Airport Extreme Base Station Range

Does anyone know how to extend the range on the AE base station? I have just connected it today and I am hoping to find a way to extend the range for wireless connections in my home.

You would administer the AirPort using the AirPort Utility which either comes with the base station or can be downloaded directly from Apple. There are versions of this utility for both Macs and PCs.
You would use this utility to configure both base stations for a WDS. In the WDS, the base station connected to the Internet router would be configured as the main and the device extending it would be configured as the remote.
Two things to keep in mind: 1) The extending base station must be within the signal range of the first, and 2) The biggest disadvantage of this type of WDS is that you will lose about a half of the overall bandwidth when doing so ... so if bandwidth performance is critical, you may want to consider other options.

Similar Messages

HT4259 Extending AirPort Extreme BASE STATION range

I am using an older (2006) 54Mbps AirPort Extreme Base Station and want to extend the range. I am experiencing issues with dropped or slow signals in rooms that I would consider tough to reach (basement for example). Can I use an AirPort Express to extend the range of the WI-FI and how exactly is this done? Or would I be better off updating the AirPort Extreme Base Station? It's worked flawlessly for 6 years, just have more wireless requirements.
Thank you all in advance.

I am using an older (2006) 54Mbps AirPort Extreme Base Station ... Can I use an AirPort Express to extend the range of the WI-FI and how exactly is this done?
The short answer is yes; the longer answer is that the only way to "wirelessly extend" the range of your 802.11b/g-only Extreme is to create a Wireless Distribution System (WDS).
Not only is a WDS a tedious pain to set up, even for experienced users, its performance is likely to be disappointing. It may not even solve your dropped signals or slow throughput.
There are better ways to extend your wireless range. By far the best and least expensive alternative is to connect an additional base station to your existing Extreme with an Ethernet cable. If you don't want to do that, and you understandably decide against a WDS, then your remaining alternative is to buy a newer, 802.11n capable Extreme or Express. They can use Apple's "extend a wireless network" feature that will eliminate nearly all the disadvantages of a WDS.
Read this to determine how to create a WDS: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4262

Trying to connect a NetGear Wifi Range Extender to my existing Wifi. I have an Airport Extreme Base Station and I am also connected to a Vonage Phone Router. Any help would be appreciated?

I am trying to connect a NetGear Wifi Range Extender to my existing Wifi. I have an Airport Extreme Base Station and I am also connected to a Vonage Phone Router. Any help would be appreciated?
The Apple update Firmware for my Airport Extreme Base Station does not update for some reason? Help?
Additionally, I have an older version Airport Express that does not update with the newer Airport Utility Version 6.3 and asks me to download 5.6 to update? Is this worth it?
Thanks

The netgear is not going to work very well.. and not at all unless it is universal wireless extender.. you cannot use WDS method.
If it does support universal wireless then make sure the airport uses a rational SMB compatible wireless name.. not an apple name which is 35 characters long with spaces and illegal characters like apostrophe.
So nice AE name.. AEwifi and actually while you are trying.. fruitlessly to do this.. use AE24ghz and AE5ghz (so different names on the different bands)
Assuming your AE is gen3 or greater.
You should also fix the wireless channel at least for 2.4ghz since the netgear is probably only going to repeat 2.4ghz so use channel 11, as a trial.
And use no wireless security as a test.. if that works.. then use WPA1 & 2.. as often old equipment using WPA2 is not compatible.
If it fails with simple name.. fixed channel and no security. Sorry it is not compatible at all.. it happens.
If your AE is G wireless or earlier model.. really the time has come for replacement.
If your Express is G wireless model it is not supported.. and is too old to bother with expect I guess if you want to run audio to a speaker.
You must use older 5.6 utility to do this.. so do you have a computer running older OS.. up to Mountain Lion it is easy to install with a bit of manipulation.. later is much harder .. or windows computer anywhere or available to you.

