802.11n question

I just got my macbook pro hooked up to the airport extreme base station. I checked my settings for the hardware and says it is 802.11n enabled. Do I also have to install the aiport utility software that came on the cd as well? Also, how do I check for stronger range and/or signal? Thanks

If you have already set up the extreme from another mac, there is no need to install the software on your new MBP, although if you are using an airdisk this would be wise.
So far as judging range and signal, my opinion: (although I'll no doubt get flamed)
Walk around with the MBP, watch the signal strength and see how far you can go. In my opinion, far better to do a real test than rely on any fancy software which is no more than an estimate.

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Extremely basic 802.11n questions

I just replaced an older AirPort hub with a Time Capsule, and I'm puzzled about the status of 802.11n networking.
I only connect wirelessly to the Time Capsule with two core2duo machines (a MacBook and a MacBook Pro). The one older machine in the house with a pre-extreme AirPort card, a G5 iMac, is connected directly via ethernet. I had been under the impression that the MacBooks needed to be enabled for 802.11n use, but the Time Capsule disk does not appear to contain the 802.11n enabler (although this IS referenced in the opening ReadMe). Is there an enabler somewhere that I need to apply to these two machines? Is this automatically part of Leopard (as some things I've read have implied) or of something else? How can I determine that the machines really are enabled for 802.11n use?
And then, how do I determine whether the network is actually running at 802.11n speed (and range)? My understanding is that connecting any non-n device (presumably including my iPhone) to the network will cause it to revert to b/g; how do I determine that this has happened? And does it revert back to n immediately after the non-n device disconnects?
Thanks for any information, or for pointers to something more comprehensive on this than what I've found so far.

James A. Weston wrote:
I don't know how to test the so-called "speed" of a wireless network other than to use a stopwatch, but my understanding is that a mixed n/g/b network is only slowed down when a b or g client is actually using the network.
And one g client using the network would slow down n-client users but not all the way down to g speeds. In other words, the n network does not revert to a g network.
Assuming your understanding is correct, that answers the basic question I was asking. It also suggests that there's no reason for me to carefully turn off wireless networking on my iPhone whenever I'm home: it won't slow down network backups to Time Capsule unless I'm actually doing something significant on it.
Thanks.

AEBS 802.11n questions..

Hi
I just bought an Airport Extreme Base Station. Pleased to say set was a doddle - connected my external HD and all is fine. Just a couple of questions:
1. how do I know the data transfer is at 802.11n? I have an imac that i need to upgrade to n with an adapter - my MacBook should be fine but how do I find out what speed data is transferring on which?
2. I had trouble setting up my Airport Express as a repeater. I configured this using WDS but two separate wifi signals were being detected and the AEBS stopped responding and refused to be recognised in Airport Utility. Can the AEx operate 802.11n?
3 What is the airport disk utility that was installed for? My ext HD works fine but nothing appears in this utility.
4 Finally, On my IMac two icons appear for my ext HD (its got 2 partitions) one has an airport signal icon and the other a network icon also can't get any icons to appear on my MacBook desktop, why these differences?
many thanks
Nick

If the Base Station radio is configured to n-only mode, then suffice it to say your wireless network will be running at n-speeds.
However, if you want to use an Airport Express with it, you will need to configure the Base Station for n with b/g compatibility. The Airport Express does not support n speeds.
There are several different ways a Mac can mount an Airport disk. Your questions will probably be answered in this article: AirPort: How to mount an AirPort Extreme USB hard disk volume in Mac OS X and Windows

