The original 802.11g AirPort Express only works with the old AirPort Utility. Which is really unfortunate, because they're perfectly viable otherwise, for things that don't need speed, or just as a place to plug in some speakers.
Yeah, it's a shame because it's a great device. Good reason not to rely on devices that need proprietary software to configure them, I suppose. Though, to be honest, I ran into an issue on 2 Linksys routers where the UI was incompatible with any Mac browser (it threw an error any time you tried to commit a change), so relying on browser-based UI is not perfect either.
I can't imagine it would have been difficult for Apple to simply retain compatibility with the old AX; they just chose not to, which is frustrating.
I've not learned my lesson since now I have cloud-dependent Meraki gear :)
The old AirPort Utility actually ran on more recent OSes for a while with some simple tweaks. And I'm sure the code for the old devices could have been included in the new versions of AirPort Utility. Frustrating indeed.
You're right that web-based isn't perfect. In my experience, the odds are at least better.
I am starting to feel like I should just resign myself to considering this sort of hardware to be disposable, and assume that it'll stop working due to software obsolescence after a few years, just as surely as if it lets out the magic smoke one day.
