I was looking for some kind of wireless booster thing and bought the Airport express, as the shop I was in only sold Apple stuff, and I was told it would work. Of course the shop assistant tells me its “easy” to set up. Well I’m on my 3rd time trying to set it up with no luck. I’ve installed the Airport Utility for windows, and when I open it, it gives me some blurb along the lines of “Airport Utility was unable to find any Airport wireless devices”.
And on the device there’s a flashing orange light, which I know means there’s something wrong. But can’t see what. I’ve tried re-scanning it a few times but still nothing. I have a PC and windows 7 which I know should be compatible with it.

Thanks for any help as at the moment I’m tempted to throw the thing out the window.

Plug an ethernet cable between the device and your laptop. Try again – what happens?

Rachel

What do you mean by “some kind of wireless booster thing”? This is what an Airport Express is designed to do:

The AirPort Express is a simplified and compact version of Apple’s AirPort Extreme Residential gateway. The current model allows up to 50 networked users, and includes a feature called AirTunes (predecessor to AirPlay), allowing users to stream audio from a computer running iTunes or mobile device running iOS 5+ to a stereo system.[1] The original version (M9470LL/A, model A1084) was introduced by Apple on 7 June 2004, and includes an analog–optical audio mini-jack output, a USB port for remote printing or charging the iPod (iPod shuffle only), and one Ethernet port. The model introduced in June 2012 includes two ethernet ports; one WAN, and one LAN.[2]
The main processor of the 802.11g AirPort Express is a Broadcom BCM4712KFB wireless networking chipset, which has a 200 MHz MIPS processor built in. The audio is handled by a Texas Instruments Burr-Brown PCM2705 16-bit digital-to-analog converter.
An updated version (MB321LL/A, model A1264) supporting the faster 802.11 Draft-N draft specification and operation in either of the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands, with almost all other features identical, was introduced by Apple in March 2008.[3] The revised unit includes an 802.11a/n (5 GHz) mode, which allows adding Draft-N to an existing 802.11b/g network without disrupting existing connections, while preserving the increased throughput that Draft-N can provide.[4] Up to 10 wireless units can connect to this AirPort Express.
The Airport Express functions as a wireless access point when connected to an Ethernet network. It can be used as an Ethernet-to-wireless bridge under certain wireless configurations. It can be used to extend the range of a network, or as a printer and audio server.
An often-overlooked feature of the AirPort Express is that it uses an audio connector that combines a 3.5 mm jack socket and a mini-TOSLINK optical digital transmitter, allowing connection to an external digital-to-analog converter (DAC) or amplifier with internal DAC. Standard audio CDs ripped in iTunes into Apple Lossless format streamed to the Airport Express will output a bit-for-bit identical bitstream when compared to the original CD (provided any sound enhancement settings in iTunes are disabled). DTS-encoded CDs ripped to Apple Lossless audio files – which decode as digital white noise in iTunes – will play back correctly when the AirPort Express is connected via TOSLINK to a DTS-compatible amplifier–decoder.
On a system running Mac OS X Lion or earlier, the audio output feature of the AirPort Express can only be used to wirelessly stream audio files from within iTunes to an attached stereo system. It can not be used to output the soundtrack of iTunes video content to an attached stereo.[5] However, OS X Mountain Lion introduces a feature to output system-wide audio directly to Airport Express.[6] Within iTunes, this does allow output of the audio of protected video content, and also correctly maintains the audio sync with the image displayed on-screen. Otherwise, system video is not synced to system video when playing system audio through an AirPort Express.

Does that describe what you want it to do? If not, you’ve got the wrong device.

Factory reset the airport device and try again… They can sometimes be funny like that but once you have it running a wireless network and join it it’s pretty simple from there.

Yep, what Rachel said, plug it in.
I couldn’t get ours working until I connected it via Ethernet and set the network up. Since then it’s been great.

It can be used to extend the range of a network, or as a printer and audio server.

Suppose this is what I want it to do!

And what exactly do you mean by plugging it in via Ethernet? Its plugged into the wall so it has a power source.

Are you trying to extend the network from a AirPort Extreme or some other router ?

