Airport Extreme, 5GHz and Plaster Walls = Confusion

Hey Guys,
I'm hoping that someone can help me understand what's going on at my house with my Airport Extreme. I purchased the AEX a little over a year ago and found it to work pretty well for coverage at my house and backyard. Then last fall, I got an original iPad that had horrible connectivity issues on my wi-fi at my house. In troubleshooting the problem, I changed several of my AEX settings. I removed the guest network and also merged the 2.4 and 5GHz network names. This particular iPad (my wife's worked fine with the AEX) would work fine on other routers and ended up being "captured" by Apple. The replacement worked fine on the network, but I never re-enabled the guest network or split out the 5GHz network name.
Skip ahead to this summer and I find that my coverage outside was nowhere near as robust as it had been in the past. (Also, some spots in my living room were showing signal, but an iPad would have to be lifted overhead on occasion to get data to flow.) Before I got the Airport, I'd used a couple routers running DD-WRT and set up WDS to cover the backyard when I was outside. I wanted to see if I could use the WDS router to extend my Airport network, and in doing research, it seemed the best thing was to buy an Airport Express - especially since I wanted to upgrade my travel router as well. I bought the Express and plugged it in and it just worked....however, it didn't work very well. I couldn't find the sweet spot for location - either the signal was weak at my target or the Express was too far away from the Extreme and the throughput was bad.
Add to that, I was reading about using the Express as a travel router on these forums - two issues kept coming up. 1) it's getting harder to find wired connections in hotels and 2) it's not possible to configure the Express with an iPad/iPhone. So when I saw a ZuniConnect Travel IV available for $41, I decided to return the Express and purchase the ZuniConnect for travel and just "live with" my network issues. (Perhaps I'll try to use the Zuni to extend the network to the backyard if I'm spending lots of time there.)
Now here's what I hope you can help with.... When I removed the Express from the configuration, the Extreme is giving me much better coverage. While playing around with the settings to see if I could get the express to work better, I split the 2.4 and 5GHz network names and re-enabled the Guest network. Now I don't get the dropouts on my couch and the backyard coverage is about what it was when I purchased the Extreme. However, I seem to get the best coverage with the 5GHz band, even though my house is from the 30's and has plaster and lath internal walls and the exterior is Stucco held on by a wire mesh. Does any of this make sense? It seems that my iPad (now using an iPad2) would get stuck on one side or the other and not automatically switch between the 2.4 and 5Gz bands and I would get no throughput when sitting on my couch. Now that I have them named, I might have to manually switch them, but I can stay connected with no problems. Any thoughts or is it just wishful thinking????
Brackintosh

Two thoughts:
1) A WDS configuration does impose a performance penalty. That may be why things improved when you gave up the AirPort Express. On the other hand, a newer Express should have been configurable without WDS.
2) Try configuring the AirPort Extreme to use a 5 GHz channel in the 140s and up. In the AirPot Utility "Wireless Network Options" panel (in the AirPort panel, Wireless tab) select "Use wide channels".

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dannabee, Welcome to the discussion area!
What Mac do you have?
Do you have iMac G5 or a Power Mac G5?
Did you install the AirPort Extreme card yourself?

If I have an airport extreme and a time capsule is it possible for seamless switching between the 2 when a signal is weak or drops Main reason is as I move from my first floor to my attic office and would like to place one (airport extreme)downstairs and

If I have an airport extreme and a time capsule is it possible for seamless switching between the 2 when a signal is weak or drops
Main reason is as I move from my first floor to my attic office and would like to place one (airport extreme)downstairs and time capsule upstairs to get complete coverage

In theory, yes. If you configure the two base station into either an extended or roaming network configuration, you should be able to walk a laptop between routers and the laptop should attempt to connect/reconnect to the base station providing the stronger signal ... but, in reality, this is not always 100% true.

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i am having trouble creating a bridge with airport extreme (base) and airport express. i got the airport express to connect to my network. Airtunes sees it fine. i have an iMac (running Tiger) connected to the airport express via ethernet which i was hoping to get internet on (the iMac doesn't not have built in wireless and i had a spare airport express). now the airport express is no longer visible to the airport setup assistant on that iMac. but, like i mentioned, Airtunes is working fine, and the light is green.
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I bought an Apple Airport Extreme used and it did not come with any software disks. how would make it work without the software disk?