What is the most sensible way to extend a wifi signal. I am in a cinderblock house and I have to buy something that will give me a single network but added range from my airport extreme base station.

What is the most sensible way to extend a wifi signal. I am in a cinderblock house and I have to buy something that will give me a single network but added range from my airport extreme base station.

Use an Airport Express. Configure the AEBS to allow it's wireless network to be extended. This is a dropdown menu option under the Wireless tab. Configure the Airport Express to Extend an Existing Network also under it's Wireless tab. You will need to provide the name of your network used in the AEBS as well as the network's access password.

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.

How can I extend a wireless network with my AirPort Extreme Base Station?

Today I purchased a brand new, dual-band base station to replace my Belkin N router, as I have had a handful of firewall, coverage, and other networking problems in my house lately. First off, I really like this router and it was very easy to setup. My MacBook Pro could use both bands and established a 300 Mbit/s link very quickly. After tweaking various settings to my liking, I was also able to maximize the connections on many of my non-Apple machines and devices. I noticed that the range of its network was better than my Belkin's, but unfortunately, it failed to completely saturate the area sufficiently. Since the Belkin still works well enough, I was hoping I could bridge them together one way or the other.
The Belkin router does not support any bridge mode that I know of, but the AirPort Extreme should be able to join a wireless network and then extend that over WiFi and Ethernet, correct? I would like to place them at opposite ends of my home so I can get strong WiFi signals everywhere inside. However, when I try to get the base station to connect to my preexisting WiFi connection, it tells me that I can't extend the network and fails to join.
So is this possible? And if it is, how would I go about setting it up? I know it would probably be easier if I had a simple range booster such as an AirPort Express, but I didn't buy one while I was at Fry's since I hoped I could make use of the older Belkin. This is its product page, if needed. Thanks for any suggestions.
-MacUser

The Belkin router does not support any bridge mode that I know of, but the AirPort Extreme should be able to join a wireless network and then extend that over WiFi and Ethernet, correct?
Sorry, but no. The AirPort Extreme Base Station cannot "join" a network like the AirPort Express or Time Capsule, but you wouldn't want to do this anyway because in this configuration these devices will only perform as wireless clients ... not routers.
Instead, the AirPort Extreme can either be extended or can extend another 802.11g or 802.11n AirPort ... or a very very few non-AirPort devices.
One option for your Belkin would be to connect it to the AirPort Extreme by Ethernet but this may not meet your requirements or be a desirable situation. Otherwise, you would need to get another AirPort to extend your current one.

2 airport extreme base stations later and still no internet connection-

Sorry - yet another beginner with internet connection troubles! (I have read all the posts I could find relating, but without any help).
I have had a Demon broadband account now for about a month (I’m in the UK) and in that time I have purchased a D-Link DSL-300T Ethernet modem and an Airport Extreme Base Station. I got wireless internet working relatively easily – with a powerful range over the whole house and garden, but then one Sunday night, the internet connection via the base station suddenly ‘died’.
I spent the following 3 days scrutinising all of my settings of both the Modem and the Base station, re-setting both, and bought new Ethernet cables / micro filters etc but with no luck. (I’ll point out at this stage that my broadband account is still active, and if I connect the Ethernet modem directly to my iBook [wired] I can still get my broadband connection. Alternatively, I tried daisy chaining the modem to the base station and then via an Ethernet cable to an iBook, but no connection could be made).
When wireless, Airport Admin recognises there is a modem there, and under preferences > network under Airport it states I am connected to the internet – but I’m not.
I then phoned D-Link and they confirmed my firmware was up-to-date for use with Apple products and talked me through all of the modem settings and tweaked a few things, but there was still no connection to the base station. I then phoned Apple. They were incredibly helpful (as ever) and after 35 min. came to the conclusion the base station might not be re-setting itself properly. The replacement one came yesterday, and again I spent a number of hours trying to get it connected to the internet, but there is still no internet connection via airport and I can confirm this from both my eMac and iBook.
Reading through the forums on here, I understand that my particular modem is problematic with the base station, but I can’t work out why it use to work and now it doesn’t! One theory I have investigated is that the firmware of the base station is two advance for the modem following an update, but after reinstalling the original firmware I started with, I still have no luck.
- The eMac is running 10.3.9 / iBook is running 10.4.3. The base station is reinstalled with the latest firmware via system update. The first base station and the modem were delivered to me 31/10/05.
Any help or suggestions would be really appreciated if anyone has any ideas
Thanks for your time
Will.
UK.