When you first turn it on it won’t be on your wifi network – it will set up its own. You need to join that network, THEN run the Airport Utility and get it to join your home network and configure it as an extender

And what exactly do you mean by plugging it in via Ethernet? Its plugged into the wall so it has a power source.

It’s got an ethernet port on one side. You need to connect from that to your home router as I you must be using one if you are trying to extend your network. IIRC there is then some software that you run on your computer which will find the airport express and ask you what mode you want to run it in and you tell it to run as a repeater I think (Edit: the checkbox says “Allow this network to be extended,”)
Edit2:http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2004/07/airportexpress/4/

BT Homehubs don’t work very well with Airport Express units.

I’ve used them as range extenders for Wifi. Also found them an utter pain to configure, very flaky and unreliable. Some times they work fine, sometimes they seem to need endless resets to get them to configure properly. I just use an Airport Extreme now and gave up with the Expresses (have two in a draw somewhere).

Mine worked absolutely fine extending from an Airport Extreme that was connected to a Virgin Media Superhub. Then Virgin upgraded the superhub and it all went tits up!

Was a pain to sort out after that ‘cos the superhub won’t work properly in ‘modem only’ mode.

It’s got an ethernet port on one side. You need to connect from that to your home router as I you must be using one if you are trying to extend your network.

By that do you mean it needs to be plugged into the modem? I’m not sure what a router is! When it comes to computers it helps to talk to me like a 5 year old.

Can it not work wirelessly? I’m just looking for something to act as a middle man that connects to the modem, extending the wireless network over a bigger range. Having to connect a cable from it to somewhere else won’t be very practical.

I’m getting the impression I might have bought the wrong tool for the job? Even though the bloke in the shop said it was what I needed.

By that do you mean it needs to be plugged into the modem? I’m not sure what a router is! When it comes to computers it helps to talk to me like a 5 year old.

If the modem has an ethernet (network) port for plugging a cable into then try that first

Can it not work wirelessly?

Yes, but it needs to talk to the device once to set it up on the same wireless network so you need a physical cable to do that. After it is going you can unplug the cable

I’m just looking for something to act as a middle man that connects to the modem, extending the wireless network over a bigger range. Having to connect a cable from it to somewhere else won’t be very practical.

Only for the setup so you are just fine

I’m getting the impression I might have bought the wrong tool for the job? Even though the bloke in the shop said it was what I needed.

It may be. As some people have already said it doesn’t always play nicely with all other wireless devices unfortunately. It really is best for adding your hifi wirelessly to your network or sharing a USB printer.

edit: you may even be able to connect a cable directly between your laptop and the device to set it up. Did it not come with a little guide to get you going? (I’ve just checked and it appears you can connect it directly to the PC/mac to set it up and run the utility it comes with so I would do that)

To set it up you will need to pulg in the ethernet cable to the Airport express and set it up as “extend a network”

I don’t know if it will work with any other modem apart from Airport Extreme or Time Capsule, once set up then you can use it wireless

The Airport Express isn’t meant to be used as a booster as such. It’s more for plugging into a sterio so that you can drive content from your computer/phone/tablet or a printer as people have said above. I use mine to provide a second WiFi network which does have a stronger signal than the rubbish BT HomeHub, it’s connected to BT hub via ethernet – but’s that’s not really what it’s for.

IMO the guy in the shop has sold you the wrong product.

Yes, it will work just fine, once configured. You will need to use an Ethernet cable first to configure it.

It will happily extend a network, all you need to do is make sure it is connecting to your current wireless network and then tell it to extend the range. There are a few options.

It’s the right product, don’t worry. I use it for this purpose myself.

Rachel

The Airport Express does so much more than what you are trying to do, so there are other cheaper simpler solutions available.

I use mine for streaming music to and as a wireless printer connection.

If you are not using these features, a dedicated ‘wireless range extender’ that’s compatible with your router should be under £50, even £20.

If you persevere with the Airport Express, connect it directly to your PC with a network cable and power it up and then try running the software setup tool.

Also – just be aware it doesn’t extend the range of my router as it doesn’t support WDS, so not necessarily compatible.