Airport Extreme Base Station dropouts at 5 GHz

I just purchased an Airport Extreme Base Station and a new Airport express to replace the two Airport Express 802.11g boxes. We have 100 Mbit fiber optic to the home services and it felt like a waste of money to have a network that couldn't keep up with our connection. I have the Airport Extreme acting as a base station dedicated to running at 5 GHz (to avoid I hoped interference from the microwave) and I have the Airport Express working as an extension to the network allowing our 802.11g limited early 2006 iMac to use the new 802.11n network via its hardwired ethernet port. The problem I am having is that the Airport Express drops the connection and is unavailable from the list of available networks for a period of time. If I power down/up the Airport Express all is well and if I wait the network comes back by itself as well. I have no idea what is causing this. The network signal is about 40% according to AirRadar and certainly works beautifully before it drops out with no advanced warning. Has anyone else seen this -- or even better has anyone else seen this and have an idea of what to do to fix it?

The range on 5ghz may be longer if you have no barriers. However, the 5ghz will be affected more by walls and objects. In general, 5ghz doesn't work for me in my house.

Similar Messages

Problem consistently printing via new (summer 2011) AIRPORT EXTREME BASE STATION and Brother wireless printer (model HL5370DW). What am I doing wrong?

Thanks in advance for any help you folks can offer. I'm a newb here and will try to offer as much detail as I can about the dilemma at hand.
Scenario: Home network has been recently set up for wireless internet access via NEW Airport Extreme Base Station (purchased September 2011). Units accessing the network include: 2011 Macbook Pro, 2011 Macbook Air, 2007 Macbook, 2009 Macbook Pro, 2 iPhone 3GSs, and a 1st-gen iPad (and a partridge in a pear tree AEBS is configured to run WPA2 encrypted network, as well as a WPA2 guest network. I am attempting to yoke a BROTHER HL5370DW wireless B or G/ ethernet / usb-capable printer to the main network such that any and all units can print wirelessly or its equivalent (i.e., via printer hooked to AEBS through USB hub)
Problem: Despite configuring the Brother printer to recognize the main WPA2 network I created, I am unable to get wireless printing to work. My workaround was to physically connect Brother printer to AEBS via USB, specifically using a Belkin USB hub (after all, I wanted access to usb drives, as well as the printer). This workaround works ONLY SOME OF THE TIME. Generally, after a fresh boot of any computer or after a restart of the AEBS, any given computer will be able to print (i.e., any computer wirelessly connected to the main WPA2 network recognizes the printer). HOWEVER, at random times, printer access is gone (as is access to USB drives connected to AEBS's usb hub). Wireless networks are still up and running when that happens. IS THERE A WAY TO GET THE USB HUB's devices (i.e., printer and usb drives) to ALWAYS REMAIN AVAILABLE AS LONG AS THEY STAY CONNECTED TO THE AEBS? In other words, what accounts for the intermittent loss of the usb peripherals?
Sometimes, I just shut the airport off on whatever computer is having this problem, and the problem goes away. Sometimes, the problem is present across all computers in the house, sometimes only a few are affected. I can ALWAYS see the AEBS in the Airport Utility if the AEBS is connected to the particular computer via ETHERNET CABLE.
My theories:
- true wireless printing (i.e., without usb hub workaround) doesn't work because the N network somehow isn't backwards compatible with the Brother printer, which, i believe, is B/G. Although...isn't Wireless N networking supposed to work with BG devices? I did find a thread (https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2570774?start=0&tstart=0 ) that explains some of the particulars of WPA2 encryption and Wireless B/G issues, but it was beyond my level of comprehension (I'm a psychologist, but not an Apple Genius
- The usb workaround is only intermittently viable because of some flaw in the Airport or Airport Utility that causes dropouts to happen when a Macbook Pro or Air's lid gets closed or one gets opened after having been at a different network (e.g., at my office).
QUESTIONS:
- Should I try to use my old router (7 year old Linksys WRT54G) as an access point and connect the Brother printer to that G-router? How do I do that?
- I wouldn't mind just relying on the usb hub method if I could just insure more consistency (i.e., no random dropouts of peripherals). How could I do this?
Rule out:
- wireless printing works on my printer - it was being recognized back before the AEBS. I had the Linksys router running a WEP network and had the wireless printer talking with no cables to the router and the computers. (I just don't want to revert to using WEP encryption given its lack of security and my trying to protect HiPAA related health information on behalf of patients)
Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance!