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2316
78&tstart=0
I think if you follow the instructions I gave in this
link you will be fine.
Remember, If you for any reason loose your
connection, it is normally always a Power Issue..Your
ISP is down for service ..or some other anomoly, If
you were good before your settings will still be
good...Good Luck...Don
Hi Don,
Thanks for you quick response. I printed off the instructions you posted on the support forum before, and ran through your procedue exactly, (twice) but I'm sorry to inform you that I haven't been able to re-establish my wireless internet connection. Would it be safe for me to assume at this stage that my modem is indeed fualty? It contines to work fine independantly, (I'm using it right now) but it can't seem to make contact with the basestation.
Will.

DrayTek Vigor 120 + Airport Extreme Base Station? I have queries.

Ok, so my 3 or 4 year old USR 9108 router went down today-- again. I'm fed up and want a new one. It dies on me once or twice a month. It has decided it doesn't like my powerline adapters lately. and I'm fed right up. I run an internet radio station and what I need is stability.
At the moment, I'm thinking of setting up a DrayTek Vigor 120 ADSL modem (modem-only) with the Airport Extreme Base Station for my router. (I already have an Express on my network.)
First of all, can anyone please comment on whether they have this set-up and whether it's solid? I've heard good things about both of these devices, and I need something that's not going to flake out as regularly as my USR has been doing of late. Rock solid is a good thing for a 24/7 stream.
Second, can I just confirm a few questions that I think I know the answer to, but want to be sure before shelling out?
I am in the UK using an ISP that uses PPPoA; so I need to be sure the modem has a PPPoA to PPPoE bridge in order for the Airport to talk to the outside world. (Right?). I gather the DrayTek will do this. Will it therefore be just a question of setting the Airport to connect via PPPoE and then entering my ISP login settings in Airport Utility?
I need a setup ideally that, like the USR, will allow me to assign IP addresses manually to some machines or devices on my network but allow DHCP on other things (like my iPhone). It's particularly important that the radio stream should have a static IP. I gather, from having a play with my Express's settings, that I'll be able to accomplish this either directly or by DHCP IP-reservation. Directly would be preferable. Therefore, if I, e.g., assign my computers an IP address on their local network settings and then just shift the Airport's DHCP range so that it starts with (say) 192.168.1.10, rather than, 192.168.1.2, will the Airport be happy with that?
I also need port forwarding / port mapping. This should be o.k., right?
Thanks for help, people.

I'm running a very similar setup here in the UK. I use a Netgear DG834 rather than the Draytek 120 which I was looking at. I use a Time Capsule connected to the router which is in half-bridge mode and this allows me to connect using PPPoE, which is possible on the BT ADSL network, which I didn't know before! - there's no need to get an expensive PPPoA-PPPoE bridge. I guess the Draytek would do an even better job than the Netgear, but mine was the free solution
I use the TC to give out addresses to a network of various kit, with one fixed IP for a specific device. I find the TC and my airport express very easy to set up and run, if slightly light on the details of what's actually going on. That said, if it doesn't work, then they're probably broken!
Nothing you've asked for is out of the ordinary / impossible on the apple kit.
Hope that helps!

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.

How to get this Airport Extreme base station to produce a wireless network?

