A:AnswerIf I understand your question correctly, you want to stream to your iPad from an external drive connected to your base or this Airport express. As long as the files on the external drive are compatible with the iPad you should be able to do this without accessing the internet. The base unit does not have to reach out to the internet for you to access an external drive with movie files loaded on it.
A:AnswerThe airport express and airport extreme base station are essentially wireless routers. If you want the most simple set up for backing up your MacBook, I would get an apple airport time capsule. Kinda expensive but one device that does everything. You can also buy one of the Apple base stations, but you would need to also get a USB external Hard drive That you need to connect to the base station router. Not as elegant but works just as well.
