I need to get a wireless router for my new place. The Airport Express caught my eye and am wondering if it will work. I already have a wired connection set up for my desktop, but want to get wireless for my laptop and PS3 (as well as a printer down the line). I don't plan on doing any online gaming with the PS3, but want an internet connection to it for updates and downloads.

I'm not sure if I need another wireless base station to add the Airport Express to, or if it can act as a station by itself? Or, am I better off getting another brand of wireless router (I know there are cheaper ones). My previous roommate had a Netgear router and it constantly dropped the connection and I had to unplug it to reset it.

I have the airport express and love it. it never drops the connection on me, and it has a hand USB port for hooking things like a printer and external hard drive (for time machine and jsut general storage). It is a little more expensive, but compared to the linksys POS I had before it's well worth the extra cash IMO

I'm still using the original Apple Airport base station (802.11b -- waaahhh!) and am going to upgrade to the Express in the near future. The Airport Express gets the fastest 802.11n transfer rates out there, but that only matters when you're transferring files wirelessly using your network. Since that matters to me, it's a definite plus over the competition.

Thanks guys!! The Airport Extreme base station is too pricey for me, but the Express is more reasonable--especially considering I have a few gift certificates to put towards it.

Actually, I meant the Airport Extreme. Oops! But I think the express uses the same stuff.

I have no advice as to the Airport Express. Never used one.

But if you're looking for a good router, I can recommend one. I picked up a D-Link DIR-655 last year. Best router I've ever owned, and I've owned a half dozen. Link speeds, stability (both LAN and WAN), and WiFi range are all incredible. I've only had to reboot it once, and that was for a firmware update. Offers a tremendous amount of features & customizations, such as a gigabit switch, B/G/N Wifi, dual firewalls, Quality-of-service settings, traffic monitoring/blocking, etc. It's a very good router for ~$100. Simply put, it just works.

And you mentioned wireless printing. I recently bought an HP Photosmart C7280. It has built-in WiFi and it works flawlessly with the router. Very cool to be able to print wirelessly from anywhere at home. And it's also nice to be able to put the printer wherever it needs to go, untethered from any other network devices.

I've only had it for a couple of weeks, but I'm quite impressed with it so far.

Hey, my wife just got us the C7280 from Costco. Not a bad printer.

I have all the Apple routers, Base Station, Express and Time Capsule. Got them for work...

The Airport Express should suffice for your needs. The only thing to note is that because of it's basic design, your range may suffer if you place it behind a desk or computer when you plug it into a wall. My suggest is to mount it as high as you can, and minimize blockage around it. The same would apply to any router.

You don't 'need' to get the Express, any other DLink or Linksys router would be fine. (Note I didn't say Netgear or Belkin...) In fact, you don't need the 802.11n feature of the Express because the PS3 only does 802.11g. But if you're laptop is 802.11n, it would help there.

One good thing about the Express is that it's a good travel router. You can take it to hotels when you want to connect it to a wired connection and create your own wireless. Granted some hotels already have wireless so that my not matter to you. Another thing is that you can also put the Airport Express near your AV rack and use it to stream iTunes to your Axioms. Now that would be a good use.

IIRC the Airport Express will only talk to a printer over the USB port, it won't serve disk plugged in -- one would need an Extreme (or maybe a Time Capsule) for that. Time Capsule is a neat idea but the price is ludicrous.

My AE was a wedding registry gift, intended just for iTunes use.

Re: the HP printer, I turned my back on HP after the D145 and the PSC2510:

a) Combined color ink cartridges were a scam
b) OSX software was crappy and flaky as hell

Maybe they've changed in the last couple of years, but I'm skeptical.

Yeah the HP Photosmart driver install wasn't 'easy' but I was able to get it to work. I just downloaded the install package instead using the CD.

On the AE, true, you can't hang a USB disk onto the port.

Excellent! Thanks for the tips, guys. Heading off to the store today to make a decision.

Since we're on the topic of Apple. I bought an Apple TV today and can't get it to access my itunes library. OK that's no entirely true. If I hook up the ATV directly to my imac I get a connection, if I hook up with my Linksys router in between I get no connection to itunes. Internet works fine no issues there. What if anything can I do to fix this problem?
Oh and I called Linksys to explain my problem and whatever country they are in they seemed to not know what I was talking about. Apple TV?
Any thought will be greatly appreciated
Mel N.

OK, first make sure the ATV and your iMac are on the same network (ie, 192.168.1.100 and 192.168.1.101). If they're not, there's your problem. Your Mac may also be blocking iTunes with its built-in firewall.

Ken, they are both on the same network. There is no firewall set. I also forgot to mention that I was one the phone with Apple support for an hour trying to figure this out and they say its the Linksys that's causing the problem.
Mel N.

You're certain the OS X firewall isn't turned on?

The linksys isn't going to be doing any firewalling between the wireless and wired networks, since they're on the same subnet. Well, at least, unless Cisco has inserted some PIX code in there...

Also try hooking the ATV to the Linksys using ethernet, just to eliminated wireless from the equation.

I'm not using wireless, everything is hard wired. If I did have a firewall with the OSX why would everything work in a direct connection between the ATV and the imac and not work when the Linksys is in between?
This computer stuff sucks

When you say "direct connection" what do you mean? A direct ethernet connection? I'm surprised that worked at all. Still; very puzzling. Let me ponder...

Yes Ken it's a direct ethernet connection ( ATV > imac using a ethernet cable). Apple support says that the Linksys has a firewall stopping my connection to itunes and Linksys say it doesn't.

Sorry to say that the Apple guy's likely the one who's wrong. Unless Linksys is doing something really weird, there's no firewalling between inside network ports. (either that, or you've got your connections hooked up weird). Can you snap a pic of the back of the Linksys?