![]() The Express ships with AirPort Utility 5.3, which offers a considerably simpler setup procedure than previous versions. (Note that the Express, which ships with firmware 7.3, must also be updated to firmware 7.3.1 for this feature to appear.) Streamlined setup The feature should work with any wireless network: a, b, g, or n and 5GHz or 2.4GHz. To activate ProxySTA, you must set up the Express to join a wireless network and then enable the Allow Ethernet Clients setting both settings are located in the Wireless tab of AirPort Utility. Unfortunately, this feature isn’t documented and doesn’t appear by name anywhere in AirPort Utility. In addition, ProxySTA works with both Apple and third-party wireless access points. According to Apple, the benefits of ProxySTA are easier setup-the Express acts as a simple wireless client, so you don’t have to configure a WDS network-and the potential for better wired-to-wireless performance, as ProxySTA avoids the network overhead of WDS and the potential interference involved with rebroadcasting a wireless signal. However, unlike an Express configured as a remote or relay base station in a Wireless Distribution System (WDS), which shares or extends your wireless network to both wired and wireless clients, an Express set to ProxySTA does not extend or relay the network wirelessly it acts only as a bridge. In this mode, the Express acts as a wireless-to-Ethernet bridge, extending your wireless network to wired clients such as a TiVo, a game console, or a room of Ethernet-networked computers. The Express is also the first AirPort Base Station to provide a new feature called ProxySTA. (However, since the Express has no controls, you’ll still need to control playback from your computer.) Using multiple AirPort Express units, you can even stream audio, in sync, to multiple locations around your house. ![]() The Express’s AirTunes feature lets you stream iTunes audio-or, with help from the third-partyĪirFoil 3 ( $25), any other audio on your Mac-to a stereo or speakers connected to the Express’s analog/digital audio-out jack. The Express also continues to one-up the Extreme in a few areas. In addition to 802.11n support-which gives you better performance and range-the new Express inherits support for 802.11a networks, as well as PIN-based guest access, which allows you to keep your network password private, and time-based network access, which lets you limit the days and times at which particular computers can access your network. On the other hand, a number of features previously found only in the 802.11n Extreme Base Station have found their way into the latest Express model. (Although the latest documentation for the AirPort Express explicitly states that you can’t connect multiple USB printers using a hub, Apple told us that you can indeed do this with the latest Express however, the hub must be powered.) Finally, the Express supports only 10 clients the Extreme handles up to 50. (Given the Express’s single port, the benefits of faster Ethernet would likely be realized only if several wired clients were connected, via a switch, to an Express extending an 802.11n-only wireless network.) The Express’s USB port is also less functional than its larger sibling’s: although it lets you share a USB printer across your network, it doesn’t support sharing a hard drive, as you can with the Extreme’s AirDisk feature. ![]() Unlike the larger-and more expensive-AirPort Extreme Base Station, the Express doesn’t include a multi-port Ethernet switch, and its single Ethernet port is 100base-T rather than the Extreme’s faster 1000base-T (Gigabit) Ethernet.
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