Airport Extreme Base Station to connect MacBook Pro to internet?

With a new MacBook Pro do I need an Airport Base station or something other purchase (product) to connect to the internet wirelessly while I travel?
Thank you very much in advance for your time in this matter.

Duane is correct.
The wireless is built in. Whoever you are connecting to will have a base station. If you want wireless at home you need a base station connected to your internet connection.
Good luck.

Similar Messages

Airport Extreme Base station cannot connect to Westell C90-36R516-01 DSL modem

Hi,
I just purchased a new Airport Extreme Base station for my 15" Macbook Pro. I set everything up this morning per the docs (all cables are connected properly) but the Airport Extreme is flashing an amber LED, which means it cannot establish communication to the network/Internet.
I'm using an old Westell C90-36R516-01 DSL modem that has been working fine up until now. I've tried switching out the Ethernet cables and different powering on/off combos but nothing appears to work. When I connect the Ethernet cable directly into my laptop, I have to power down the DSL modem, power it back on, and then do several refreshes before I finally get an Internet connection.
I read a previous post about unplugging the modem overnight and then plugging it in the next morning to wipe out the MAC address setting. I will be trying that tonight, but I was wondering if there was anything else I could try in the meantime? Or, is it simply a matter of having to get a newer modem from Verizon because this one is 7-8 years old?
Thanks for any help you can provide.
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Hi Max,
Let's start from the beginning,
The ethernet from the modem should be wired to the Wan port of the Airport...
On page 28 of the users manual it says if the light flashes amber you should unplug the power of the modem, wait a few seconds and power up the modem.
I presume you installed the Airport utility from the disk that came with the Airport?
For more information about the reason the light flashes
Open AirPort Utility, select your base station, and then choose Manual Setup from the Base Station menu. ClickBase Station Status to display information about the flashing light
Here is a link to the Manual CLICK HERE
I was hoping to find out more about the Airport utility to see what's it's capable of doing...

Using AirPort Extreme Base Station to Connect a Hard Drive

I have a wireless network set up using a wireless device provided by my network provider. What I would like to do is to use my Airport Extreme Base station only to connect a hard drive to it. However when doing so, Airport Utility does not recognize or see the Extreme. The Extreme can only been seen if connected to the router provided by my network provider. How can I set up a wireless hard drive or printer with the Extreme without connecting to the network?

Samir, why you wanna use service provider wireless instrument when you have world class wireless device
you don't need 2 wireless ???
I am not expert but I used common sense, I had linksys N series router but recently I bought TC 1TB
so what I dumped my N router in store and went ahead with TC installation, Trust me it took me 10 minutes to configure my 4 HDD 5 computer printer etc with TC
I am sure you have a ethernet modem too separate from your wireless instrument
try to do a clean installation ( thats where all these people who has problem, trying to connect to their existing network
try setting up your AEBS as fresh wireless device connect to your modem and run Airport Utility
I am sure you will be a happy apple customer
good luck

ANOTHER Airport Extreme base station dropping connections

I think my network connectivity problems predate the latest Airport software update by a few days.
Our MacBook Pro's randomly drop an Airport connection when they are near a secondary access point operated in Bridged Mode.
My one-year-old Airport Extreme/Time Capsule had been working fine in 2.4GHz b/g/n mode with a gigabit switch and a link to a Comcast cable modem, all set up in the northwest corner of the house. I decided to replace it with a new, dual-band Airport Extreme/Time Capsule so that we could separately operate a faster 5GHz "n" network for modern notebooks along with the 2.4GHZ b/g/n network for older notebooks and iPhones.
We substituted the new Airport Extreme/Time Capsule for the old model and it now serves IP addresses to 5GHZ network devices. The old Time Capsule was moved to a new location in the southeast corner of the house, connected to the network via Cat 6 Ethernet, and also set it up to join the same 5GHz wireless "n" network in Bridge Mode -- it is an access point, but not serving DHCP addresses.
Now, whenever a laptop is near that device, it accesses the LAN through that Airport Extreme's 5GHz WIFi connection. The problem is this: every few hours (though sometimes sooner - its random), our MacBook Pro's lose their network and Internet connections (not simultaneously though). This only happens if the laptops are physically closest to the older, Bridged wireless access point. It can happen in the middle of Web surfing and always, when they wake from sleep. It NEVER happens if the notebooks are physically closer to the new Airport Extreme (and hitting it's 5GHz signal) and the iPhones NEVER lose their Internet connection to the separate 2.4GHz b/g/n network.
When it does happen, we have to Restart the notebooks to re-establish an Internet connection, though I suppose restarting the Airport Extreme/Time Capsule also might re-establish the connection. Sometimes, I can just move my laptop back to the northwest corner where the main Airport Extreme/Time Capsule is located and get right back online through that access point. But usually, I just sit in the back room, restart and rejoin the network through the secondary, wireless access point. Turning off/on Airport (at the MacBooks) accomplishes nothing and neither does Network Diagnostics.
This affects two new, MacBook Pro "n" laptops running 10.5.8, but does not affect the iPhones. So, it only seems to be a 5GHz issue. I don't think it's RF interference because I've tried three different 5 GHz channels. I've also tried reducing the secondary Airport Extreme's transmission power to 50% and, more recently 25%, to no avail.
This morning, it started happening again, so I finally used the Airport Utility to turn off the Wireless Mode of the secondary device for my next test (thanks to the Ethernet connections, it's still visible on the wireless network). We'll see if this solves the wireless connectivity problem.
Does anyone have any idea what could be causing this? I wonder if it is some odd, configuration issue.