I had this Airport Extreme base station working fine at the house that I moved from a couple of days ago.
After my house move, however, it seems that the AE base station isn't producing a wireless network. My wireless laptop isn't detecting a wireless network. Also, the left hand side light on the AE base station is not lit.
The AE base station was softly cushioned during house the move.
Regarding configuration:
My non-wireless iMac (running 10.3.9) connects to the AE base station via an ethernet cable.
Before my house-move, I regularly connected wirelessly via the AE base station from a couple of wireless-equipped laptop computers.
I was using AE software version 5.6. (In desperation, I have just updated to version 5.7 - but that hasn't improved or changed situation.)
At the new house, I found that I had to reset the AE base station back to factory settings before I could successfully connect to the internet through the AE base station from the (non-wireless) iMac.
Since resetting the AE base station at the new house, I can also print via a USB printer that's plugged into the AE base station.
I just cannot pick up any sign of a wireless network from the AE base station.
G4 Powerbook Mac OS X (10.3.9) Problem started while I had Airport Extreme software v5.6. No improvement/change after v5.7 update.

Sorry for my delay in closing this issue.
I got the wireless network running again - though I'm not sure which of a "litany" of separate actions (which I gleaned from dialogs in several similar postings for similar issues to mine) was the solution. I suspect it was one of the following two actions, which have stuck in memory:
1) I relocated a nearby cordless phone cradle/charger/base-station from alongside the Airport Extreme base station to about seven feet (two meters) away. However, the cordless phone is about eight years old, and I believe its radio frequency is far out of the range that I have read (in similar postings) can interfere with the Airport Extreme base station.
2) I re-set the Airport Extreme base station, (a) by depressing the tiny reset button at the rear of the base station for more than 5 seconds (until the led started blinking), (b) from Utilities/AirPort Admin Utility/Configure/Restart. However, I had reset the Airport Extreme base station those ways previously without that restoring the wireless network. Also, I didn't record the sequence of the multiple resets and the configurations at the times of the resets.

Airport Utility 5.4.2 was unable to find Airport Extreme base station.

I downloaded the new Airport Utility 5.4.2 to my 2009 24" iMac with Snow Leopard. Now it is unable to find my Airport Extreme base station or Airport Express. My iMac is connected to the network via the Airport Extreme base station but the Airport Utility cannot find it. All I get is this message "Airport Utility was unable to find any Apply wireless devices. Make sure the Apple wireless device you want to set up is plugged in and in range of your computer and then click rescan to try again". I clicked rescan numerous time with no luck. I even downloaded the Airport Utility 5.4.2 again with no luck. What is wrong??? Everything was working fine until I downloaded the Airport Utility 5.4.2.

Thanks for the info.
Following your same steps exactly, I am able to save the configuration file to the desktop, or navigate to another folder to save it at that location.
I was able to do this previously with 10.5.x and with current Snow Leopard. Notice that you list 10.4.x as your operating system. If you are still running this OS, it could be that 10.4.x does not allow this feature with 5.4.2?
Not sure if downloading another copy of 5.4.2 would be worth the pain, as I'm inclined to believe that it probably would not help solve your issue. If you decide to do this, please post back with your results.

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 as Extender to Airport Extreme Time Machine

I have tried this a few times, but to no avail: Tonight I purchased an Airport Extreme Base Station (AE) to set up as an extender to my Airport Extreme Time Capsule (AETC). The Airport Utility finds the router and goes through set-up seemingly fine, with green lights on both. Then shortly after (within a minute) the AE reboots on it's own, followed by the AETC rebooting (again, on it's own) and this occurs repeatedly. I reset the AE completely and run through the set-up and the same thing occurs. I've also done soft resets to the AETC. Long and short of it - the restarting discontinues once I unplug the power cord from the AE. Then the AETC resumes as it has - providing fine wifi and speed. It appears the AE rebooting on its own makes the AETC reboot. Any ideas? Thanks!

