# Connecting HR24 to Apple Airport Extreme/Express Base Station?



## 996911 (Aug 24, 2006)

I am having a tremendous amount of difficulty getting my boxes connected to the internet. In the past I could just run a hard line cat5 cable from my Airport Extreme Base Station to the back of my box and I was connected. I added an Airport Express connected to the ICK DECA to which I ma trying to get the boxes to connect via MRV to no avail. I'm not supposed to be running cat5 lines to the back of each box am I? If so, then I am not sure what the ICK DECA is for in the new system.

Since I have upgraded my system (both wireless and D*) my setup now looks like this (see attached pic).

My boxes won't connect and I have no idea where to go from here. Member VOS (another member here) tried to help me out but I wasn't able to get up and running. So if any of you Mac guys have experience with this please let me know what I need to do so I can get hooked up and my wife will quit nagging me about connecting to video on demand!


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

Here's a dumb idea:
Connect your computer to the extender and use the utility to active the wireless network.
Then connect the DECA ICK instead of the computer.
The receivers will see this as a wired network.


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## 996911 (Aug 24, 2006)

I actually did that before I hooked up the DECA ICK to make sure the internet connection was hot.


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## 996911 (Aug 24, 2006)

Really? Has nobody has hooked up their boxes to an Apple product like the Airport that could help out?

The threads I have read are not helping me out. I'm open to any idea at this point since right now my ICK is useless.


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

Yesterday I dragged out a wireless bridge and connected it to my PC, where I went into its GUI and set it up to connect to my 2Wire router through WIFI. I then connected my ICK [and moved my PC back to the router's ethernet].
On the receivers I merely used "connect now" and each now is using the wireless bridge.
In your other thread, you said you had done this and the extender has 10.x.x.5, but the receivers were using 69.x.x.x, so at this point they weren't on the same network.
The ICK DECA should have three green LEDs. If it doesn't, then it has a problem.
If it does, then it has become part of your coax network, and resetting the receiver's network defaults [and maybe reboot the receiver] should get it ready to use "connect now" to have it find your router.


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## bobnielsen (Jun 29, 2006)

Have you tried connecting your ICK to the Airport Extreme (router) via CAT5 ethernet? That would take wireless out of the picture and it should be easier to get that working before moving on to linking the ICK to the router via the Airport Express bridge.


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## 996911 (Aug 24, 2006)

veryoldschool said:


> Yesterday I dragged out a wireless bridge and connected it to my PC, where I went into its GUI and set it up to connect to my 2Wire router through WIFI. I then connected my ICK [and moved my PC back to the router's ethernet].
> On the receivers I merely used "connect now" and each now is using the wireless bridge.
> In your other thread, you said you had done this and the extender has 10.x.x.5, but the receivers were using 69.x.x.x, so at this point they weren't on the same network.
> The ICK DECA should have three green LEDs. If it doesn't, then it has a problem.
> If it does, then it has become part of your coax network, and resetting the receiver's network defaults [and maybe reboot the receiver] should get it ready to use "connect now" to have it find your router.


I reset the receiver and tried "connect now" and got the same thing again. The ICK DECA has three green lights (see pic).



bobnielsen said:


> Have you tried connecting your ICK to the Airport Extreme (router) via CAT5 ethernet? That would take wireless out of the picture and it should be easier to get that working before moving on to linking the ICK to the router via the Airport Express bridge.


Good point. I'll try that today. If the boxes do connect when I have it run that way then what do you think would be the problem it's having finding the wireless bridge? I know the wireless bridge is working up by the ICK DECA since I tested it with a laptop.


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## 996911 (Aug 24, 2006)

**UPDATE**

I was able to get connected. Instead of connecting to the wireless bridge (Airport Express) I ran the cat5 line (since I have a 50 footer) directly to the router (Airport Extreme) and viola! After that I ran the system info and here is what I got (see pic attached). By the way, when I ran the system test, I got "1 test failed" which was caller ID. I don't have a home phone line hook up so that explains that part.

When this was complete, I then removed the hard line from the router and then put it in the wireless bridge and ran the system test again. This time it failed to find the internet connection.

So....I know it works directly connected to the router. How do I get it connected to the wireless bridge???


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

996911 said:


> So....I know it works directly connected to the router. How do I get it connected to the wireless bridge???


Looks like you need to go into your router:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2044


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## 996911 (Aug 24, 2006)

Thanks for the link.....I'll check it out and post back.

Thanks again for your help (and patience  )


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## 996911 (Aug 24, 2006)

Alright, so my brain is about to melt but we have success!

The link you took gave me was a good start. After I did some reading up on WDS setup on the Apple support forums it is NOT a good idea to use that feature as it severely cuts the speed of your network. Instead, there is a good workaround that the base stations have.

**using the manual setup feature in the Airpot Utility for each station**

What you need to do is set your MAIN (Airport Extreme) base station in the "wireless" tab to "allow this network to be extended" and then on the Airport Express go to the wireless tab and select from the drop down "wireless mode" the setting called "extend a wireless network". 

Essentially it makes the remote wireless bridge (Airport Express) a clone of the main router (Airport Extreme).

Wheh!!!!

Thanks so much for helping me down the winding path


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## bobnielsen (Jun 29, 2006)

Well done!

Apple seems to use their own terminology, which is a bit foreign to those used to non-Apple (Linksys, Netgear, etc.) network devices so those instructions are a bit hard for me to follow.

Fortunately my Macs work fine with my non-Apple routers, switches and bridges


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