AEBS 802.11n question about bridging

using AEBS 802.11n and connecting to an existing network which is using DHCP...
internet button chosen
internet connection panel chosen
connect using : ethernet
configure ipv4 : using dhcp
ethernet wan port : automatic (default)
connection sharing : share a public ip address
is the AEBS acting as a bridge here? so, now the AEBS can pass out ip addresses that are different (local) network addresses than what the AEBS is receiving from the established network, which it is joining?? the established network 192.168.1 the AEBS DHCP network 10.0.1
internet button chosen
internet connection panel
connect using : ethernet
configure ipv4 : using dhcp
ethernet wan port : automatic (default)
connection sharing : Off (bridge mode)
or...
the AEBS is acting as a bridge here? (off (bridge mode)) can the AEBS pass out ip address using a different network address here? and if it does so there will be no NAT functionality?
what does it mean to have DHCP functionality and no NAT. does using DHCP and no NAT mean that each computer, on the local network connected to the AEBS, that segment, must have a static address?

In your first configuration, where connection sharing = share a public IP address, the AEBSn is still acting as a wireless router and, effectively, has created a second wireless subnet.
In the second configuration, where connection sharing = Off (bridge mode), the AEBSn is "passing thru" the NAT/DHCP services from the router it's connected to so any devices connected to the AEBSn will still be on the same network as the upstream router.

Airport Extreme 802.11n network question

I received my Airport Express 802.11n and could finally add it to my Airport Extreme in a new network. Man I am happy I could forget the WDS hanky panky Thx also to Bob Timmons for giving advise
For some reasons I had initial problems seeing the Airport Express 802.11n after setup but when I changed security of the Airport Extreme from WEP to WPA/WPA2 Personal and the channel to "Automatic" the Airport Express 802.11n finally popped up in Airport Utility. Did a firmware update to from 7.4.2. to 7.5.2 as well. I set Radio Mode to 802.11n (b/g compatible) to use the Wii.
Questions:
1) Airport Extreme: Wireless Network Options, Multicast rate is set to 2Mbps and transmit power to 100%. Interference robustness is checked. I guess these settings are okay ?
2) I understand the network must be seen as a hub. Do I gain any speed or else if I add another Airport Express 802.11n or does it only slow down ?
Thx for your advise

Airport Extreme: Wireless Network Options, Multicast rate is set to 2Mbps and transmit power to 100%. Interference robustness is checked. I guess these settings are okay ?
Interference robustness should only be used if absolutely necessary. Suggest that you leave this disabled and see how things work.
2) I understand the network must be seen as a hub. Do I gain any speed or else if I add another Airport Express 802.11n or does it only slow down ?
Speed falls off in proportion to the distance that the computer is located from the main router, so adding an AirPort Express will help maintain the speed in the remote area where the Express is located. It won't do anything to increase the speed of the network when you are near the main router.

802.11N hardware question

I have a Quad G5 with PCI Express slots, so I know there are no cards out there for me to use to get 802.11N directly, but I found this adapter
http://www.orbitmicro.com/global/pciexpressx1topciexpressminiinterfaceadapter-p- 771.html
that changes a PCI-Express slot to a Mini PCI-Express, enabling it to use the card by Quickertek
http://www.mac-pro.com/Quickertek-802-11a-b-g-n-Antenna
that has 802.11N. My question is, has anyone tried one of these? If so, what has been your experience?

I am looking for the odd duck thing that I may have over looked. In this customer environment, there are no other devices on the wireless lan to provide collisions. And colisions would be more random than every 60 seconds.
He has seen this behavior with several different access points from different manufacturers, not just his Cisco AP's so thinking that there is something else that I am missing.
Have had my CCIE for a long time and there is just so much to know and remember that sometimes I am not sure I ahve enough brain cells left.