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You can download the setup manual and software that you need.
Look on the bottom of the AirPort Extreme for the Model Number. It's A....... something.
Post back with the model number and the exact operating system you are running on your Mac or PC.

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OldNGray, Welcome to the discussion area!
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OK-so after more than a month of having to put up with my Airport Utility popping up whenever I started my computer or came home and joined the network, I finally had the time to sit on hold with Apple and work with a Network Specialist--had to get the ticket "Escalated" first. What the problem turned out being was I set up the Extreme "N" o use WEP (Transitional Security Network) because I occasionally have friends with older PCs coming by that need old WEP instead of WPA. The net specialist helped me walk through the whole setup (from scratch) with the Extreme "N" as my main base station (like I wanted) setup using WPA/WPA2 Personal for password encryption. The older Airport Extreme "G" and the Airport Express do NOT support the WEP (TSN) mode, so they couldn't join the network properly--thus the constant error from the Extreme "N" that no WDS base stations could be found.
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Corey

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Many thanks

Hello bblairlondon. Welcome to the Apple Discussions!
First, verify if OS X "recognizes" the card, by using the System Profiler utility. Select the AirPort Card option under Network in the column on the left. The "Wireless Card Type" should be "AirPort Extreme (nxnnnn, nxnnnn)."
If no card appears, I suggest that you double-check your AirPort Extreme Card installation by using the following Apple Tech article: iBook G4: CIP Instructions
If the card does appear, then try the following ...
Reset the PRAM
o Shut down the computer.
o Turn on the computer.
o Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys. You must press this key combination before the gray screen appears.
o Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
o Release the keys.
(ref: Resetting your Mac's PRAM and NVRAM)

Airport Extreme n and airport express ... No security ???

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My problem is that the network is open and anyone can join it ... The Extreme is configured to use WPA2 Personal but neither of the express ones are shown as using any encryption ... If I try to encrypt either of them they dissappear and I can't play my music remotely or find them in the utility.
I've tried the post that suggests removing the encryption on the extreme and then enabling the express, before finally enabling the extreme again. it didn't work ...
Any ideas what I'm doing so wrong ???

Right ... went to the Genius Bar who kind of pointed me in the right direction ... They told me however to use the old setup software ... This works fine with the express but not the extreme ... So basically use the new software.
My problem was cause by choosing the wrong option when setting up I started off aright by wetting up the extreme first with encrption enabled I was adding my express to the existing network but then choosing the next option that mentions Airtunes when I should have choosen the 'extend my network' option. This still allows you to use Airtune but doesn't say that ... The wizard then asks you to point to the base station and put in the password and then poblem solved ....... thanks for all you help ... and hope this helps someone else ..
Macbook Pro Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Just purchased Airport Extreme ac and lost internet connection 3X. Reset to factory settings and worked for 2 days then lost connection and remedied by unplugging power supply. Anyone else having problems?

Just purchased Airport Extreme ac and lost internet connection 3X in less than one week. Fisrt time, reset to factory settings and fixed problem. Has occurred 2 additional times and connection re-established by unplugging AP extreme. Anyone else having these problems? Do I have a bad router? Thanks.

I definitely think this is a Mavericks issue. My iMac running Mavericks is the ONLY system in the house that drops the network randomly while all other systems never lose the network. No idea how to resolve this, but here is the workaround I'm posting:
I've had the 'network drop' issue with my Airport Extreme for the last 2 months. It reconnects when I pull the ethernet cable and plug it back in. I've tried downgrading the AE firmware, resetting to factory, etc. Nothing worked. I finally threw in the towel and created a script that monitors my network connectivity and restarts my interface if it senses it has dropped:
#!/bin/ksh
while true
do
yup=`ping -c1 -t2 www.google.com|grep from`
if [[ -n $yup ]]
     then echo "Internet is connected!"
else
        ifconfig en0 down; ifconfig en0 up
        echo "Down at `date +%m%d%Y%H%M%S`">>./dropped.out
fi
sleep 5
clear
done
I know its a workaround, but its saving me the headache of constantly pulling my cable and putting it back in!
Good luck!
-Mike Gray