13 ASCII characters = 104 (aka 128)-bit WEP
encryption
If turning off WEP works, then you just need to
provide the cameras with the "Equivalent Network Password".
One of the problems with WEP is that the actual
standard relies on a 10 character HEX key for 40bit
WEP and a 26 character HEX key for 128bit WEP.
In order to make things easier, vendors use certain
algorithms to convert simple alphanumeric passwords
(or passphrases) into HEX keys, thus enabling the use
of simple easy to remember WEP password rather than
lengthy HEX keys. The problem is that different
vendors use different algorithms to generate the HEX
key and therefore a ASCII password on an AEBS will be
hashed differently on a non-Apple client and vice
versa.
You may find the following article helpful:
- Apple article, especially the part about
"Third-party client to Airport".
Brilliant idea about trying the system with No encryption on... that DID solve the problem... almost.. once I turned off the encryption option, and restarted the Airport, I got a dialog box showing that the "Base station needs attention" but it didn't indicate WHAT kind of "assistance" it needed. Nonetheless, I closed out of the Airport program only to find that the indicator light, which had been Green, was now, flashing Yellow and I could not connect anything, including my computer. I opened the Airport program again and found the ONLY way I could get the Green light on was to select some sort of encryption option... then the light would go Green again but my cameras would not hook up again, and when I went back in and ONLY changed the option to NO encryption, I got the yellow flashing light and the "this base unit needs attention" warning...
I think your suggestions are almost on the mark... is there any way of reconciling the WEP coding between the cameras and the Airport??? Or turning off the encryption option and STILL have Airport work?
Thanks again for your help and suggestions... I really appreciate it.
geoff

How to add Ethernet ports to an Airport Extreme Base Station?

I have successfully connected an HP Office Jet 6310 to the Airport Extreme Base Station, after downloading the latest software from HP. It is printing wirelessly, and it is great so far.
The only problem is that the cable modem connected to ADSL has only one Ethernet port, and the Airport Extreme Base Station also has one Ethernet port. However, I need one more port to connect a phone (Vonage Telephone Adapter = VTA).
What is the easiest way to achieve this? I saw several other messages discussing hubs and routers, but the answer is not clear yet. If I purchase an additional router, should it be connected between the cable modem and the Airport Extreme Base Station, or the other way round?
Any help or advice would be appreciated!
Thank you in advance for your time.
MacBook Pro with 1.83 GHz Intel Core Duo Mac OS X (10.4.7)

One final vital piece of information, which should be my conclusion on this topic.
Following the advice received, I purchased a Switch from Linksys. Since the device didn't work for my purpose (dividing the Ethernet connexion into an Ethernet line for the HP printer and the Vonage phone), I called the Linksys support.
I was told that what I needed was not a switch, but a router. I thus had to get reimbursed for the switch and hunt for the proper router.
Finally, today, I have been able to find the item corresponding to my needs:
A Belkin Wireless G Router F5D7230-4
It costs less than 50 US$ and has all the necessary Ethernet ports. The setup is very simple, and I got it operational within a couple of minutes, despite some small problems getting the setup Wizard to work. It is Mac OS X compatible.
Thus, at the end, I have got the HP 6310 Office printer and the Vonage VTA phone working together, with a robust Wireless network including WPA security. I would recommend this type of setting.
The only trouble is that the AirMac Extreme Base Station has become completely useless! I will perhaps keep it as a souvenir, or as a decoration in the living room... This wouldn't have happened if the creators of this nice object, which is extremely expensive for what it provides, would have thought of including at least two Ethernet ports!
The unexpected reply to my query could thus be ironically formulated by saying: "replace the Airport Extreme Base Station with a cheaper an more efficient device." Sorry for that!
With my best regards to those who took the trouble to read this thread to the end.
Yours, Hotaru