Voltage specs and international question about Airport Extreme (802.11n)

I'm about to travel to Korea to teach English for a year so I'm preparing all my electronic gear for the journey and I've come to a curious question involving the Airport Extreme with 802.11n.
First of all, I'm worried about voltage (Korea runs on 220v / 60Hz). For most hard drives (and Apple hardware in general it seems) the power supply is auto-switching 100-240v 50/60 Hz, but when I looked at the official specs for the Airport Extreme (hereafter AEBS) this info is conspicuously absent. The AEBS itself runs on 12V DC power, which is listed in the specs, but the input tolerance for the AC adapter isn't mentioned. I checked the specs for the Time Capsule since the hardware is presumably very similar and it is explicitly 100-240v. Likewise the replacement power supply available from Apple is listed as 100-240v, but since it is a replacement part I'm not sure if it is the exact same make as the adapter that ships with the AEBS in North America. If someone knows the definitive specs, I would appreciate an answer.
Secondly, when I tried searching the Korean Apple site (www.apple.co.kr) for specs on the Korean version of the AEBS to see if it was the same, I discovered that the Airport Extreme isn't available in Korea (although the Airport Express and Time Capsule). Does anyone know why this is? Is it possible the Airport Extreme doesn't comply with Korean wireless standards (I know the iPhone isn't being released in Korea because of laws about middleware that must be installed on cellular phones in Korea)? It seems safe given the availability of the Time Capsule in Korea, but does anyone have any specific knowledge about the Airport Extreme or Wi-fi regulations in Korea?
Sorry if this is a strange question, but I'd appreciate insight from the more experienced/advanced Apple users out there.
-Matt Tranquada

Thanks for the response. I guess what I would like to know is if I am closer to the newer 802.11n AE base station with my laptop, will it ignore the older base station and communicate directly with the stronger signal, or does it communicate with the weaker, more distant signal. Does the laptop automatically determine which base station has a stronger signal and choose it, or is it fixed which base station the laptop communicates with?

Questions about AE Simultaneous 802.11n

I have an AE simultaneous 2.4/5ghz router (firmware 7.5) as well as an Express (FW 7.4.2) extending the network downstairs.
The AE has 2 HDDs plugged in via Hub and the AX has a printer and speakers in it. I understand the HDDs will just be slow on the USB, but they seem to work pretty well - surviving suspends and such gracefully. Same with the printer.
So far things have been running along till the last day or so. Any answers or help would be appreciated:
1) Just curious, with 2 iphone 3Gs on the network and two Macs, Can the AE connect the iphones at 802.11g while preserving the speed of the 802.11n macs, or does the network all slow to 802.11g speeds (The macs are connectd on 5ghz, the iphones on 2.4 of course)
2) I turned on one account in the MobileMe "back to my mac" stuff on the AE (not the A Express) and suddenly my network would just drop off randomly and I couldn't see the AE in the Airport utility, or I could see it, the light was green, but I still couldn't connect to the net. In both cases I had to reset/powercycle the AE. Anyone else noticed this kinda behavior related to the MobileMe "back to Mac" login stuff on the AE? Turning it off seems to have stabilized the router.
3) Anyone seen the MobileMe Backup Utility cause issues with Airports? The Backup hung up last night during its run and caused me to power cycle the router. Just wondering if Backup might have been that issue, or if maybe it was related to #2s issue.

dead thread.

Question: why the 802.11n doesn't work on my brand new MacBook?

dear sirs,
I've just found out that the 802.11n upgrade doesn't work for my MacBook 2 GHz Intel Core Duo. How come? Is it possible? What should I do to have it talk to my also new AirPort Extreme 802.11n at the same rate?
Thanks in advance for your help.
Tomaso

Also on http://www.apple.com/airportextreme/performance.html it states:Most currently shipping Mac systems support the next-generation 802.11n technology in the new AirPort Extreme Base Station.2
2. All Mac computers with Intel Core 2 Duo and Intel Xeon processors except the 17-inch iMac with 1.83GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor support the 802.11n technology in AirPort Extreme. These 802.11n-compatible Mac systems require enabler software that is included on the AirPort Extreme CD.

Question about 802.11n enabler

Hey folks. I just purchased the 802.11n enabler, however, i don't see any improvement in terms of speed or connection stablity. I checked network ulity, and it says it's installed, so.. what's the deal?

