MacCentric Solutions is an Apple-certified Macintosh consultancy & systems integrator serving the San Francisco Bay Area.
Apple’s newest Airport Extreme Base Station is the fastest one yet: not only does it use the latest 802.11n wireless standard, but it has three internal antennas and can receive and transmit multiple data streams simultaneously. As if this wasn’t enough, Apple’s latest revision to the unit comes with three Gigabit Ethernet ports for the quickest data transfers between the computers at your location.
Oh, it’s fast, and we love fast. Except… wait: when any computers running older, slower network cards connect to its network, the Base Station must automatically throttle down the top speed of the entire wireless network to permit these older clients to connect.
What’s a speed addict to do?
Luckily, if you’ve been surfing Airport since Apple’s older, UFO-shaped Base Station models, you have the answer in your possession. By using the older, slower Base Station in tandem with the new, faster one, you can allow all speeds of wireless cards to connect without the slower ones hampering the faster ones’ need for speed.
The key lies in using both Base Stations on the same wired network, but having them both transmit separate wireless signals. Faster wireless clients will connect to the faster network, and slower clients will connect to the slower network. By keeping the slow clients off the fast network, your newest Base Station will be able to keep revving at true 802.11n speed.
There are a few different ways to set this up. In the following example, we chose to use the older, UFO-like model as our primary network router because we had some custom Access Control Lists and Port Mappings configured in it. (Access Control Lists only allow specific computers to use the Airport’s wireless network; and Port Mappings allow outside users to connect to servers on the local network.) We didn’t want to have to manually re-enter these settings into the new 802.11n model, so we chose to piggyback the n model onto the existing Base Station’s network.
After plugging both Base Stations into power, run an Ethernet cable from the Network port on the old Base Station to Internet port on the new Base Station. This will cause the new Base Station to send all its Internet traffic upstream to the old Base Station to route to the correct destination. (The Network port is labeled with a dotted line with an arrow at either end; the Internet port has a dotted circle. Make sure you’ve got the correct ports, or this whole solution won’t work!)
For our purposes, we’ll assume that your old Base Station is already configured to provide Internet access via wireless, and that you have a DHCP server on your network (probably via the old Base Station). Install and launch the AirPort Utility application which came with the new Base Station. Double-click on the picture of the new Base Station to enter manual configuration mode. Click the Internet button from the toolbar, and choose Ethernet from the “Connect Using” pop-up menu. Then select Using DHCP from the “Configure IPv4″ pop-up. Finally, under the “Connection Sharing” pop-up menu at the bottom of the window, choose Off (Bridge mode). This prevents your new Base Station from handing out IP addresses; instead it will let your network’s existing DHCP server do that job.
Now go back to the Airport button from the toolbar, and click the Wireless tab. From the Wireless Mode pop-up menu, choose “Create a wireless network” and enter a different network name than what your old Base Station is using. We suggest using a name that identifies this wireless network as the faster one. Über-geeks might choose something like “Network N” to indicate the 802.11n standard, while aesthetes might prefer something more user-friendly, like “Fast Network.” It’s your network — have a little fun with it.
Finally, under the “Radio Mode” pop-up menu, choose one of the options that begins “802.11n only.” Which one should you choose? The 5 GHz option is faster, but its range is much reduced through physical obstacles. If you’re in an environment with walls or other obstructions, choose the 2.4 GHz option instead.
Once you click the Update button, your new Base Station will restart, pick up an IP address from the wired network, and begin broadcasting your new N-speed wireless. Only connect your faster, N-enabled wireless computers to this network, and they’ll enjoy the benefits of faster data transfers, while the older, slower computers will be none the wiser!