Airport Extreme Base Station as an wireless Extender to new Airport time capsule

After many months of time machine back up problems. (verify back up failing) I am considering biting the bullet and getting a new 2TB Airport extreme time capsule. Can I use the old (late 2013 801.11ac) airport extreme to extend wifi network?
A few other questions.
1.Does extending reduce wifi performance?
2. If using extreme as extender can I still plug in hard drive or hard drive to it?
3.
currently using imac 21.5 (late 2013) 1TB backing up to 6TB WD mybook live duo (connected to Extreme using ethernet), via airport extreme base station (ac wireless band to mac)
Any guidance appreciated.

Is it possible to quantify how much faster USB back up is compared to 802.11ac between mac and AirPort time capsule?
600GB should take 10 hours by ethernet. And it will be somewhat faster by USB3.. exactly how fast is difficult to predict as the first TM backup itself is slow due to many small files. In terms of raw speed maybe twice but it will depend on the disk used. USB you can use an SSD and get super huge speed. (not that I think you will be buying a 1TB SSD anytime soon).
In terms of raw speed it is cheese and chalk. The max speed of real world file transfer on AC wireless is around 430Mbps and that is using ideal world.
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/lanwan/router-charts/bar/113-5-ghz-dn-c?see=MAX
This has nothing to do with link speed.. this is how fast a file actually transfers. And that is assuming the iMac and the TC are in the same room. And everything is perfect with nothing else using connection.
The real world speed of USB3 is around 100MB/s to a spinning hard disk..
http://www.macworld.com/article/2039427/how-fast-is-usb-3-0-really-.html
which may indicate the limit is the actual disk speed. In bits per second you x 8.. so the USB3 is 800Mbps. The advantage of USB direct connection is that speed is available at all time. Not when your close or the load on wireless is low.
Further to your comments when extending. Is it only the area covered by extending that has reduced performance or all the wifi signal?
The speed will depend on hops..
So if the computer is using resources on a local router.. and only one wireless hop then it is fast.
If it is using resources via a second router so wireless goes.. computer--- router2----router1-- resource.
Your speed drops 50% at best.. at worst it is really bad.
For example.. computer 1 on router 1 accesses computer 2 hard disk on router2 with everything wireless.
Count the hops. C1-R1, R1-R2, R2-C2
That gives 3 hops. So each packet is transmitted.. along that chain.. each transmission can only begin after it is received in full. Now add some other computers using resources.. say C3 is using internet via R1.. that has to be time sliced. So you get 50% of 50% of 50% of 50%. It is obvious that wireless networks have a huge handicap.. they cannot transmit and receive at the same time.. nor can they talk to more than one client at a time.. so add time slicing to wireless hopping.
Now ethernet is entirely different. It can transmit and receive at the same time.. ie is duplex. And in a switch it can talk to several computers at the same time. That is why we say.. as much as you can ethernet.. and use wireless as the last single hop to a client that needs it.. ie iphone or ipad.. or laptop if you cannot plug in ethernet.
Can the ac wifi format be extended using AirPort Extreme and time capsule.
Over very short range yes. AC wireless is only on 5ghz and is poor penetration of solids.. so this will work but maybe only to the next room.

AirPort Extreme Base Station (New one) Dual band problem

Hey, I just got an AirPort Extreme Base Station, simultaneous dual-band today.
Anyone else having some problems with the 5GHz network? Seems my Transmit rate is very unstable. It changes between 7-54. It's 802.11n (5GHz) profile setting.
My 2.4GHz is staying at 54 (Since I set it for b/g).
As well, my MacBook Pro keeps connecting every time i update the airport base station, to the 2.4GHz one.