You are right. 802.11n works only when there is a network of the devices that support 802.11n, whether they are Macs, PCs, or AppleTV. For the Internet connection in the US, not in South Korea, the speed of 802.11g is more than enough, except that 802.11n has a longer range than 802.11g.
MBP 15.4" (CD, Week 17, 2GHz, 2GB Samsung RAM, 80GB Seagate HDD) Mac OS X (10.4.9)

802.11n + Airport Extreme Base Station: Questions?

I'm no aficionado on wireless technology but I thought the new 802.11n spec was just a draft and nothing was set in stone, so how can Apple upgrade and sell products to this spec??
Is anyone of the opinion that a lot of the post 10.4.8 wireless connectivity problems being experienced by a lot of iMac and Pro intel-mac users is to do with Apple trying to roll out SW and HW that conform to this new spec instead of, in the first instance, ensuring robust solutions with the common 802.11g protocol with their new intel range? In effect, are they trying to run before they can walk with this?
Would having a new Airport Extreme Base Station thus Airport Extreme card upgraded to be 802.11n compatible, instead of a 3rd party modem/router at 802.11g solve all these connectivity problems, or, is anyone else experiencing the same problems with the new Base Station and 802.11n enabled card??
Lastly, is anyone aware if apple intend to upgrade and release a new [plugin] Airport Express Base Station compatible with the new 802.11n draft?
I have two AE's acting as print servers and powering remote speakers; would enabling my 17” iMac C2D to 802.11n affect output to the Airport Express base stations???
Luke
17" iMac Intel Core Duo, 2.16, 2G RAM Mac OS X (10.4.8) ADSL Nation X-Station Modem/Route; 2 x Airport Express Base Stations
17" iMac Intel Core Duo, 2.16, 2G RAM Mac OS X (10.4.8)
17" iMac Intel Core Duo, 2.16, 2G RAM Mac OS X (10.4.8)

I too do not see why the rush to Draft N when the specs might change enough to make a substantial purchase worthless once the standard is finalized. I have read too many articles mentioning that the current technology isn't worth it just yet.
Furthermore, many people are buying Draft N networking thinking that it will give them a huge boost in their internet. Since even the slower 802.11G is faster that what most ISPs provide, no one will see faster downloads. The main benefits are range and speeds on your local area network - that is in transferring files from one computer to another.
It is possible that the problems some users are seeing is due to the cards Draft N status, but I do not think so. If that were the case, we would be seeing a lot of complaints in the PC world since they are using the same equipment and I haven't seen complaints there.
Since 802.11N is 802.11N it should not make a difference whether it is Apple or D-Link or any other brand, but as a draft standard there are variations in the implementation that I have read about in the PC world. Some routers are better than others and some should just be avoided.
Apple doesn't allow us to speculate here, but I am sure that sooner or later Apple will update the Airport Express to Draft N as well.
Updating your iMac to Draft N should not make a difference at all with your current setup.

Does Mixing 802.11n with .11g Devices Slow the Whole Network?

Hi all,
I'm considering buying the new Airport Extreme as I also have a new Macbook Pro that supports 802.11n. I also have a couple Airport Expresses on my network, and my question is this:
Will the presence of the Airport Express units (which are 802.11g) drag the whole network into .11g speeds? I ask this because of this note on the Airport Extreme page:
Speed and range will be less if an 802.11a/b/g product joins the network.
Thanks for any guidance.

