Ask MetaFilter posts tagged with airportextreme

I'm Bill Curtis and I've lost the iternets!

spicynuts — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 06:35:44 -0800

Airport Extreme de-bugging help please! Downloaded firmware updates Monday and now Macbook won't find my airport. I have a Macbook Pro and an Airport Extreme hooked up to my cable high speed modem. On Monday my Macbook auto-updater notified me of a firmware update for the Airport which I allowed to be downloaded and installed. Immediately I lost my wireless connection. I started by calling the cable company and rebooting the modem. This did not stop the problem as my Airport is still blinking amber. My laptop will not find the baseport when I use the Airport utility. I rebooted the baseport. Still nothing. Any advice?

I tried the apple support site but...jesus, come on! Who designed that crap?

Now You See Me, Now You Don't: Moc OS X Networking Question

ISeemToBeAVerb — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 14:37:21 -0800

SETUP: -One PowerMac G4 running OS 10.4 -One Macbook Pro running OS 10.5.4 -One Airport Extreme (older UFO model) on 802.11g For a long time I've had a home network between my desktop and my Airport. I never had any problems with signal or anything. About a year ago I purchased a Macbook Pro and set it up for my network. The only problem is that on my Macbook I consistently get fluctuating signal strength and my network often just disappears all together. Whenever I want to connect to my network I have to manually connect to it even though I have it saved under my preferred networks. In other words, It seems that my laptop does not recognize my network unless I tell it to.

When I run Airport Utility it tells me I have no wireless devices. Yet, If I manually connect to my network it will then recognize my Airport. Like I said, this is only a problem with my laptop, not the rest of my network (i.e. my desktop). Anyone else had a problem like this? If so, how did you fix it?

How do I make my WiFi network stop hiding from me?

logovisual — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 07:45:23 -0800

I cannot maintain a connection to my wireless network. I think it might have something to do with the EIGHTEEN other wireless networks available around me. What can I do? (And let's knock this one out early: I'm on a completely different channel from all the other networks). I just moved to a new apartment in Astoria, Queens, and was having trouble getting onto the new roommates' wireless network (and learned that one of the other roommates, a fellow Mac user, couldn't get on it either). So I bought a new Airport Extreme and set it up yesterday in place of the old Linksys router. This took HOURS, because I couldn't get a signal in the next room (where my computer is) strong enough to maintain a connection to the base station for long enough to go through the entire setup process. I eventually got it up and working, but ever since, I'm lucky to get 20 minutes of internet access before my iMac drops the connection to the network.

Here are the gory details: The network is on channel 1. The eighteen (no joke) networks around us are all on channels 6, 8, or 11. When I run MacStumbler, our network consistently has the strongest signal strength -- around 70, compared to the other networks in the 40s or 50s -- but it also appears very infrequently, only poking its head above the fray of competing networks once every couple of minutes. A couple of networks with weaker signal are much more consistent, almost never disappearing from MacStumbler's view. Ours, apparently, likes to play hide-and-seek.

The Airport Extreme (one of the brand new 802.11n ones) has to be set up in my roommate's bedroom, since he's on a paleocomputer without WiFi and must be jacked into it. The distance from the router to my computer is maybe fifteen to twenty feet total, with a closet and wall in between. The closet does have some metal fixtures (rods and hangers), but is mainly wood and fabric.

My computer is a 20" iMac G5. I have my doubts about its WiFi antenna to begin with, since I also have an Airport Express (which is not currently on the network, since I can't hold a signal long enough to get it rebooted and connected onto the network, otherwise I'd use it to improve my signal strength) which I tried plugging into the power outlet DIRECTLY BELOW my computer, and the iMac only registered a signal strength of about 80.

I also have a Powerbook G4 which I wandered around the house testing signal strength with; I tried setting the Powerbook literally on top of the Airport Extreme, and got the same problem wherein the signal was exceptionally good -- 116 -- but only when it appeared, which was once every couple of minutes. Then it vanished.