I just started having a similar problem in the last week. I have three devices: the Gigabit AEBS is connected to my cable modem and is the DHCP server. An Airport Express (N) extends the wireless network. A second (G-Only) Airport Express is connected to one of the gigabit ports on the AEBS and creates a second wireless network for iPhone, G-devices and guests.
Lately, the connection from my May 2009 MacBook Pro has started acting strange. The Airport icon in the menubar shows I have full signal strength, but I'm no longer connected to the Internet and I can't browse other N computers on the network. Devices that are connected via the G network continue working fine and remain connected to the Internet. This is interesting because even the G network has to go through the AEBS to get to the Internet. It only appears to affect the Internet connection via the AEBS's own WiFi but not its ethernet ports. If I open Airport Utility from the MacBook Pro, the AEBS status shows as Normal. Turning off/on the Airport on the MacBook accomplishes nothing but I can restart the AEBS from the Airport Utility and then everything goes back to normal. A few hours or more later, the problem occurs again.
By holding the Option key when clicking on the Airport icon and looking at the Airport MAC address I can tell that the MacBook Pro is connected to the WiFi-N via the Airport Express extender. Like you, I may have to try and shut that one off and see if the problems occurs when it is connected directly to the AEBS. The problem with that is that since it is farther away in the house, the signal strength and thus my transmit rate will be slower. I'd be curious to see if your experiment by shutting down your secondary AE will still cause drops.

Airport Extreme Base Station Losing Connection To USB Hard Drive.

I bought a new 5th gen AEBS and installed it yesterday updating the firmware to latest version and enabling the 300mbps 5GHz access point.
I formatted a 2.5" USB hard drive to Mac OS Journaled and connected it via USB.
Last night I transferred GBs of data with no problems. However I copied my iTunes media over night, and this morning it stated that it lost connection to the drive.
I since cannot connect to the drive again without disconnecting the USB drive and reconnecting it.
This seems to be a common problem with no evident fixes. Has anyone got a reliable connection out of this device?
I was using a MacBook Pro 2010 on SL.
If not then I suppose I might send this back and get a dedicated NAS.

I just found this thread - I am not sure the energy saver option will apply to non 'local' hard drives, i.e. the hard drive connected to the AEBS.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3616812

Wireless connection to internet with mac pro tower and airport extreme base station?

Hi, I have an airport extreme base station and a mac pro tower without a airport card. My internet wireless router is a great distance from my computer so I can't connect the base station directly to the router. I've attached the airport extreme base station to the tower via an ethernet cable, the base station seems to be wirelessly connected to the home network but the browser is showing "not connected".
Please help.
Thanks

Shouldn't the Airport base station be able to connect to it wirelessly?
It might be possible, but the Ethernet ports on the AirPort Extreme would not be enabled, even if it did connect to the Thompson' WiFi signal.
As Tesserax notes, among the Apple routers, only the 802.11n versions of the AirPort Express have the capability to "join" a wireless network with the Ethernet port being enabled.

I need help with connecting an external HD to Airport Extreme base station

So i have the base station set up, and it recognizes my hard drive in the airport utilities and have the file sharing turned on, but when i connect to the base station wirelessly from my macbook pro, the hard drive and base station does not show up in the shared section in my finder. Any ideas as to whats up?

