
Scott wrote:
Would anything happen if I firstly didn't connect an audio cable to the
stereo and the airport express and told airport express I just wanted
to
use the airport express to stream music on my iTunes to a stereo and
then
after the setup went and connected the cable?
Does it actually make a big difference having the audio cable connected
first?
I understand your instructions just wondered if anything bad would have
happened if just configuring the express first then connect the audio
cable once set up and updated if this would work or if I should take
the
airport express to the other room, connect the audio cable to the 3.5
mm
jack and then walk back to the mac and run airport utility?
Any thoughts?
I could of coursse do all this on my macbook right near the stereo as
well couldn't I seen's both iTunes libraries are both synced on both
macs.
David's reply mentioned that you should set up the AirPort Express and
check that it is connected to and recognized by your existing wireless
network first. If you're using WPA or WPA2 security on your existing
wireless network, then the setup is pretty much automatic. I'm not
even sure that you really do have to connect up your audio beforehand,
since as soon as your AE is recognized by the network and you assign
it a name it will show up as one of the optional locations when you
start up iTunes whether or not any audio devices are attached. Having
something plugged into the audio out of the AirPort Express -- whether
this is your stereo system or just headphones -- simply makes it
easier to test that the streaming is working. It makes more sense
that you'd want to have a shared printer plugged in before running
AirPort Utility so that you can proceed immediately with that network
setup.
The problems David had turned out to arise from his connection to a
WEP-only wireless network. I found that the new "Take Control of Your
AirPort 802.11n Network" guide does describe these issues:
<begin quote>
WEP (Transitional Security Network)
The Extreme N supports WEP Transitional, a rare and interesting
security mode that I and colleagues have found to be problematic and
buggy in actual usage. WEP Transitional lets you mix older WEP-only
Wi-Fi connections with newer WPA/WPA2 connections.
The problematic part is conceptual: the network encryption is as
weak as the weakest link. Using WEP Transitional leaves you vulner-
able to the same cracks that affect plain WEP. The buggy part is that
it’s seemingly erratic whether computers can connect via WEP, WPA,
or WPA2 in this mode.
<end quote>
The Take Control guide goes on to suggest different ways to tackle
this addition. There's actually quite a lot of device and brand
specific information in this guide about wireless features, but some
issues boil down to specific configurations.
HTH. I've left David's reply appended, but deleted the earlier emails
to keep this post from being too long.
Cheers,
Esther
On Dec 22, 2008, at 5:49 AM, David Poehlman wrote:
Hi scott,
Once the ae is setup, you can unplug it and move it. You should test
it
first though with a headset to make sure it is connecting to ITunes.
To
do this, connect it to the router you are using, which is what? then
start the airport utility and go through the setup as described in the
document following the instructions on the screen to join a wireless
network. when it is done, it will restart and if successfull, it will
show up in the airport utility. close airport utility, start ITunes
and
make sure that in ITunes prefs, you are set to look for remote speakers
with airtunes. It is checked by default but if you have unchecked it
for
some reason, you will want to make sure it is checked.
Close the prefs window, find with vo and arrow keys where it says
computer. press space on this and youwill have three choices,
computer,
multiple speakers and if it was successful, you will see the name you
gave the ae. if it is not successful, you won't even see the computer
icon. Choose your ae and press enter. It should then begin streaming
as
soon as you start a song. If all is well, move it to the stereo area
and
hook it up and test it again as above.
I've tried this with and without a password. ifyou choose to use a
password, if there is a connection interruption, you'll have to type
the
password in to restart the connection. If not, all you have to do is
choose the ae again. My ae is named meowing but by default, it will
probably be scott's airport express or something, shorter is better <g>
It should work fine with your router, but I had to fiddle with router
settings to get it to work for me. It did not matter what I did on the
ae side, nothing worked till I got the router set up right and I had
little guidance that worked toward a solution although there was a lot
of
info provided by esther an tim kilburn. I finally just had to look and
puzzle it out. My router is a netgear and I had to change a setting I
have not seen on any other router to get it to work. Let me know if
you
run into essoteric issues and I'll try to help f I can because I did a
lot of trial and error before mine worked. If when you are told the
router will restart, you get a message that airport utility could not
find your airport express and to close and restart and restarting does
not find the ae, you'll have to reset the ae and start over. You
should
not have this problem when using the eternet for setup though. the
other
issue tha will cause you to need to restart will be an error writing
the
configuration. Reset and try again. I often used the manual setup to
trouble shoot before I finally got it right.
Enjoy and let us know if we can help further.
On Dec 22, 2008, at 10:01 AM,
