Use Airport Express as an Ethernet Switch?

[quadra605]

My Airport Extreme died & I replaced it with an ASUS router: all good. My apt. building is old & wireless coverage is not great, so the way I had connected to my Roku in the living room from the internet access point in the 2nd bedroom was as follows: Cable modem-->router-->MoCA adapter #1-->coax running under the carpet to living room-->MoCA adapter #2-->Airport Express-->Roku. That all worked without a hitch & also extended my wireless coverage in to the living room.

My question: I thought that after the Airport Extreme was out of the equation, I would have to replace the Airport Express with a simple ethernet switch (to add my Xbox)--but I see the Airport Express is still doing it's job A-OK (see attached screenshot). SHOULD I take it out of the loop and replace it with the ethernet switch? Will keeping it in confuse the ASUS? (I know I'M confused :/) I'm no longer concerned with extending the wireless, but enjoy being able to play iTunes through my stereo with the Airplay.

 

[barbu]

Yeah you can set the Extreme to act as a simple switch. Just turn off all internet access settings and you should be good.

 

[quadra605]

Yeah you can set the Extreme to act as a simple switch. Just turn off all internet access settings and you should be good.

Thank you--that's good to hear. Can you point me to where/how I turn those settings off? If I edit the device in Airport Utility, it currently shows it as a base station and router mode is listed as "Off (Bridge Mode). Of the multiple tabs available, I'm not sure what else to edit & what to leave alone.

 

[satcomer]

Yep Bridged Mode in Mac OS means that it turn off NAT (Network Address Translation) but not the wireless! IMHO sense ISP are going to modem & wireless router int Modems! This is causing confusion and the reader Double NAT error when you want to use another owned router behind that modem

 

[barbu]

Thank you--that's good to hear. Can you point me to where/how I turn those settings off? If I edit the device in Airport Utility, it currently shows it as a base station and router mode is listed as "Off (Bridge Mode). Of the multiple tabs available, I'm not sure what else to edit & what to leave alone.

Yep bridge mode is what you want. A switch is a multi-port bridge.