I'm having a similar problem, and I hope you'll excuse my ignorance but is there a difference between rebooting and just restarting. I've done the latter (numerous times) but not the former.
I have set up my Airport Extreme Base Station to my wireless router (DSL Internet connection) and to an external hard drive (MyBook Essential 640GB with USB connection). Internet works fine.
When I plug the hard drive directly into my MacBook it recognizes it fine, I can copy files to it, add folders, explore them etc.
When I plug the hard drive into the Base station, it appears as a network drive on the side bar of my finder window, but when I click on it to open it, it is empty, it shows 0 items and the available memory, but none of the files I put on it are visible to explore.

Airport Extreme Base Station Internet Connection issue

I have a connection question for Airport Extreme Base Station.
I have Comcast cable broadband. I connect that to a Linksys router for
use with my Vonage phone, and then from the Linksys router I connect
via Ethernet to my iMac. I like the direct Ethernet connection for
performance reasons.
In order to set up a home network to connect my Tivo's (and eventually
my PC and printer), I have set up an Airport Extreme Base station and
connected it to the Linksys router from it's ethernet connection to the
WAN (cable modem) input on the Extreme.
I have connected to the Airport network with my iMac, but since I am
connected to the Internet via Ethernet, I cannot tell if my Airport is
connected to the Internet so that I can use it for my Tivo. My PC is
still in storage from a move, so I can't check with that.
My question: How can I tell if my Airport is connected to the Internet
without disabling my Ethernet connection on my iMac?
A few more info points/questions in case it helps answer:
1) I previously used this Airport to connect this iMac wirelessly.
2) Should I be connecting it to the LAN port since it's coming out of
the router?
3) If the connection issue is because I am going through the Linksys
first, can I connect the modem to the airport and then use the LAN port
to connect to the Linksys router?
4) If I have to disable the ethernet connection to test the Airport,
how do I do it? Just unplug it?
I appreciate any help as the online and manual help from Apple is not
quite up to par with such a complex configuration.
Regards
Bill

2) Should I be connecting it to the LAN port since it's coming out of
the router?
No, connecting to the WAN port is fine.
3) If the connection issue is because I am going through the Linksys
first, can I connect the modem to the airport and then use the LAN port
to connect to the Linksys router?
The issue is that you have two routers which effectively creates two networks. Unless this was your original intent, you will want to setup the AEBS as a bridge.
To set up the AirPort Extreme Base Station (AEBS) as a bridge, using the AirPort Admin Utility, connect your computer directly (using an Ethernet cable) to the LAN port of the AEBS, and then, make these settings:
Network tab
- Distribute IP addresses (unchecked)
- Apply the new settings.
- Wait at least 5 minutes.
4) If I have to disable the ethernet connection to test the Airport,
how do I do it? Just unplug it?
Well, that's certainly one way, but an easier way is to temporarily disable the "Built-in Ethernet" in your network configuration.
System Preferences > Network > Show > Network Port Configurations
- Built-in Ethernet (unchecked)

Mac Book pro can't connect to Internet through Apple airport extreme base station

I had problems connecting to the internet in the past with my macbook pro. One day it suddenly started working again but then I bought a second apple TV I lost connectivity. I have tried changing the IP address manually and while it shows me connected to the wifi I am still with out internet. When I hooked up the new Apple TV that I bought it booted my computer from it's ip address. The apple TV though wouldn't work and now nor would my computer. I ended up setting the Apple TV's ip address manually and now it works fine. My computer on the other hand does not no matter if I set it manually or not. Even if I plug in the ethernet cable from the base station it doesn't work. It show that it has a self assigned IP address. After I set it manually it shows that I am connected both via wifi and the ethernet cable but I can't connect to the internet. If I plug the modem directly into the computer bypassing the base station I get internet and it is using the IP address that worked originally.
It has something to do with the connection from the base station to my computer but this is odd considering every other device I have: iPhone 4, apple tv, apple tv, apple mini with retina display all work perfectly via wifi (newest apple tv had to be set manually as I stated above but now works fine). When I check the ip of the base station itself it seems to be different from the ip of the computer when the computer was connected directly to the router. I don't understand why my computer now can't connect to the internet via the base station whether it be wifi or by ethernet. Can you please help me trouble shoot this?
I have an AirPort Extreme base station which allows up to 50 users and a 30 meg connection speed.
I have a MacBook Pro (17-inch Early 2009), OS X Mavericks (10.9.2)

It has something to do with the connection from the base station to my computer
I don't think so..
I just posted a reply which totally vanished.. strange strange website now.
Please post some screenshots of your AE setup from the airport utility.. I want to see the summary page, then the network and internet tab.
Please tell us what modem you use.. is it a router??
If you have satellite or 3G wimax etc service they often are limited to 5 IP addresses... the AE takes one and then 4 more devices can join .. no more.
You need to also give us the screenshot of the IP you are getting in a computer that works.
EDIT
Sorry this is half double post.. the previous page refused to display.. now it has returned..