howto - extending airport 802.11n networks
Pre-Requistites
1) Ensure all have most recent firmware - 7.7.3 for AC devices, 7.6.4 for 802.11n devices
2) Have most recent Airport Utility (OS X 10.7 thru 10.9, use 6.3.2, IOS6/7 use 1.3.3)
3) Only have the Primary Airport/TimeCapsule powered on for now
Set up the Primary/Anchor Airport Base Station
1) Do this over ethernet - ensure that the Modem and TimeCapsule/Airport is connected on the WAN port
2) You'll be prompted by Airport Utility to name the Network and the Base Station
Network is the SSID of the Wireless LAN
BaseStation is the name of the Airport/TimeCapsule
3) You'll be prompted for a password - this will be for both the WLAN and the Base Station on initial setup
Note here - there are at least three passwords to worry about post setup
a) BaseStation Management - in this how-to, this will be carried thru to the extended basestations
b) WLAN Access
c) Disk Access for TimeCapsule and AirDisk
They can be same or unique, up to you...
Configure the Airport/TimeCapsule for WiFi/Network
4) Select the named BS in Airport Utility - click the 'edit' button
5) Review 'Base Station' Tab
5a) BaseStation Name
5b) BaseStation Password - you can change this now if desired, this does not affect WLAN password
6) Review Internet Tab
6a) set as appropriate for your network - e.g DHCP or other depending on needs
6aa) focus here is getting the primary BS set up first
6b) Click Internet Options - this is IPV6 setup - for now...
6ba) Set to Link-Local Only, click save, you can go back and change this later if needed
7) Go to Wireless Tab
7a) Set Network Mode to "Create a wireless network"
7b) Check Wireless Network Name
7c) Wireless Security - recommend WPA2 Personal - this is important as you'll need this later
7d) Wireless Password - the password entered in step 5b above is what is used here, feel free to modify or not - if so, note this
7e) disregard Enable Guest Network for now
7f) Click Wireless Options
7g) ensure 5Ghz network name is unselected
7h) Country as appropriate - since I'm in California, I choose United States
7i) Leave 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz Channels as "Automatic" for now, click save if needed
8) Click Network Tab
8a) if this is your primary router - use DHCP and NAT
8b) Click Network Options
8c) DHCP Lease - I use 12 hours
8d) IPv4 DHCP Range - every here is a bit different, but my recommendation for most folks
192.168.1.100 to 150
Use what works for you, keeping in mind that the AP Extreme, TimeCapsule, and 2012 Airport Express can handle 50 clients, max
8e) Ensure that Enable NAT Port Mapping Protocol is selected
8f) can worry about Enable default host at: [] later, this is the DMZ'ed host
8g) can choose to enable IGMP Snooping or not - doesn't affect the primary setup
8h) click save
TimeCapsule Only - for Airport Extreme, worry about AirDisk later
This is TimeMachine support, along with FileShares
9) Select Disks - you should see a partitiion named "Data"
9a) ensure that Enable file sharing is selected
9b) ensure that Share disks over WAN is unchecked for now
9c) Secure Shared Disks:
Choices here -
device password - noted in step 5b above
disk password - this will be for all LAN clients that can see the Data Partitiion
accounts - you can set up separate users and passwords - this is beyond scope of this how-to
Recommendation if using as TimeMachine only, use a disk password - note this as you'll need it for timemachine on the clients
Save Settings to the Airport/TimeCapsule
10) Click the "update' button
The Airport/TimeCapsule will restart
Everything now should show green and shiny - open a web browser and attempt to go to Apple/Google/Yahoo, to ensure that you've got network connectivity
Reviewing things in the Airport 6.3 utility, you should see your base station and the Internet - both with green status
Once done here, let's extend the Wireless Network
Note - again, it helps to be connected to the primary base station on ethernet, wireless makes things, erm, challenging
11) with another decive - Mac/iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch or PC, ensure that Wireless LAN is working on the primary AP/Basestation
Once this is done, then proceed to the next step
Enable the "Extended" Airport - can be another TimeCapsule, Airport Express or Airport Extreme
For purposes of this discussion - assume all ore 802.11n capable at a minimum, so this applies towards more recent gear
a) Airport Extreme AC (2013)
b) Airport TimeCapsule AC (2013)
c) Airport Express 2012 Dual-Band (Looks like AppleTV)
d) Airport Extreme 802.11n 5th Gen, TimeCapsule 4th Gen
e) Airport Express 802.11n - similar to the 802.11g variant, looks like a MacBook Pro power adapter
Assumptions here is that the extended airport is factory defaults - see link below for more info:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3728
Once this is done, plug in the Airport that is intended for extending the wireless network
after about a minute or so, you should see a blinking orange light, this is normal...
In Airport Utility, you should see in the upper left hand, "Other Wi-Fi Devices (1)" - click this, if you don't see this, exit and restart Airport Utility
12) clicking on the button, you should see an entry menu as "Airport Extreme xxxxxx", select this
13) Once selected, you'll see "This Airport Extreme/Express/TimeCapsule will be set up to extend "Primary Base Station"
14) Enter the name for this base station - it should be unique from the name of the Primary noted in step 5a
15) Click "next"
16) Should see "setting up this base station to wirelessly extend..."
you'll see some progress messages.. this is the two basestations handshaking....
If successful, you'll see the BaseStation named in step 14 as "is now wireless extending "base station named in (step 5a)"
STOP - the Airport is now extended, repeat steps 11 thru 16 for each addtional Airport
For advanced features - such as port forwarding, DMZ, IPv6 Tunnels, Back to my Mac, etc - perform this only on the Primary Base station outlined in steps 1 thru 8h
Good Luck!