I did this the same way....
I connected my cable modem directly to the WAN port of my new 802.11n AirPort Extreme Base Station. I have selected 'n' only (5GHz). I call this network Saturn.
There are 3 ethernet ports on this new base station. Wired to one of these ports is my 802.11g Snow Airport Extreme Base Station. This base station will handle any 'g' services (like my friends who are using MacBooks/iBooks/PCs). I have 2 AirPort Express base stations that I use to play music on remote speakers, and wireless printing. It also has 2 Linksys wireless USB 'b' devices that connect to it, which 2 of my TiVos use to get their daily updates. I wanted to keep all of this stuff off the 'n' network since I heard it would slow it down. I call this 'g' network Zodiak. I can see both networks in my AirPort menu, and can select either.
In addition, I have an xBox that I connected directly to one of the wired ethernet ports on the 'n' base station, and I have a Linksys switch that is wired to the 'g' base station.
My only complaint is that I can't get to all of this stuff that is on the 'g' network. Which means, if I want to print something, I need to change my network, if I want to play iTunes out of my stereo speakers, I need to change the network, and if I want to use my TiVo to display photos, I need to change networks. I was hoping I'd still be able to get to that stuff since the 'g' network is hard wired into the ethernet port of the 'n' network. Oh well. I'm only on a 6MB Comcast service, so perhaps I'll try mixing the 'g' network in and seeing how bad it affects performance.
I'm getting 2.5 mb/sec on a hard drive transfer...can't imagine that being much worse on 'g'.

Adding 802.11b/g AX(s) to multi-Airport Extreme 802.11n roaming network

First, a thanks to folks like Tesserax and Bob for the great ideas on this forum -- the questions & answers I've read have helped me to date, though I still have a question!
My home wireless network today consists of:
One fifth-generation AEBS running in 802.11n only (5 GHz) / 802.11n only (2.4 GHz) mode, on channels 149 (automatic)/11 (automatic) -- provides DHCP services
One second-generation AEBS running in 802.11n only (5 GHz) mode, on channel 157 (automatic) -- bridge mode
There is a wired home network with Cat5e and a gigabit switch in the basement. 30 down/5 up DOCSIS 3.0 service through Time Warner Cable, upstream from the fifth-gen AEBS. The AEBS units are connected in roaming mode via Ethernet.
Using the Airport Utility on my iOS devices, I'm getting "excellent" (59-65 Mb/s) connectivity when I am near either of the AEBS units. It is a large brick house built in the 1920s, and while there are now no dead zones in the house, there are areas where I drop down to 10-15 Mb/s per the Airport Utility. Unfortunately, the two AEBSs are at opposite ends of the house near external walls, one on first floor and one on second -- and the first floor rear AEBS needs to be where it is to serve a breakfast room and sunroom, while the home office AEBS needs to be where I have two Ethernet drops as the cable modem and switch are in the basement.
Before I added the fifth-gen AEBS, I had the older AEBS and two 802.11b/g Airport Express (AX) devices, also in roaming mode. I wasn't thrilled with performance, and while performance is much better with the two AEBS model, I'm wondering about the benefits of redeploying my AX devices elsewhere in the house on the roaming network -- on the theory that I should be getting better 802.11g performance from a device close enough to get max speeds than I am from a farther-away 802.11n AEBS.
However, I am concerned about whether adding back in 802.11b/g devices on 2.4 GHz would restrict the performance of my 802.11n network? I am assuming that might happen because I have 802.11n running on both frequencies... if I stepped back on the fifth-gen AEBS to 802.11n only (5 GHz) / 802.11b/g [or a similar setting] on that device, will that help? Or, am I running the risk of other cross-talk or interference -- or simply of my home network devices being befuddled by multiple access points in a single house?
Alternatively, I could try to replace my 802.11b/g AX units with 802.11n ones -- howeever, having just bought a new AEBS this week, that would encounter cross-talk with my Spousal Budgetary Compliance Unit (SBCU) and I could end up crashing the entire household....
Thoughts and ideas appreciated!

If you use the "b/g" AirPort Express devices in a roaming setup, any computers, iPads, etc in close proximity will connect at maximum "g" wireless speeds.
It's really not possible to predict the actual results in advance. The increased wireless coverage might tend to compensate for the lower speeds that would naturally occur due to signal drop off if you did not use the AirPort Express devices at all.
As long as the wireless access points are in a separate room, or separated by 25-30 feet or so from other access points, there should be no confusion that occurs with your laptop trying to connect. It will pick the strongest signal as it moves through the house.
I think the bottom line here is that this is one of those things where you just will not know unless you try. If the Ethernet cabling is already in place, it should not take long for you to find out how things are working.

