Can I extend my Airport Extreme's wireless network with a third-party repeater? I recently purchase an Airport Extreme (the new tower looking one that supports 802.11ac). I finally, after days of headaches, figured out how to use it as my wireless router with AT&amp;T U-Verse. AT&amp;T supplies a hybrid modem/router/voIP box that I had to partially disable via the settings in order for my Airport to handle the DHCP assignments. 

Now that the Airport is working fine, I have this second box, a TP-LINK TL-WA801ND, that I have tried to configure as a Universal Repeater. However every time upon setting it up that way, it just gets lost on the network, and doesn't appear to be working. 

I'm guessing from what I read that Apple still does not support third-party devices? Can or can't I extend my existing wireless network with third-party gear?
Despite very vague information on Apple's own website, it is not possible to extend Apple-based networks with non-Apple products. 

Apple only states: 


  "Wi–Fi base station - Any variety of AirPort Extreme Base Station,
  AirPort Express, or Time Capsule."


from this article - http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202056