Airport Extreme, 5Ghz connectivity problems and poor media streaming

Hi,
I purchased an extreme from the apple store a little over a week ago, and before I send the device back I would like to solicit recommendations from this forum.
Some information about the setup:
- Single airport extreme (supplying wifi services for my non-wifi DSL router and a connected USB disk)
- Airport Extreme Firmware: 7.4.2
- iTunes: 9.0
- OS: Snow Leopard (10.6.1), Leopard (10.5.8), Window Vista.
- Harddrive: 2TB lacie, USB2.0 connection only
- 2.4 and 5 Ghz broadcasting mode
- The device is broadcasting on all supported protocols.
- Multiple clients (various: apple, microsoft, fujitsu)
- Small space, no major concrete/brick/stone walls, signal strength is 5 bars of goodness
- Country: Spain (I know there were 5Ghz restrictions here a while ago, but the device broadcasts on 5Ghz and is therefore not crippled).
If anything else could be of use, let me know and I'll update this list.
And now the problems:
1) 5Ghz connections fail
When connecting over the 5Ghz freq my connectivity to the extreme and the services it is offering (internet, disk sharing) is intermittent, at best. Basically, it has not worked reliably since I took it out of the box. This is equal for both of my macbooks and a fujitsu laptop (all with n support).
I've tried switching channels to avoid congestion - I don't live in a wifi-heavy area, and there are no other likely sources of interference (e.g. microwaves, cordless phones).
My connections to mounted disks come and go, I have to re-authenticate, and so on.
A general scan of the environment with KisMac does not show any major interference from other wifi networks (only 2 others in range, one is wimax).
I've tried to do some wifi analysis to see if I can spot any frame/packet related issues. Some rudimentary analysis indicates that when the connection stops working on the 5Ghz channel my laptop continually sends request-to-send packets to the extreme, but does not receive a clear-to-send. This occurs after a-few-seconds to a-couple-of-minutes of connectivity - the connection initially 'works' (i.e. wifi packets are sent/received correctly and I can access the internet).
2) Data access and media streaming from the connected USB drive is very poor
I've mostly had problems with itunes. I thought this might be related to the size of my library, but this shouldn't effect single track playing. Even enabling large buffering in itunes results in intermittent pauses and long track loading.
Note: this occurs over b/g connections; as stated already, n connections don't work. iTunes simply goes into a coma for while and then eventually fails. See above. Also, if I just stream from my macbook (i.e. HD connected via USB), it works flawlessly.
The extreme was running 7.4.2 - updated on first connection. It's now running 7.4.1, as I read on the forums that there were some perceived problems with 7.4.2 (although these perceptions may not be accurate.
Concl(f)usion:
I believe I've ruled out the following:
- Distance
- Interference
- Laptop related issues (the same problem occurs with 2 macbooks and a fujitsu laptop).
- Latest firmware
- Software (apps, OS, etc)
Which leaves me to ponder two possibilities:
a) The extreme is damaged.
b) The extreme is not a good product (surely this can't be so?!)
There is, of course, a c-possibility ... that the collective experience of the online community might be able to offer me an alternative path?
I would be very grateful if anyone could offer any suggestions, tips, tricks, spells or simply a hug before I contact apple to begin the process of explaining the issues and seeking some care.
Many thanks in advance,
Dave.

I have had the same problem. Really frusrtating, expecially since the reason I bought the airport was because of all the wireless congestion in my neigborhood with only 11 channels on the 2.4 GHz spectrum.
Bought my airport dual band about a week ago. It had the firware 7.4.2. After extensive searching, I found other with similar issues. Apparently the last stable firmware may be 7.3.8. I am on 7.4.0 and not having any issues any longer (only testing one day now).
This may solve your issue. Login to your airport and choose manual setup. on the summary page, find 'Version' 7.x" and click on the word 'version'. This will allow you to rollback your firmware. I went with 7.4. Depending on what options you need with airdisk, Time Capsule, rolling back may remove those options, so experiment. You can always go back to 7.4.1 or 7.4.2 from within the interface.
Hope this helps.

Airport Extreme 5GHz network connection failed

Hi,
I have a PC, MBP mid-2012, Ipad, HTC One, Samsung S3, and Chromecast. I bought an airport extreme 3 weeks ago, and a Netgear AC usb wifi adapter to my PC. Until two days ago, everything worked fine. I had two networks with different names for the 2,4GHz and the 5GHz. I did i because it was the only way I found to get my gadgets and computers to connect on 5GHz. Otherwise, they all connected in 2.4GHz.
Two days ago, I could no longer connect by MBP nor the PC to the 5GHz network. The MBP sees it, but gives an error when I try to connect. The PC does not even see it. The Ipad and both android phones connect to the 5GHz with no issue.
I already tried to turn on and off the airport express, to disable the dual network and reconfigure it, and to specify a channel for it. No change. Can you please help me to understand what is happening and find a solution?
Thanks a lot.