How can I make by MB Pro work on 802.11n wireless?

A month ago we bought a new MacBook and in conjunction with that purchase we upgraded from a Linksys 802.11g to the AirPort Extreme 802.11n Wi-Fi Wireless Base Station. We wanted to have the 802.11n access for the new MacBook and for our other laptop (mine) - a MacBook Pro 1.83 GHz Intel Core Duo 15" purchased in March 2006.
I just figured there would be some downloadable upgrade to take my MacBook Pro from 802.11g to 802.11n ... but that does not appear to be the case. (Boy, do I feel stupid.)
So - the question: What do i need to do to get my MacBook Pro to work fully on the 802.11n standard? Do I need something new physically installed in the laptop? Is there a downloadable upgrade or something on the CD that came with the Airport Extreme unit that I can install? Help!
I really hope I didn't buy a $200 router that I can never fully utilize - there has to be some way to upgrade from a/b/g to a/b/g/n, right?
Thanks to any and all who can provide guidance on this.
MacBook Pro 1.83 GHz Intel Core Duo Mac OS X (10.4.10) puchased in March 2006

Thanks for the tip on the upgrade. I upgraded to Airport Utility 5.1 (I had 5.0) and then did the firmware upgrade at the link you provided. So, all is installed, and I restarted the MB Pro, but my Network Utility still shows that I have only 802.11 a/b/g capability.
Do I need to take other steps? Do I need to anything like turn my cable modem or Airport Extreme unit on or off or something like that?
I am really frustrated and confused on this. Is it possible that my MB Pro that is all of 15 months old can't upgrade to 802.11n? I know that the new Inel Core 2 Duo MB Pros have the 802.11n built in. My MB Pro is the older Intel Core Duo (not "Core 2 Duo").
Anyone else have ideas? Thanks!
MacBook Pro 1.83 GHz Intel Core Duo Mac OS X (10.4.10) puchased in March 2006

AirPort Extreme 802.11n (4th Generation) no longer recognized by iPhone 4S

I'm a new community member so please forgive me if this question has been asked and answered and I didn't see it. DirectTV came to troubleshoot a DVR cinema connection device that had been wirelessly connected to my AirPort Extreme without incident since the DirectTV device was installed 6 months ago but stopped talking to the AirPort last week. The DirectTV technician asked me to unplug then plug back in the AirPort. Now, my iPhone 4S will no longer recognize the AirPort. The AirPort is not recognized in the AirPort Utility on my iPhone, but if I run the AirPort Utility on my iPad 2, it is found. I can see the AirPort on my wifi settings on my phone but I can no longer connect to the network. The iPad and my wife's iPhone 5 connects to wifi just fine. Also a windows 8 laptop which was previously able to connect to the AirPort can no longer connect. And, of course, the DirectTV device still will not connect. I am stumped. Please help. Thanks.

OK, two possible leads:
1) Using the AirPort Utility, I disabled 802.11n, setting the AirPort Extreme to b/g only. This seemed to help— I didn't fall off the network all afternoon. (Setting it to 'n' only did not work, unfortunately, or else that would have been better, since it would have let me take advantage of the faster speeds for Time Machine to the shared disk)
2) Soon thereafter, for seemingly independent reasons, we starting having trouble with our DSL connection. We reset the AEBS to factor settings, which didn't solve the DSL problem (had to get a Windstream technician out for that), but since that reset, I've been connected with 802.11a and the MBP hasn't fallen off the wireless network once.
We'll see how it holds up, but for now, the recommendation seems to be first to reset the AEBS settings to factory default, and then try disabling 802.11n...

802.11n question

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