So: what are my options? Is there something I can do to make the network consistent, and not be playing this "I'm here, I'm not here" game? Is this likely to be a placement problem for the router, or more likely to be an antenna problem with my computer?

Is an Airport Extreme Base Station too costly?

jstef — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 01:06:01 -0800

Is an Apple Airport Extreme Base Station worth the money, when compared with other less pricey routers? My WRT54Gv5 does not play nice with XBOX360 Live, in addition to being a general piece of shit that crashes all the time and can't even serve up its own configuration page worth a damn. I'm looking at buying a new router, especially an Apple, since all of my computers are Apples (but the roommate has a Windows PC and a Linux server).

Apple routers, however, are expensive! That new Time Capsule is tempting, but would burn a huge hole in my wallet.

So is an Airport Extreme Base Station worth the money? My Linksys certainly was not worth the $60. Are there any reasonable alternatives (Gigabit Ethernet ports and 802.11n would be a plus) that will work flawlessly with XBOX Live and our multi-OS household? Cheaper is better, but I'm a sucker for cool features!

Can older macs be made Airport Extreme Capable?

Anonymous — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 15:47:52 -0800

Inherited an Airport Extreme Basestation with Gigabit ethernet and would like to enable a B&W 400mhz G3 and 400mhz G4 AGP to use this wireless network at the faster speeds. Is this possible? (this is anon because it's a gift to people who know me and read Askme) I know the G4 is Airport capable, but can it use an Airport Extreme Card at the Extreme speeds? Apple sells refurbished Airport Extreme cards on their site and was wondering...

Would A PCI card work better? If so, which? Or can these older macs successfully use a USB 2.0 wireless adapter?

On the wireless network they would be accessing a printer, other computers and the internet.

How to bridge two wireless routers for a single network?

lifeless — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 08:51:08 -0800

I'm thinking of using two Wireless LAN router-switches from two different manufacturers in different rooms to create a single network for a multitude of devices. How is this done (see extended explanation)? My current setup relies on a Buffalo WHR-G54S with the excellent open source DD-WRT firmware flashed as a replacement for the shoddy original. It's in the bedroom, connected to three machines with an ethernet cable. A fourth ethernet cable runs to the living room to the Xbox, and this is something I want to get rid of.

In addition to the Xbox, the living room houses a Nintendo Wii and the odd laptop, all of which connect to the wireless LAN. An unconnected PSTwo sits there as well.

Lately I've been eyeing Apple's new Airport Extreme with its gigabit ethernet ports. Since I've already got a wireless router, I thought maybe I could get rid of the annoying room-to-room cable with it. Here's the planned setup:

Airport Extreme is the main router in the bedroom. It connects with wires to the three machines there, and creates a 802.11N Draft 2.0 wireless network secured with WPA, let's call it MyWLAN.

In the living room is the Buffalo router. It bridges to MyWLAN and connects as an ethernet switch with standard 100Mbps wires to the Xbox and the PSTwo.

A couple of questions:

1) Is bridging two discrete routers in this manner possible? The Buffalo need not provide wireless connectivity to any clients (the signal from the bedroom AP reaches the wireless devices in the living room just fine), it just needs to be bridged to MyWLAN and to act as a simple ethernet switch for the wired connections, forwarding the DHCP IP addresses provided by Airport to the clients.

2) Is it possible for a single network to have both a 802.11G and an 802.11N router without the speed dropping to G level? (This seems unlikely, even if the G device is somehow configured to not actually provide any wireless connectivity to clients.) That is, can individual devices connect with different speeds; say, a recent Mac could connect with N, and older devices (including the bridged Buffalo) would connect with G?

All in all, this looks like a real bitch to configure, but assuming it's possible (and the DD-WRT firmware is quite capable), I'm willing to make the effort just to get rid of the damned bedroom-to-living room cable.