Welcome to the discussions, dwig365!
With a good connection, the Transmit Rate at 5 GHz should be in the 200-270 range. One of the perplexing issues with 5 GHz is that the much higher frequencies used in this band are absorbed by walls, ceilings and any obstructions much more quickly that 2.4 GHz signals. In other words, there is much less "power" with 5 GHz signals.
I've found that unless I almost have line-of-sight between the router and my laptop a few rooms away, the 2.4 GHz signal is stronger and more stable...hence faster. Taking it another step further, although it is not as "fast" as "n", "g" level signals penetrate and saturate much more effectively. It's a question of trade offs as in return for speed, you must give up penetration power.
It is not likely that you are encountering interference in the 5 GHz band, but it might help to experiment with some different channel settings. Make sure "use wide channels" is enabled under the options button on the Wireless page in AirPort Utility as well.

Recovering Old Datas on New Drive + Setting Airport Extreme Base Station old and new ones

Hello All,
Situation:
-iMac 24" Alu/2008/2.8 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo/ 2Go DDR2 SDRAM
-2 Airport Extreme Base Stations mushroom type,
-1 Airport Extreme Capsule Model: A1143
The original 320 Go Hard Drive of my iMac crashed few months ago. A "technician" installed a new Hard Drive 235 Go while trying to recover all datas from old one. Failed.
No back up. The old disc needs to be unlocked in a dustless atmosphere. Quite expensive at the moment.
I decided to install OS X from sratch with the original Install Disc delivered with my iMac.
OS X is 10.5
Once on line I updated all pre-installed softwares. Among which Aiport Utility 5.6.1 today.
Problem:
I would like to get bigger hard drive disc, 1To for example. Does this still exist for this iMac 2008 Alu ?
How can I do to get my iMac again to OS X 10.9 ?. Does this mean I need to buy all intermediate levels again ?
How do I get my softwares (the ones on the original Disc: Pack office, Pages, Numbers, etc ...) back on track again, since my iMac is now more like down to factory level ?
Extending my internet provider from the WiFi router via my 3 Airport Extreme Base Stations: 2 mushroom type that need OS X + Airport Utility softwares at a certain level, while the Capsule might need another level. Right now I tried to set up the 3 of them with this Aiport Utility and though they all recognize the provider network, I can never conclude to extend it with the Base Stations: it drops the case. (WDS trouble which I don't even know what it is, or the Base Station simply desapears from Airport Utility scan, ...)
Thank you all for you attention.
Your comments are welcome especially if you have any knowledge on these various subject.
Can't wait to read your piece of advice.
Lionnel From Paris (France).

me too... i connected my hard drive with all my music but i cannot see any of the music that used to be in my itunes... i checked and its there (when I connect the HD directly to my computer) but not when is plugged into the Airport Extreme... Please help!

PS3 can't see new Airport Extreme base station

I replaced my old airport extreme with the latest one, but now my PS3, which is on another floor, cannot see the base station, and the new base station has a lot less range than the old one. With my old one I could sit out in the back yard with my laptop, and the PS3 picked it up right away over our wireless network, but now, nothing. My laptop connects okay, just can't go very far. Nothing has changed except the base station itself. Please help.

Hello Uri. Welcome to the Apple Discussions!
A few things I would suggest that you try to see if either or both help with the PS3's connectivity to the 802.11n AirPort Extreme Base Station (AEBSn):
o If currently enabled, disable the Guest Network.
o Use a separate Network Name for the 5 GHz radio. Make sure that the PS3 connects to the 2.4 GHz radio's wireless network.

Time capsule to extend airport extreme base station

I have an airport extreme base station dual band that I use to create a wireless network. I use a first generation time capsule single band to extend the wireless network. In the area of my home where the time capsule is my ipad and macbook the signal strength of the wifi is great and works great however my iphone 4 works horribly on wifi in the same room where the time capsule is located. Why is this? And is there a better configuration that would work better?