I believe it has something to do with securing the network as I'm now running an unsecured network and it not only stays up but it also seems a bit faster. I even ran the Airport Utility via ethernet and got it to "almost" configure but for some reason the setting never got implemented but at least I have internet access in my entire house. I thought it might be interference with some part of the house but it is indeed due to the latest firmware update for the AEB. Which I now call AE"BS". I tried my older Airport Express but I also couldn't get it to configure to now I'm not even sure if its firmware on the AEB or the Airport Utility that is messed up. Going tethered is not an option as I don't want to hunker down in a closet! Go unsecured and it might fix a lot of the issues we are seeing.

HT4259 This article is outdated (as well as others). I have Airport Extreme (latest) and Time Capsule (earlier version) and newest Airport Utility version.

I have difficulty in setting up the newest Airport Extreme with Time Capsule. How to wire Time Capsule over ethernet is so confusing and the documentation I found is outdated.

OK, thanks for the clarification.
Disconnect the Ethernet cable if it is plugged into the Time Capsule at this time.
With the Time Capsule powered on, hold in the reset button on the back of the device for 9-10 seconds and then release. Allow a full minute for the Time Capsule to restart to a slow, blinking amber light.
This will not affect any backups that you might have already stored on the Time Capsule.
Connect the Ethernet cable to the WAN "O" port on the Time Capsule. I assume that you have tested the Ethernet cable independently to make sure that it is working correctly.
Click the AirPort icon at the top of the Mac's screen and wait a few seconds for a listing of New AirPort Base Station to appear. Just below that, click directly on Time Capsule. The screenshot below shows an AirPort Express.....you will see Time Capsule on your screen.
AirPort Setup will open up automatically and take a minute to analyze the network, then announce that the Time Capsule will be configured to extend the AirPort Extreme network.
Enter a device name that you want to use for the Time Capsule. You can use the same name that you used before, then click Next.
Now AirPort Setup will indicate that the Time Capsule is being configured to extend using Ethernet. When you see the message of Setup Complete, click Done. That's it.

Airport extreme(n) and airport express (b/g) problems

hi,
i have for a few years an airport express (b/g). the airport express is connected to my cable modem.
i also have a newer airport extreme (n) which was still in the box but i want to use (as it must have a bigger range ?). in fact i want the extreme to reach my playstation 3. (the connection from ps3 to express sometimes drops as its signal is too weak)
if i also connect the airport extreme to the cable modem, it shows with apps like "airradar" (on my macs) or "wifitrak" (on my iphone) that the strenght of the airport express is higher than my airport extreme. even if i set the extreme to 5ghz. both express and extreme are placed near each other. am i doing anything wrong here ?
below devices need to be connected.
1 macbook g4 (b)
2 macbook pro (n)
2 mac pro (n)
1 wii (b)
2 nintendo ds (b)
1 ps3 ?
with other words i need some advise in how to set up both a airport extreme and express network on the same cable modem.
thank, michiel

question: i below what should i do ?
1) put a cable from my cablemodem to the airport extreme bs;
2) put a cable the airport extreme bs to the airport express bs.
Yes on both. Your network configuration would look something like the following:
Modem > (Ethernet) > \[WAN port] AEBSn \[LAN port] > (Ethernet) > AX
do i have to reset the modems and are there any setting i should be aware of ?
Yes, it's always a good idea to both reset both base stations and, after doing so and before configuring them, perform a complete power recycle of your network equipment.
So in this case ...
o Power-down the modem, AEBSn, AX, & computers. (Order is not critical.)
o Reset both the AEBSn & AX. (Again, order is not critical.)
o Power-down each base station after performing a successful reset.
o Power-up the modem; wait at least 15 minutes.
o Power-up the AEBSn; wait at least 10 minutes.
o Plug-in the AX; wait at least 5 minutes.
o Power-up your computer(s).
o Use the AirPort Utility to reconfigure both base stations as required.

Airport Extreme, 5GHz and Plaster Walls = Confusion

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