Thanks for explaining. I'm not sure I comprehend but you have inspired me to become more knowledgeable about it all. My modem/router is identified as a Netgear N300 WiFi Cable ModemRouter. MY internet service is from Spectum. I am on a 100Mbps plan. The modem/router shows up on my TV and computer as a network and the Airport Express shows as another network. I believe I got the Airport Express to function in all manner through sheer accident. It is hard wired to the Netgear router/modem. I do not know the password for it today and fear attempting to reset it. At any rate, using Speedtest on my iPhone with iPhone WiFi set to modem/router network I got a 22 download reading today with my iPhone in same room as router/modem. Changing iPhone setting to Airport Express network I got an 81 download reading. This just makes me curious because my impression is if the Airport Express was not wired to the router/modem I would not have an Airport Express network and it seems if the Airport Express network function is getting its network capability from the router/modem that the router/modem would have a faster speed or the same speed as the Airport Express. Obviously, I am not understanding how things work here. Now, even not understanding, it would seem to me that using the Airport Express network rather than the router/modem network for WiFi would be best; and, indeed, my 2 laptops, as well as my iPhone and iPad are connected to the Airport Express for WiFi. My new TV's however are not because I can't remember the Airport Express password and I am very, very hesitant to reset the Airport Express, since getting it to function in the first place was as I said by sheer accident. I don't know if I could muster getting it to work again. At any rate, my whole concern here is my new TV's are not working at 100 percent from WiFi connection to modem/router network and I have thought this may have something to do with speed. My smart tv in another room sometimes will go black for a second or two when watching a movie on Sling TV; and, the TV located in same room as modem/router will sometimes need to be reconnected to modem/router. It is apparently loosing its connection for some reason. That's the status/experience to date. BTW, I could hard wire the TV to router/modem for TV located in same room as router/modem but I would need to disconnect my Bluray player from router/modem to do that since I have no more router/modem inputs. There are only two, one to the Airport Express and one to the Bluray player. I'd like to keep that hooked up to see current coming attractions when I play my DVD's.
You need one network name (SSID) and one password, in order for your hand-held devices to be able to connect to your network. Notice that I didn't write it as a plural. You need to know that Apple network devices, especially if you use an iPhone/iPad/Macbook/iMac, really, REALLY don't like to hand off to another network. I was discussing this problem with someone and they said "When Apple devices let go of a network, they leave claw marks". It doesn't matter that the Airport was set up with NAT disabled, either- this means it's in Bridge mode, acting only as an antenna for the router and it still doesn't allow easy roaming or connection to the main network.
If you have an iPhone, go into the Airport Utility, click on Edit, enter the password and rename the network to match the Netgear. If you need to change the password, do that, too. Restart the Airport Express and see if it helps. It may not. If it's still a PITA, I would replace it with something else, but it would be best to use an actual Wireless Access Point, rather than a router that has been set up as an access point, although some do work well in this way- it's just a waste of money to do that.
One of the houses I have worked on for a long time has been in the process of some remodeling, so I had to move the office to a different floor, which is near an access point that's wired to the router through two network switches (one local, the main one in the basement with the router and modem). This is in a house that uses all Apple computers, phones and tablets, with the exception of one Android phone and my computer, when I go there. The iMac would constantly connect to the old SSID, even though I had gone into the Network settings area and removed this network, told it to forget it and it always went back to it until I turned off the radio in the Extreme and even then, the iMac was slow. This was before I replaced an Airport Extreme (used as the router) and an Express with a Luxul router and added a couple of Luxul access points. With the Airport Extreme and the same access points, I had variable speed and it generally didn't work well and with only Luxul, it was consistent, faster and all of the devices have worked better, even though they're Apple. They're on a 35Mbps plan at the moment, but I have consistently seen speeds in the 37Mbps area. Roaming is much better, I don't receive complaints and trouble calls at night and that makes me happy.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Apple has stopped developing network hardware. If you bought the Express very recently, I would ask if it can be returned and replaced with something else.
BTW- you should see the speed you're paying for when connected to the Spectrum WiFi, possibly slightly slower on anything else connected to it (not necessarily, but it's just the reality of WiFi).
If you set the Airport to default,m it shouldn't take long to reconfigure- set it to Create a network, set NAT/DHCP to Off, give it the same name and password as the Netgear and reboot it. That should be all you need to do. If it still doesn't work, I recommend calling AppleCare so they can walk you through it.