The AirPorts are all designed to try to extend the 5 GHz signal because that is the fastest connection. But, because 5 GHz signals are not as strong as 2.4 GHz signals, it's usually the 2.4 GHz network actually that winds up being extended because it's the stronger signal of the two bands and the extending device is usually located at some distance from the main router.
If your Time Capsule is extending the 5 GHz band, that's impressive. The AirPort Express would also probably extend the 5 GHz band if you placed it in the same area. Unfortunately, the iPhone cannot connect to that signal and must get it's connection from the main router. If you set things up so that the Time Capsule extends 2.4 GHz, then the iPad and your Mac will be running at significantly lower speeds.
It can be done by assigning a different name to the 5 GHz network and I can give you the steps. Is that what you want to do?
If you reversed the Time Capsule and AirPort Extreme, you'll have to set the Time Capsule up at 2.4 GHz and the AirPort Extreme will only extend 2.4 GHz. It cannot extend both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz since it won't "see" that signal from the Time Capsule. No reason to do this really.

If I set up separate 2.4 and 5GHz networks on my Airport Extreme base station, is it possible to extend just the 5HGz network?

If I set up separate 2.4 and 5GHz networks on my new Airport Extreme base station, is it possible to extend just the 5HGz network with another AirPorrt Extreme that has duel, but not simultanous, frequencies?

Yes, configure the "extending" AirPort Extreme to connect to the 5 GHz network name when you set it up.
Temporarily, locate the extending AirPort Extreme close to the main Extreme for the setup, then move it to the remote location.
But, be advised that it is not easy to extend 5 GHz using wireless. You will almost need to have line-of-sight between the two AirPorts for this to work.

How do I open the same ports on an Airport Extreme Base Station for multiple computers at the same time?

As the title suggests...
I have a mix of five Mac and PC's at home using an Airport Extreme Base Station as the router.   I need many ports opened on the AEBS for all of the computers- not just one computer. (for example: three people want to play TF2 on Steam at the same time; each machine needs the correct ports open on the router).   Port forwarding only allows me to forward a given port to a single IP, yet I need that port open for five differnt IP's, all at the same time.
How do I do that on an AEBS?
In the same way, I have a small office of four iMacs using an old airport with the same exact issue.   I would like to be able to connect to all of them remotely with Apple Remote Desktop, but the port forwarding on the airport only allows a port to forward to a single IP.   I want to be able to tunnel into the office network and log onto any machine behind the Airport extreme... not just a single IP.    I currently have it set up where I can tunnel into the office from my house, I can find the one machine that the port forwarding has been assigned to, I can log on and everything is just fine... with one machine.    How do I open the firewall for the other machines?
TL,DR version: How do you open ports on an Airport Extreme Base Station instead of forwarding ports?   Forwarding ports doesn't work for multiple IP's.

You can open a single or multiple ports to a single device or different ports to different devices, but you cannot open the same port to multiple devices via the AirPort Utility for the Apple routers.

How do I find a hard drive connected to Airport Extreme Base Station?

*Apple Says:* "If your base station supports it, you can connect a USB hard disk to the USB port on your base station and computers on your network (both wired and wireless) can connect to it to access, share, and store files and data."
Cool. So I followed the instructions. The drive is recognized by the base station and listed in the Airport Utility. It looks like it's ready to go...
So... How do I access the drive? I don't see it on my desktop, it's not under network. I've tried "Connect to server..." and browsing, I can't see the drive, anywhere. Yeah, I've searched the crap out of this issue on google and this message board as well as apple support knowledge base. I'm sure this is a simple issue and I'm just missing the obvious. Help me out.