Does firmware update 7.1 break the Airport Extreme Base Station?

Does firmware update 7.1 break the Airport Extreme Base Station?
See Digg
http://www.jayhaynes.net/2007/04/donot_install.html
April 10, 2007
Do NOT install AirPort 802.11n Firmware 7.1
This Firmware 7.1 update for AirPort Extreme Base Station with 802.11n should definitely NOT be installed.
Here was my problem:
I used AirPort Utility 5.1 to install the update. It is automatic - launch the utility and it asks if you want to install the update. I said yes because I had problems getting two AirPort n base stations networking together to extend my range (I gave up finally and just used an AirPort Express to extend the range).
After the firmware update, some sites would not load at all (www.nytimes.com) and others took forever to load. And worse, I could not send any email from any of my IMAP accounts. It seemed to be a DNS problem.
I have two 802.11n AirPorts, so I finally went back to the other one (7.0) and everything worked fine. The Apple tech support guy offered to replace my broken (7.1) AirPort.
Foolishly, I wanted to make sure the problem was actually with the 7.1 update and not the AirPort itself. So I updated my second 802.11n base station with 7.1. And it casued the exact same problem (some sites not loading, no outgoing email).
The Apple tech (at this point I was speaking with a wireless specialist) put me on hold to test a few of his AirPorts to see if he could revert back to firmware 7.0 or (ii) install a clean version of 7.1 (in case the version on my drive was corrupted).
Unfotunately neither option was possible, which is a design flaw in AirPort Utility.
Apple is sending me two new AirPorts in 1-2 days, which is great service, but I will not be installing firmware update 7.1 again. Fool me once...
http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/airportextremebasestationwith80211nfirmwa re71.html
AirPort Extreme Base Station

Turns out that the firmware 7.1 does not render the AEBS useless.
My problem was resolved when I turned off my DSL modem, the AEBS and the computer. Then restarted in same order going to the next one after the first is compeletly up and running. I had no problems whatsoever after that.
Seems that the firmware update makes the IPs 'stick' somehow. I would think that even a reset of AEBS might have done it but I never got to that stage.
All my computers came alive in no time.
I suggest Smith tries this. Simply reset the whole network. Ah yes, my cable modem has an internal battery, I needed to disconnect this too. Only then did the modem go into the 'acquiring' or 'distribution' mode.

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.

Airport Extreme Base Station Range

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