How can I get Time Machine to back up an external hard drive (iPhotos) that is attached to airport extreme base station. Note: Time machine is usb to macbook pro and external drive with iphotos is usb to airport extreme base station. Help please. Thanks!

How can I get Time Machine to back up an external hard drive (iPhotos) that is attached to airport extreme base station. Note: Time machine is usb to macbook pro and external drive with iphotos is usb to airport extreme base station. Help please. Thanks!

Once you have the drive connected to your Mac, click System Preferences (gear icon) on the dock
Click Time Machine
Click Options
Be default, the hard drive will be Excluded from backups. Click the drive to highlight it, then click the "-" (minus) button at the bottom of the list to remove the drive from Excluded items.
The drive will be backed up on the next Time Machine pass
Everything above assumes that the hard drive has been formatted in Mac OS Extended (Journaled) as Time Machine will only backup drives in that format.

Printing wirelessly to MacBook Pro with Airport Extreme Base Station

I have an Airport Extreme Base Station that I used to use wirelessly until I got Verizon Fios. The Fios technicians said the base station couldn't be used and so it's been sitting unused for a few months. However, I really, really miss printing wirelessly, and was wondering if it was possible to use the Airport Extreme Base Station ONLY to print wirelessly, and not connect it any way to my internet (I don't want to mess with any of the fios stuff at all).
If it's not possible, is there any other way to print wirelessly without purchasing another product or special printer. I have a HP c4480 printer.
Thanks!

If your printer has a USB cable the easy way to go about this in my opinion is to plug that USB cable into your Extreme base station. I have the Extreme ABS that looks like a flying saucer. I plug the usb cable into the port that has the symbol that doe NOT look like this <--> rather it looks like a Saguaro cactus.
My computer then sends print documents to the Extreme via WiFi and then Extreme sends them to the printer via the USB cable.
If your Airport status is not showing in the Mac's menubar go to system Prefs/Network/Airport and check a little box so it will show up in the menu bar.
Now if your Extreme is plugged in the wall and powered up your Mac should be able to find it. Click on that menubar item for Airport and scroll down and select your Airport Extreme. I don't know for sure what its name will be. It should still be the same as it used to be when you used it last.
Now try printing a simple document. In the print dialog window you should be able to select what printer you want to use. If your new Extreme printer is listed select it. You may need to click on Print & Fax and figure out how to select it from there, and choose it to be the new default printer.
I think this info will do the job. Whenever you want to print you have to go to the Airport icon in the menubar and change your airport connection from your Verizon stuff to your Extreme. Then of course you have to change back when you are done. That is why it would be great to toss the Verizon WiFi radio out the window and just plug your Verizon modem into your Extreme WiFi radio transceiver (router). But I understand you cannot deal with that at this time.
If this does not do the job, if I have missed something, I will bet you 5 bucks that you can still figure it out if you just look at any error messages and/or look at the Print&Fax prefs and the Print dialog windows etc. and see what I may have missed. Maybe you have to go to SystemPrefs/Sharing and allow your printer to be shared. I don't think so. The way I figure any of this stuff out is to just look at stuff and think and try things and see what happens.
Your Verizon setup should be something like this.... a cable comes into your house and goes to a 'modem'. From there and ethernet cable (CAT-5 cable) goes from that modem to your Verizon router (WiFi radio transceiver).
As for getting rid of the Verizon router, when you are ready to give it a go, simply unplug the ethernet cable (it has a plug on the end that looks like the kind of plug that telephones use to plug into the wall, except it is a bit wider, but still has that same kind of snap-lock tab) that comes from the Verizon modem (the modem has the heavy round cable and probably many blinking lights) and plug it into the Extreme. Mine has an icon on the Extreme that is many dots in a circular pattern.
At this point you may have to unplug the Verizon modem form the wall AC power and the Extreme also. Then plug them back in, wait a minute, go to your Airport icon on your Mac menubar, Select Extreme and start surfing the web.
It really is that simple with a Mac. Maybe Verizon has found a way to make things difficult but my guess is no. Any password should be taken care of in your Airport Setup Utility program. It should be the same password(s) as you used before when you used your Extreme.