Wii Wi-Fi via Airport Extreme?

pzarquon — Thu, 24 May 2007 17:39:03 -0800

How can I get my Wii online via my Airport Extreme? Finally got a Wii. Love that it's got built-in Wi-Fi. But I can't get it to connect to my Apple Airport Extreme base station.

There are forum posts scattered across several gaming sites, but they have different solutions, and none of them are particularly attractive. The most common "solution" seems to be using WEP (not WPA/WPA2) and limiting the password length to exactly 13 characters.

This sounds wacky to me, and I'm not crazy about the idea of crippling my network security (and changing the settings on all my other wireless devices, including TiVos, Apple TVs, and other computers), too.

The Wii says it does WPA2, the Apple Airport Extreme does WPA2... this stuff is supposed to be platform independent, right? Surely, there's an Apple fan and a Wii addict whose gotten this combination to work the way it's supposed to? I can't believe WEP is the only workaround.

Why a delay when connecting my Mac to the network?

UncleHornHead — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 11:12:42 -0800

After waking it from sleep, why is there a thirty second delay in connecting my Mac Book Pro to our wireless network? I am powering OSX 10.4.9 and have an Airport Extreme via a cable modem. This has been going on for a while, but last year I could wake my MBP from sleep (open it) and be connected to the net. Is there a simple way to eliminate the delay. I'm impatient.

What say you oh great hive mind?

How do I make Airport Extreme play nicely with Azureus?

missed — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 23:27:05 -0800

How do I make Airport Extreme play nicely with Azureus? I just picked up the latest Airport Extreme 802.11n, switching from Linksys' Wireless-G routers. I'm having a problem with downloading torrents using Azureus. After a few minutes, the router light turns amber colored (solid), my Internet connection is severed, and then it restores itself. This has only happened with Azureus.

What settings do I need to input, and where, in the Airport Utility app? My normal Azurues ports for TCP/UDP are 65534, tho I'm flexible on port numbers.

OS's are OS X and Win XP SP2, although I'm pretty much using Az on XP.

How to move an existing iTunes library to external drive for use by multiple computers?

jdroth — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 08:58:11 -0800

I just received my new Airport Extreme. I'm eager to make use of its ability to connect to a USB drive. I'd like to transfer most of my data — songs, movies, and TV shows, in particular — to this drive, and then use it as a central repository for most of my Macs. But these computers already have existing iTunes libraries. What's the easiest way to make this transition? What's the best way? For example, I have subscriptions to Battlestar Galactica and The Office. I'd like to order the third seasons of Battlestar, but my laptop's 160gb drive is nearly full. Is there a way to transfer the first two seasons to the new external drive (connected to the Airport Extreme) and keep them in my library? (It doesn't make sense that I could — I'm just wondering.)

Also, I'd actually like to make this theoretical external drive the default location for my desktop's media library. How do I transfer the desktop's existing library to the new drive without breaking things in iTunes?

All help greatly appreciated.

Bonus question: The Apple web site says this about the new Airport Extreme: "Speed and range will be less if an 802.11a/b/g product joins the network." Does this mean that my MacBook Pro will get 802.11g speeds when my old Macs are on the network, but will get better speeds when those machines are off? What about my Airport Express? Will this degrade the speed? (I'm looking for real answers here, not suppositions. I can "suppose" just as well as you can.)

Adapter for an Airport Extreme card?

northernsoul — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 14:11:58 -0800

I have an Apple Airport Extreme wireless card from a computer I no longer need wireless access to. I believe it's a mini PCI card, although I don't know for sure. Is there are an adaptor out there that will allow me to use it with a regular PCI slot on a PC? (not on a Mac)

Question number 11730

SpecialK — Fri, 12 Nov 2004 13:31:10 -0800

My coworker's Apple Powerbook with Airport Extreme can't use the new D-Link DWL-2100AP. We can see the access point, can see that the access point sees and connects to him, but something about the apple's DHCP or networking config won't pull an IP and also won't work when we set everything manually. Any ideas?