Hello Timothy Uhl. Welcome to the Apple Discussions!
Try the following to mount the disk...
o Click on the Desktop to enter Finder
o Go > Connect to Server...
o Enter 10.0.1.1 for the server
o Enter Disk Password
o Connect
If this still doesn't solve the problem, let's double-check your disk sharing settings...
AirPort Extreme Base Station (AEBSn) - File Sharing Setup
Either connect to the AEBSn's wireless network or temporarily connect your computer directly (using an Ethernet cable) to one of the LAN ports of the AEBSn, and then, using the AirPort Utility in Manual Mode, check these settings:
Disks - File Sharing
o Secure Shared Disks: <With disk password | With base station password | With accounts >
(Note: Choose "With a disk password," or "With base station password" if you want to secure the shared disk with a password, or choose "With accounts" if you want to secure the disk using accounts.
If you choose to use accounts, click Configure Accounts, click the Add "+" button, and then enter a name and password for each user that will access the disk.)
o Guest Access: <Not allowed | Read only | Read and write>
o Share disks over Ethernet WAN port: (unchecked)
(Note: Select the "Share disks over Ethernet WAN port" checkbox if you want to provide remote access to the disk over the WAN port.)
o Advertise disks globally using Bonjour: (unchecked)
o Workgroup: <Windows workgroup name>
o WINS server: <WINS server IP address>

Have 2 airport extreme base stations connected in chain. Airport utility shows slave unit without power. However, power is on slave unit, but status lights do not show up at all. Small green lights at each back port blink. Anyone have any ideas?

Have 2 airport extreme base stations connected in chain. Airport utility shows slave unit without power. However, power is on slave unit, but status lights do not show up at all. Small green lights at each back port blink. Anyone have any ideas?

Unfortunately, you are describing the symptoms of an AirPort Extreme with a failing (or failed) internal power supply.
As a last resort, try a Factory Default Reset on the AirPort Extreme as follows:
Power off the AirPort by pulling the power cord
Wait a minute or two
Hold in the reset button first, and keep holding it in for an additional 8-10 seconds while you simultaneously plug the power back into the AirPort
Release the reset button and allow a full minute for the AirPort to restart
Now try to configure the AirPort again. If you continue to see the same symptoms as before, the AirPort will need to be replaced.

Setting up airport extreme base station with Mac and PC

I have an '02 iBook with an airport card installed and an airport extreme base station. my roommate has a PC and has the DSL connection in her room. i want to wirelessly network my iBook via the airport base. how do i do this? (my base was given to me without any manuals/disks etc)

Your Netgear wireless router is your network's base station. Your parent's PC will not be "serving as a base station" - its presence on the network isn't at all relevant to what you want to do.
To connect your G5 to the Netgear wireless router's network - click on your Mac's Airport menu, click on the name of your Netgear wireless router's network (it will appear in the list when you click on the Airport menu), and enter the wireless network password (if applicable) when prompted by the MacOS. That's is - you are connected!

