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Yesterday we purchased a new Apple Airport Express with “N” wireless. It fits in with our “get music into the living room” project, and an even larger overhaul of our living room. If you’ve kept up with my Flickr photos and the videos I’ve been making, you know what I’m talking about.

Setup

The Airport Express is a great device - it’s small, easy to set up, and it works. We’re using it to extend our existing Airport Extreme network and to be able to play music from iTunes wirelessly. Setup was easy: I plugged it in to power (it is it’s own power adapter), opened up the Airport Utility, and followed the simple setup steps which included telling the device what it was going to do (extend a wireless network) and giving it a name. Also, when I told the Airport to extend my existing network, it detected it, asked for the password, and voila, it extended the range. It was easy. Now we have WPA-secured wireless all around the house (even on the front porch), and the ability to play music in the Kitchen, Dining Room, and Living room wirelessly. Open iTunes, and if you are connected to a network with an Airport Express, it’ll show you the available speakers.

Airport Utility

I’m familiar with the Airport Utility - we’re long-time airport users (had the old Airport Extreme before the new one.) I really like the utility. It shows you all the airport networks in your range, and gives you the ability to edit any of those networks, as long as you know the password. I have one complaint with the utility; there is no web interface to log onto the router over the Internet. The only way to edit the network is if you’re local.

Conclusion

A major complaint I have is that it will only play audio from iTunes, not from the computer in general. I have needed to restart the device a couple times, but that may be due to outdated firmware. I’ll let you know. I’ve heard some complaints about Airport Expresses not extending networks correctly and such, but for me (so far, I’ve had it 24 hours) it’s been excellent. A lot of traveling business people have found the device useful to quickly create a wireless network in WiFi-less hotel rooms. If you want wireless music (iTunes only), or want to extend your existing Airport network, get an Airpot Express.