for those that don’t know Apple’s AirPort Express is suppose to be a nifty bit of gear that allows you to sync iTunes to your stereo using the power of wifi, with little or no effort, that’s the theory anyway. For me things panned out a little different and after about 4 days of looking at this white plug with it’s annoying amber flashing light, which signaled failure with every blink, I was about done with the damn thing. Scouring the Internet proved a devastating experience, with most reviews and comments saying “within 5 minutes it was up and running”. I wonder how many of these people were joining a wireless network, because I fail to see how simple it is, when most people’s setup at home would be similar to mine.

Anyway, I’m rambling and not getting to the point. After of persistence I took the thing into my office at ITProPortal.com HQ to see if any of my colleagues had any ideas, usually my man Desire is good with this kind of thing. Low and behold I didn’t even have to ask him, the problem was obvious from they way he setup our wifi, because little after connecting for 5 minutes the thing was working with no problems.

The solution I found… get the hell away from WEP security on your Router, and setup WPA + WPA2. Once I sorted this modem side of things, I found it to be music to my ears literally. So that’s the big secret! if only I knew that 4 days ago, maybe I wouldn’t have wasted hours on it.

Now that it is sorted, it is pretty amazing. Next thing to work out is to try and get web apps to connect to the speakers, because the moment this is iTunes only. Edit – after a little searching and a twitter or two I have come up with a solution for those pesky web apps, this little piece of software called Airfoil claims to see you right. Not tried it yet but plan to soon, when I have I’ll review it.