How to set up an old AirPort Express? - Solved

[SBlue1]

Hey. One of my old AirPort Express gen 1 802.11n base stations died so I bought a cheap one on Ebay. Unfortunately I can not configure it. The AirPort Utility on my M1 MacBook Air can see it but it says this version of the AirPort Utility does not support this base station. What? How did apple screw this up? I downloaded an older version of the app but that won't install under Sonoma.

So I tried it with my iPhone 12 mini and the iOS AirPort Untilty app said the same. Then I tried my old iPad mini 3 hoping that it had an older version of the app installed, but the same result. Finally I fired up Windows on Parallels and downloaded the Windows version of the AirPort Express App, but this one could not even see the old AP Express nor the one base station I had and still was working. So the Windows app was useless.

Any ideas how I can set it up? How can I find an old version of the App that will run on the old iPad running iOS 12.5.7? Or why can't the Windows version of the AirPort Utility see any of the base stations? Is it because of Parallels? Or can I set it up by ethernet instead of Wifi?

 

[Fishrrman]

Try an ethernet cable.
Let us know if that makes any difference.

 

[SBlue1]

Cables didn't work. Tried ethernet and USB. But I finally made it work using the old Windows app.

Had to dive into the Parallels settings. By default it acts as its connected to the internet via network cable, although my Mac was using wifi. So the Airport Utility couldn't see the AirPort Express. Had to manually deselect the internet and find out how to connect Windows to my wifi. Once that worked the Airport Utility found the AP Express and I could set it up for my wifi. It works now and is visible in my network but whenever I would have to change anything I would need to use the Windows AP Utility app. The Mac and iOS app can only see the base station but can't edit anything.

I thought I could fix this by upgrading the firmware but I couldn't update it because the AP Express is not actually the 1st gen like the one I wanted to replace. Its older. What a dumb naming idea from Apple.