Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 324
 My life is much easier these days...because of my Airport... October 12, 2004
Glynn Clapsaddle (San Diego, CA United States)
135 out of 149 found this review helpful
I have read some of the other reviews in this space, and they do appear mixed. I can only offer my experience with this product, which has been absolutely spectacular. I have a G4 Powerbook, a printer, the airport express, and two toddlers. What the wireless capabilities have done is make my house much more enjoyable to all of my family. I keep my Powerbook on my coffee table, my printer on the top of my stereo unit. My oldest daughter, 4 years old right now, can walk up to my laptop, turn it on, click on her Barbie.com shortcut on the desktop, and print out new coloring sheets for her and her younger sister. Then, while they color, with a couple of clicks, she can play any of her music from iTunes. With everything so accessible, my daughters are becoming more computer literate, and have very little interest in watching TV anymore, and there are no wires traipsing across the house. And as far as ease of use? I had it up and running in less than 5 minutes, without ever looking at the manual. After being a PC person until just two years ago, these are the exact reasons that I converted to the Mac world. This is just another great product by the people at Apple.
More Clear Windows Help March 30, 2005
spjinseattle (Seattle, WA)
28 out of 28 found this review helpful
Took 2+ hours to get this set-up as a "client" on my existing 802.11b network - awesome product once you jump through the hurdles!...
I read other folks advice, but none of them gave me a complete A-Z for connecting to an existing network using WinXP and 802.11b. Here's my instructions borrowing certain parts from other postings (thanks, btw!)...
1. Download and install the latest version of iTunes.
2. Physically connect your new AirPort Express to your wireless router with an Ethernet cable. Plug in the AirPort Express into the wall, and wait until the LED turns solid green (up to a few minutes).
3. Insert the CD-ROM that came with the product and run the Install program on your computer.
4. Once installed, start the "AirPort Admin Utility" for Windows. [Note: do NOT use the "AirPort Express Assistant" AT ALL as this software will lead to a dead end if you're trying to connect to your existing non-Apple AirPort Basestation network (eg; this tool doesn't work if you have Netgear, Linksys, Belkin, etc).]
5. Select your new Airport Express name in the Base Station Chooser list and then click "Configure" in the bottom right corner.
6. Click on the "AirPort" tab. In the "AirPort Network" section, select "Use base station to: Join an Existing Wireless Network".
7. Type in your existing wireless "Network Name" [note: if you don't know this, in WinXP go to "View Network Connections > View available wireless networks" and find the name of the wireless network you are using. Note this name and how it is spelled, as it is case sensitive = you have to enter it just like this in the AirPort set-up.]. If you have security on your wireless network, click "Security" and enter in the correct key(s), which you can get from your router's home page [note: find the IP address for this in your router's documentation].
8. Change the password to something you'll easily remember. It doesn't let you use the default "public" password.
9. Click on the "Music" tab at the top of the screen, and name your iTunes speaker system. For example, "Living Room".
10. Click "Update" in the lower right-hand corner. Your AirPort Express will be restarted, and the LED should turn solid green again after a few minutes.
11. Go to http://www.apple.com/airportexpress/ and download the latest firmware update for your AirPort Express (eg; AirPort Express Firmware 6.1.1 for Windows). Run this software to update the firmware. Once the installation is complete, your Airport Express will again restart and the LED will change to yellow then back to green after a few minutes.
12. Unplug the Ethernet cable and relocate the AirPort express where you'd like, plugging in your audio jack and plugging the unit back into the wall.
13. Turn on your audio receiver, make sure it's connected to the jack you just plugged into the Airport Express.
13. Open iTunes. In the bottom right, select your new Airport Express speaker name (eg; Living Room) as the speakers to use.
14. Select your song, press play, and there you have it.
15. Happy AirTuning...
Sure wish Apple would just grow up and post these instructions on their own Web site.
It slices, it dices... October 24, 2004
esanta (San Jose, CA USA)
21 out of 22 found this review helpful
The diminutive Airport Express is an amazing overachiever. It does:
1) connect to your stereo to play music from iTunes
2) connect to a (supported) USB printer to serve as a wireless print server
3) serve as a convenient, take-everywhere wireless router
4) extend the wireless range of some WDS-compatible wireless routers (such as Apple's recent Airport "flying saucer" routers)
That's quite a lot, and the most surprising thing is that it does them all quite well.