Configure TC and Airport Extreme Base Stations with different channels

I had to do some serious workarounds to use the Airport Extreme Base Stations as an access point with the same wireless network name primarily due to channel overlap. I thought I would post my results here since I didnt' find a good article online.
Also, I found the Snow Leopard verison (5.4.2) of the Airport Setup Utility far superior to Lion's Airport Utility (6.x) in terms of advanced setup.
Setup is a 3 flloor house where the 3 wired network locations have wireless overlap. The problem was that the access points would not hand off the wireless signal because the channels for each airport/TC were automatically set to the same channel. In non-apple setups, this is how you force a wireless client to switch access points (since the wireless software on your client/mac/windows can detect which access point is stronger and moves to the alternate channel.
Using apple's "Extend this wireless network" option removes any ability to manually configure wireless channels. I am writing this from memory, so feel free to ask questions and I will track this topic:
Procedure
Setup time capsule as your base station. Do all the setup for your wireless and guest networks. Manually configure the network and change the wireless channel to a specific channel for a/b/g networks (e.g., 3) and n networks (e.g, 167).
Plug your first airport extreme/access point into your wired network. Do not plug it into the "internet" ethernet plug, use one of the 3 ethernet switch locations
Use the airport utility to first configure it to "extend" your wired network.
Then, go in and reconfigure it manually in the airport utility. Choose the option to setup a "new network" and name the network the same as the TC wireless network name, security, etc.
Change the channel from "auto" to a different channel than the TC (e.g., 6 and 137).
Now go to the top tab and click on the "internet" icon
Go to the DHCP tab and change it to "bridge mode." This will tell the AE to not give out IP addresses (the TC will do this for you). If you get an error that the IP ranges conflict, you have not done this
Note that if you have a guest network setup, you will need to set this up on the AE as well.
Now test your airport setup. Take your client (macbook, iOS device) and connect to your network. Move to a spot near the TC and pull up a web page. Keep an eye on the signal strength and beginv moving toward the AE. Refresh the page as you move around. You should at some point see the signal strength increase. Refresh your page again. You should be now connected to to the AE. I have found that Macbooks do a better job than iOS devices because you get an extra signal bar to measure strength, and they have larger antennas which allows you to better measure problems with handoff
Another test you can do is to start backing up on your TC and then test the move. The handoff will truly show you that the TC is handling the process but the AE is relaying to the TC for backup.
If you need to setup another AE, simply follow setups 3-10.
I hope this helps others. I've done this setup 100 times on Linksys devices and although they are cumbersome, they at least allow me to do this setup much more quickly and easily than the apple products.

I had to do some serious workarounds to use the Airport Extreme Base Stations as an access point with the same wireless network name primarily due to channel overlap. I thought I would post my results here since I didnt' find a good article online.
Also, I found the Snow Leopard verison (5.4.2) of the Airport Setup Utility far superior to Lion's Airport Utility (6.x) in terms of advanced setup.
Setup is a 3 flloor house where the 3 wired network locations have wireless overlap. The problem was that the access points would not hand off the wireless signal because the channels for each airport/TC were automatically set to the same channel. In non-apple setups, this is how you force a wireless client to switch access points (since the wireless software on your client/mac/windows can detect which access point is stronger and moves to the alternate channel.
Using apple's "Extend this wireless network" option removes any ability to manually configure wireless channels. I am writing this from memory, so feel free to ask questions and I will track this topic:
Procedure
Setup time capsule as your base station. Do all the setup for your wireless and guest networks. Manually configure the network and change the wireless channel to a specific channel for a/b/g networks (e.g., 3) and n networks (e.g, 167).
Plug your first airport extreme/access point into your wired network. Do not plug it into the "internet" ethernet plug, use one of the 3 ethernet switch locations
Use the airport utility to first configure it to "extend" your wired network.
Then, go in and reconfigure it manually in the airport utility. Choose the option to setup a "new network" and name the network the same as the TC wireless network name, security, etc.
Change the channel from "auto" to a different channel than the TC (e.g., 6 and 137).
Now go to the top tab and click on the "internet" icon
Go to the DHCP tab and change it to "bridge mode." This will tell the AE to not give out IP addresses (the TC will do this for you). If you get an error that the IP ranges conflict, you have not done this
Note that if you have a guest network setup, you will need to set this up on the AE as well.
Now test your airport setup. Take your client (macbook, iOS device) and connect to your network. Move to a spot near the TC and pull up a web page. Keep an eye on the signal strength and beginv moving toward the AE. Refresh the page as you move around. You should at some point see the signal strength increase. Refresh your page again. You should be now connected to to the AE. I have found that Macbooks do a better job than iOS devices because you get an extra signal bar to measure strength, and they have larger antennas which allows you to better measure problems with handoff
Another test you can do is to start backing up on your TC and then test the move. The handoff will truly show you that the TC is handling the process but the AE is relaying to the TC for backup.
If you need to setup another AE, simply follow setups 3-10.
I hope this helps others. I've done this setup 100 times on Linksys devices and although they are cumbersome, they at least allow me to do this setup much more quickly and easily than the apple products.

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..

Airport Extreme Base Station dropouts at 5 GHz

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