Airport can't connect to my Airport Extreme Base Station

Hi all,
Just had this nagging problem for a couple of days. I can connect and see my aebs in airport utility but can't connect it to network in the airport menu. The network is fine and is working on my macbook, but the macbook pro can't see it. Both laptops are using 10.5.4 any suggestions?
Thanks in advance.
Chris

Hello paisleymum. Welcome to the Apple Discussions!
You shouldn't have had to reconfigure the AirPort Extreme Base Station (AEBS) just because you have a new MacBook. Was there a particular reason that you needed to?

Connecting PC to VIN airport extreme base station

I've got a VIN airport extreme base station connected to a Netgear modem router and I'm trying to connect my PC wirelessly to the internet. I can see the Airport wireless network connection and the password is verified. The left hand light on the Airport xtarts to flash when I click to connect but after 30 seconds or so of trying Windows is "unable to connect to the Airport"??? (Another Mac seems to connect fine but the two PCs in the house don't!)

I do not know anything about the 2701hg-b but here is the AT&T link. http://store.att.com/Catalog/ProductDetails.asp?ProductId=1000-401047-000&Catego ryId=catMRG AT&T says it is a DSL Gateway with WI-FI capabilities. This is how my house is setup. Cox internet - Arris cable/modem (TM502G) - AEBS (1st gen) - 17" Macbook Pro and 17" Powerbook. Now my sister moved in with me with an eMachines T3414 desktop PC and the AT&T 2701HG-B DSL Gateway. This is a an old & crappy PC and she knows it but given her circumstances this is what she has to use. I can not get her computer to even see my network or anyone else's in the neighborhood (at any given time I can see up to 7 networks on my 2 laptops.) When she had her house and I was visiting I never had any problems connecting to her network. I do not have a lot of networking experience especially on the PC side and could use some help.

Airport Extreme Base Station is not picked up by my Mac Bok Pro

I purchased a Airport Extreme Station, set it up, and everything worked fine.
We had a power outage and since then neither my Macbook Pro nor my other laptop sees the base station. I hard reset the unit, still no response. I hooked up the the base station to my Macbook Pro with the straight-through ethernet cable and yes there it was.
After I unplugged the cable, the airport could not locate the base station again. I have the latest firmware upgrade and Airport software upgrade.
I am running out of options and ideas - any help?
Message was edited by: marbmarc

Perhaps try downloading the latest update and reload it into the Extreme. It is possible that something was corrupted during the power outage that is causing things to be a little bonkers. Use the Search in the top right of this window and look for "Airport Extreme Firmware". You may have to dig a little bit to find the most current but its there. Download it and install while connected via ethernet.

Airport Extreme base station no longer playing nice with Mac Pro

This is a strange problem...
I have an Airport Extreme base station (purchased in 2004) that I use with verizon DSL to get a wireless network going in my house, and I connect three computers wirelessly.
I have an ipod touch and toshiba PC laptop that are both able to connect to the network and run just fine. But lately (past 2 weeks or so) when I try to connect with my MacPro desktop I can go to a few sites, but after a few minutes the airport locks up. At that point none of my computers will connect and I have to unplug and then replug the airport. At that point the network will start up again and if I do not try to get on with Mac Pro then things run fine, but when I try to connect with desktop again, after another few minutes the same thing happens.
I know the problem is with the airport and my Mac Pro - I have done numerous connection experiments and have narrowed the problem down to that.
Is it possible that my MacPro might be drawing more power and causing the airport to overheat? (it is rather hot in the room with DSL connection)
Or should I accept that the current base it old, and bite the bullet and get a new base?
Any thoughts?

Could you post what you did in order to resolve the issue. I'm having a problem with the base station in that I cannot connect to the internet with my laptops (a mac and pc) while I can connect wirelessly to my network with my desktop (G4). The base station is not detected in the base statin admin utility or the aiport setup utility. If anyone else has a solution I would be much obliged to read it.
Thanks!

Airport Extreme Base Station to connect MacBook Pro to internet?

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