I mainly use mine to play music from my computer onto my main stereo system. It couldn't be easier to use: from any computer in the house, launch iTunes, select the Airport Express (instead of "Computer") for output, and from then on the music you play on iTunes plays on your stereo instead, with zero loss of quality. This applies not only to MP3 or AAC music (including tunes purchased from the iTunes Music Store) but also to internet radio and even music CDs played straight from the drive.
Most networked music players either have some sort of display (such as the Squeezebox and the Roku Soundbridge which are also great products, and the Netgear and Linksys boxes, which aren't) -- or they rely on a video interface (Roku media box, Happauge MVP, etc...). The unique design of the Airport Express is that it places the user interface on the computer and pushes the music to the receiver, instead of giving the receiver a user interface allowing the user to pull music from the server. All in all, the Roku Soundbridge and the Squeezebox are probably better products if all you want is a network music player. They're also much more expensive. But if you don't mind going to your computer to select music, the Airport Express is very compelling with its reach feature set, very high quality and reliability, and inexpensive price.
Great product -- for what I was looking for August 1, 2004
F. D. Periquet (Bedford, NH)
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
This is a wonderful product. I wanted an optical connection to my receiver to listen to my music and this is a great product for that. Because it's close to my reciever, I don't intend to use the wireless printer capabilities and I already have a wireless router, DHCP, NAT, etc. and don't need that capability in the Airport Express either. Sometimes I wish I could've gotten this product a lot cheaper since all I want is to stream my music to my receiver via optical interface. I tried to do this by using a laptop, USB soundcard and remote control PC, networking, etc. and it was too complicated to be an elegant solution. The Airport Express does well and as expected from an Apple product.
One thing to note is that you need to either get the "right" optical TOS cable or get an adapter (which is what I did -- $7 cost); you also need an optical TOS cable -- $19 at Walmart. I didn't want to spend another $40 for the xxx kit they sell that contains the right cables.
In my setup: cable modem, wireless router (with existing network), DHCP, NAT, 802.11G/B, and wired network, the setup was not straight forward (and frustrating for an impatient, excited guy who just got a cool new toy that's he's been waiting over two weeks for) -- i.e., you plug in the device and you get the infamous blinking amber light -- all I wanted was the Airport Express to "join" my network. I could not tell whether the Airport Exprss was out of range, broken, unable to talk to the wireless router, etc. However, the solution was EASY: connect the Airport Express via wired network and let it get an IP address via DHCP (i.e., plug an Ethernet cable into the RJ45 connector and let the device alone until you get the solid green light). Once you get the light, run the "Airport Admin Utility" and configure it from there -- tell it you just want it to join your network (and give the SSID)).
Once I figured the above, it was easy to setup wirelessly, connect, and play music. Again, I love this product (so far) and highly recommended -- and I'm a picky guy. We'll see how it holds up (being on all the time, it seems to get warm) -- see how picky I am?
Play iTunes on your stereo from Windows XP February 22, 2005
WalnutCrunch (Canada)
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
I just got this unit and got it set up to play music from a WinXP computer on an existing wireless LAN in less than 10 minutes, thanks to some great instructions from another reviewer here.
From reading the negative reviews, it appears people expect this product to work wirelessly right away. Unless you have a completely unsecured network (no WEP/WPA security, broadcast SSID, etc), it will NOT be able to connect wirelessly to your LAN out-of-the-box. It has nothing to do with your operating system or brand of router. It also does not matter whether you are streaming music from a computer with a wireless card or if it has a wired connection to your router, they will both work.
Here are some tips on how to get it to join your network as a client to which you can stream music.
You have to set up the Airport Express properly for use on your wireless LAN. To do this, you must connect it to your LAN via ethernet cable (turn OFF MAC filtering on your router and make sure DHCP server is enabled). Then use the Airport Admin Utility to set your wireless settings. Things to set include:
- change it to client mode (join existing network)
- the network name (the SSID)
- the security settings for your network
- a password for future administration of the unit
- a name that this unit will be known as in iTunes
Press update to reboot the AE. Remove the ethernet cable and it will join your wireless LAN. Add its MAC address to the router's list and reenable MAC filtering if you use it.
If all is done properly, you will be able to see it in the remote speakers dropdown list in iTunes.
Even though its instructions leave a lot to be desired, the Airport Express' features and seamless integration with iTunes makes it an amazing product. The USB port will even charge your iPod or iPod shuffle. You can also get a remote control from Keyspan for it. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for both Mac and PC networks!
Showing reviews 1-5 of 324
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