I live in a fairly "standard" colonial style home in New Jersey. Being a wonderful father, (sure I say it no one else does), I gave my son my old Belkin Wireless N Router.

I replaced it with the Apple AirPort Extreme. It was a perfect match since I have a MacBook and an IMac. The IMac and the Extreme are both upstairs in my office. The MacBook is used downstairs in various rooms.

Once I replaced the Belkin Router, the Apple router gave me better coverage immediately.

The only problem is that my house is about 4,500 square feet, and I was getting a few gaps in coverage in the basement and rear bedroom. Apple advised me to add on the Express. You see it can be used multiple ways. Not only can it be used as an extension of your wireless network, it can also be used to control and listen to music from another room.

The small square unit about 4"x4" consists of an ac plug, a USB connector, Ethernet Port, Audio Minijack and a reset Button. As Apple puts it: " Easily create a wireless network at home. Enjoy your iTunes music library in virtually any room of your house. Share a USB printer without obtrusive cables. And do it all with the latest wireless technology."

You can plug in a USB printer for wireless printing, plug in an Ethernet device or use the output of the mini jack.
NORMALLY, and I emphasize the word normally, once you plug in the Express, it shows up on the list in the AirPort utility used to set up the network. You just click on it, and voila, there you have it! But for me, everything has to be difficult.

When you plug the unit in, the indicator LED turns yellow, showing the unit has power. It then flashes yellow, indicating it is searching for a signal. Once it finds the signal it turns solid green showing that it is functioning correctly. In my case it never stopped flashing yellow. A phone call to Apple Technical Help solved the problem. 

I had to bring it into the same room with the router so it was definitely receiving the signal. Made some adjustments to the computer and the Utility, voila. LED turned solid green. Apparently the secret is if you set the Express up once, close to the router and move it downstairs like I did, it will work. The trick is making sure it is set up first. This is a good hint to remember if you have the same trouble I did.

Here are the specs Apple lists that are necessary if you want to utilize this unit. It will tell you what you need, and if you don't have the necessary setup, move to something else:

System Requirements For setup and administration:
Macintosh computer with Mac OS X v10.4 or later, Ethernet or wireless networking capabilityPC with Windows XP (SP2) or Windows Vista, CD drive, Ethernet or wireless networking capabilityFor wireless client access:Mac with AirPort or AirPort Extreme wireless capabilityPC with 802.11a/b/g/nFor shared printing:USB printerMacintosh computer with Mac OS X v10.2.7 or laterPC with Windows XP (SP2) or Windows Vista; Bonjour for Windows included on AirPort Express CDFor iTunes music streaming:Stereo or powered speakersAudio cableiTunes 4.6 or later

So to sum it up, you are able to extend your network's reach, control ITunes library from another room, connect an Ethernet Cable or feed to your stereo. In my case, I used it to extend the range of my network, so I can not attest to its other abilities.

To answer my first question, it really does work to extend an inhouse network. I get full coverage downstairs and even in my basement. To me it was definitely worth the $100.

Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 100
Driver Availability: Windows, Linux, and Mac