Airport Express without Airport Extreme?

[oneofthedreamers]

I was wondering...I have a broadband connection in my house, but it's a wired router. can i connect the airport express to that and surf the internet wirelessly with my mac book pro from inside my house, or do i need to have airport extreme?

so i guess what i want to know is can i just purchase Airport express, or do i have to atleast buy an airport extreme? Does airport express work alone, and if it does, what kind of range does it get?

 

[rpphoto]

You can use just the Express for everything. I own both, and although Apple claims differently, I don't get the same range or speed from the Express I own (compared to the Extreme). The Express advantage is you can use it for music, so I set up two networks (using the setup software for the stations), and I use one for networking and one for music. An Apple Genius told me the two should perform at the same speed and distance, so maybe my Express is a bad unit; since you have ten days to return it for a full refund, I'd probably get the Express and see if it works for you. Actually, the very best performer is my Belkin-N, which is in my photo studio 150 feet from my house. Even given the distance, when I get a signal in the house from the Belkin it often out-performs either of the Apple units! At the far-side of my house (upstairs) I sometimes get a four bar signal from the Belkin. At that distance the Apple units usually have one or no bars.