Will A.Express work with Virgin's Netgear router?

is it the cr-ppy little blue thing that Virgin sometimes give you? In which case, it woun't work as it's not actually a router, merely an access point. I ended up buying a 40 quid router myself to get things on track.

JohnDuncan:

is it the cr-ppy little blue thing that Virgin sometimes give you? In which case, it woun't work as it's not actually a router, merely an access point. I ended up buying a 40 quid router myself to get things on track.

No no, in fact it was a Netgear "G" modem router that arrived in its retail packaging. Very white and same-ish to my old O2 Broadband box, tbh.

So there's hope...

 

I've been having a weird AE problem myself.

Situation - Mac Mini (OS 10.5) and AE both connected wirelessly to Linksys 54g router.

Problem - AE will only play about 2 secs of music before cutting out. Checked signal strength and at both sites was above 80%. Sound plays from Mac Mini fine.

Resolution - the only way I could get the AE to stream off the MiniMac was to change the AE's config, and network it using cat5e cable. Since then it has worked 100%.

Rather strange for something that is sold for it's ability to wirelessly network...

I have the Virgin Broadband and a Netgear router and whilst I had the standard AE installation issues (Grrrrrr) I have it working so it does work!

momo72:

JohnDuncan:

is it the cr-ppy little blue thing that Virgin sometimes give you? In which case, it woun't work as it's not actually a router, merely an access point. I ended up buying a 40 quid router myself to get things on track.

No no, in fact it was a Netgear "G" modem router that arrived in its retail packaging. Very white and same-ish to my old O2 Broadband box, tbh.

So there's hope...

 

There is. First thing I'd suggest is that you use WPA rather than WEP, which will involve changing the settings on all your other PCs if you happen to use the latter, unsecure, standard. After that, make sure you've set the router up to use DCHP, so that all the devices on the network pick up IP addresses automatically - in a small network this is usually not a problem, but if you have lots of devices connecting and disconnecting often you might find moving to fixed IPs beneficial.

Then it *should* just be a case of running the AE setup routine. I say should, but many have had issues getting it up and running (which is more to do with the vagaries of wireless network than anything, I suspect), so if it doesn't work first time come back and we'll see what we can do...

fatboyslimfast:

I've been having a weird AE problem myself.

Situation - Mac Mini (OS 10.5) and AE both connected wirelessly to Linksys 54g router.

Problem - AE will only play about 2 secs of music before cutting out. Checked signal strength and at both sites was above 80%. Sound plays from Mac Mini fine.

Resolution - the only way I could get the AE to stream off the MiniMac was to change the AE's config, and network it using cat5e cable. Since then it has worked 100%.

Rather strange for something that is sold for it's ability to wirelessly network...

Strange indeed. Without taking a look at your network not sure where I'd start...

Messiah:

I have the Virgin Broadband and a Netgear router and whilst I had the standard AE installation issues (Grrrrrr) I have it working so it does work!

Messiah,

What did you do on your Netgear router to get it to talk wirelessly to the AE?

I have set up the wireless Internet connection, ran the AE setup routine ("Join existing network" > Join wireless netwk > Select my one and enter the WPA pwd), got the green light on the AE station. But, the AE device still won't talk straight with the router. Any help welcome! Cheers.

 

I'm no expert with this I'm afraid but if you have the green light then is it not already 'talking' to the router??

What makes you think it is not??

Messiah:

I'm no expert with this I'm afraid but if you have the green light then is it not already 'talking' to the router??

What makes you think it is not??

Sorry, just back from hols.

No signal is being output by the AE and iTunes cannot connect to the AE "speakers", despite the green light and everything looking "right". Which obviously it isn't, somewhere. Sooo frustrating I must add, especially as Apple tech support tell me my telephone tech support has "expired". Not sure I want to laugh or cry about that one...

Rule number one of airport express club is...never trust technical support. Rule number two of airport express club is...never trust the green light. Do a hard reset (check the instructions, I forget which combination of paperclip/powering up/full moon is required) and run through the install again. Make sure you;re using WPA, not WEP. Make sure you join existing network. Report back.

JohnDuncan:

Rule number one of airport express club is...never trust technical support. Rule number two of airport express club is...never trust the green light. Do a hard reset (check the instructions, I forget which combination of paperclip/powering up/full moon is required) and run through the install again. Make sure you;re using WPA, not WEP. Make sure you join existing network. Report back.

Hard-reset the device, connected an ethernet cable between the AE and my laptop, ran the set-up again (join existing network, wireless, WPA, select network and enter WPA key), got "set-up complete" and the green light. Disconnect ethernet cable, run iTunes. Impossible to connect to my AE via AirTunes speakers in bottom right corner of the screen.

Tried various other ways with and w/o the ethernet cable, and also connecting to my Netgear router. No luck whatsoever. Bah humbug!!!!!!

I'd be happy to run the AE wired to my router if I have to. Just want the bloody thing to work now. 50% fed up with the product, and 50% with Apple atm.

Any idea where it's gone wrong?  (I use XP SP3 as my OS btw)

 

I do not have an AE but a bit of experience with Netgear routers. Have you got the latest firmware.Some of these routers sit in warehouses for months waiting to get supplied.Check the version in Maintenance/Router status and check the latest version on here  for your particular model.Can't promise it will cure it but it cannot do any harm but  if it does you can always reinstall the old version.

Ravey Gravey Davy:

I do not have an AE but a bit of experience with Netgear routers. Have you got the latest firmware.Some of these routers sit in warehouses for months waiting to get supplied.Check the version in Maintenance/Router status and check the latest version on here  for your particular model.Can't promise it will cure it but it cannot do any harm but  if it does you can always reinstall the old version.

I have the latest f/w version installed on the router. Thanks for the suggestion.

I'm still going nowhere with this AE trouble. All I've managed so far is to mess up big time the internet connection for the whole household. I get that when (on the Netgear Virgin box) I select the "Allow wireless point", etc. and then apply the settings. I would really appreciate if anyone using a similar Netgear modem could guide me through the correct settings. Cheers. Unfortunately both sets of Technical Support are useless, Apple's "pls check with your ISP", and while Virgin don't even answer their phone and just email me a pre-written generic script. Rant over.

Sounds frustrating mate - you have my sympathies.

I have installed 3 onto my wireless network now in client mode with not too much trouble. I have the BT Homehub though. I've learn't a couple of very simple things in the process though which may help:

1. Each time I added one to my network I needed to reset the router after the first installation attempt each time. The old switch it off, take the plug out from the wall and wait ten seconds routine. On my router this resets the IP address it assigns each of the AE units which then made them work after the router rebooted.

2. How does the Virgin router work? Does it use the wireless connection manager within XP itself, or does it have its own bespoke Virgin software that you need to install on your PC for the router to work?

The reason I ask is that my PC originally used some software installed by BT and I couldn't get it to work. When I turned off the BT wireless connection manager software and used the standard XP it then worked fine.

Not earth shattering stuff I appreciate - but these minor differences in approach made the difference between it working/not working.