AirPort Extreme constantly having to be restarted.

So here's my issue:
My modem works just fine, however I'm constantly having to restart my base station several times a day.
Everything works just fine, then I'll lose my internet connection but still be connected to the base station. The base station will also still have the solid green light.
If I try switching to a different network and switch back I'll get the can't connect alert.
I'll then unplug my base station, then plug it back in. After a minute everything is back to normal until the next time it happens. It's completely random, sometimes it's an hour, sometimes it's 8 hours.
This also would happen with my old roommate's setup as well.
Ideas?

I have the same issue - AEBS recently requires constant restarts, but so far no suggestions as to what could be causing it.
(It also allocates IP addresses backwards, starting at the top of the range. I'm unclear if this is related and have posted elsewhere regarding this.)
I've searched the forums, and there seem to be numerous posts regarding the restart issue, but I haven't seen any explanations. My AEBS actually crashes when it loses connectivity and can't be accessed by airport utility. Green light remains on.
Perhaps it is a hardware issue. Mine is out of warranty.
Suggestions? Anyone? Is there a hardware diagnostic routine that can be run? There is a log accessible through AU, but this can't be accessed when it crashes and appears to be cleared when restarted.

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Just bought a brand new Airport Extreme and having trouble with it being recognized. I have a Mac version 10.5.8. Is my computer compatible? I have the Airport Express now and it works fine.

Just bought a brand new airport extreme and having trouble with it being recognized. My mac is version 10.5.8. What should I do?

The new AirPort Extreme needs the 6.x version of AirPort Utility, which comes packed in with Lion 10.7.5 or Mountain Lion 10.8.x......or......you can also configure the device using an iPhone or iPad running a recent iOS.
From Apple's Specifications:
Setup and Administration
iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with iOS 5 or later and AirPort Utility 1.3
Mac with OS X Lion v10.7.5 or later and AirPort Utility 6.3
A few options.....
Borrow another Mac running Lion or Mountain Lion for 10-15 minutes and set it up. The Mac running 10.5.8 will be able to connect to the wireless....but it will not be able to make any changes to the configuration of the Extreme.
Update to Lion or Mountain Lion.....but check first to make sure that your Mac will support the operating system first.
Use....or borrow an iPhone or iPad to set up the Extreme

Using an X-Modem M3 with an Airport Extreme and having iChat video problems

Hi,
I have been posting on the iChat section over the last week or so regarding a big problem I have with iChat4 Video. I have been getting some great help over there, but it has been mentioned to me that I may be able to pick up some help in this Topic regarding any more detailed known issues on the X-modem M3 or Airport Extreme.
I am still very new to this Discussion board use, so I hope it's ok to jump in like this and post a link to my ongoing discussion in iChat. See below.....
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1323485&tstart=0
I didn't want to copy all of my message again into here as I thought it best that if you can help you could use the link.
If anyone can help throw some light on this, then many thanks.

The X-Modem in the default modem mode has no influence over the data being transferred. It is a modem not a router so it does not block any communication ports. Your iChat problems must be either on the Airport or the computer.
Seeing as how iChat works fine when the modem is connected to the computer via Ethernet it shows that the modem is working fine and that your ISP doesn't seem to be doing any blocking that would prevent iChat from working.
It really looks like the Airport Extreme is the culprit, perhaps the firewall on the computer is not properly allowing iChat to tell the Airport what ports it should open. Have you tried switching the firewall off completely at both ends ? Seeing as how the computers are behind Airports there is no need to worry about turning the firewall off for testing.

Built in Airport Extreme constantly loses connection

Hi,
I know a lot has been written about the recent airport firmware update where people have lost their reliable connections and I think I have suffered with this as well. My Netgear modem/router sits downstairs and my mac upstairs so there is a distance of about 30ft max (direct of course a bit less). When I purchased my iMac 2.5weeks ago I also logged into the internet without a problem and since the update it's all gone. My windows laptop can connect from exactly the same place and so when I moved my iMac to within 4 ft of the router it worked. Of course having an iMac in your hallway is not the best solution.
So eventually my question, what sort of range does the built-in airport have?
I can connect sometimes but it will go away again and maybe come back...it's a bit like a sulky teenager. Even last night I did a speed test on both the mac and windows laptop and the laptop got double the download speed as the Mac! That's got to be a first.
I would like to move the netgear upstair but my phone engineer says the best speeds I can achieve is through the main telephone socket.

I am having the problem of intermittent loss of signal even when I am sitting right next to the airport. I have 2 macs running off the airport and I have no problems for hours on end and then suddenly, my brand new macbook drops the connection and doesn't show the airport listed at all. If I wait a few minutes, it is back in full force to be selected but i must go in and select it. My old imac is downstairs further from the airport than my macbook and it never loses the signal. It will show the airport when the macbook does not.

Airport Extreme constantly wakes attached external hard drive.

I have a Seagate 1.5 TB drive that I bought in February '09 connected to my 2 month old AExp. For the first two years I had the HDD I was connecting with FW800 to do backups. When I got the new router I figured I'd like to backup more transparently, so I wiped it in Disk Utility and set it up as a wireless Time Machine disk. This has been great, as far as the lack of effort to backup. However, the HDD is constantly waking, spinning up and immediately shutting down. This occurs roughly every 5-10 minutes. It still backs up just fine, I am just concerned about the wear and tear of constant spin ups and shutdowns on a nearly 3 year old HDD. Also, the noise is really annoying. I appreciate any help!

I have a Seagate 1.5 TB drive that I bought in February '09 connected to my 2 month old AExp. For the first two years I had the HDD I was connecting with FW800 to do backups. When I got the new router I figured I'd like to backup more transparently, so I wiped it in Disk Utility and set it up as a wireless Time Machine disk. This has been great, as far as the lack of effort to backup. However, the HDD is constantly waking, spinning up and immediately shutting down. This occurs roughly every 5-10 minutes. It still backs up just fine, I am just concerned about the wear and tear of constant spin ups and shutdowns on a nearly 3 year old HDD. Also, the noise is really annoying. I appreciate any help!

New Airport Extreme isn't working... hardware issue?

Hey,
I recently bought a new 802.11n airport extreme, after having some troubles with a four year old wireless router. My old router would stop working, forcing me to unplug and plug the unit back in to get it to restart. This would happen about once or twice a week. Two days ago I bought the new airport extreme, and successfully set it up (or so I thought). It displays impressive speeds and seemed to work completely fine from the moment I set it up.
Around two hours later however, the unit stopped transmitting. The wireless network disappeared, and even using airport utility I could not see the unit. I took a look at the unit and noticed that it still displayed a green light (I thought this only occurred when everything was in proper working order). I found a solution to be to unplug and plug back in the router. However, a few hours later, the exact same thing occurred. This has been happening every few hours ever since I plugged it in.
I've talked to apple support once, and they took me through the process of hard resetting the router. This didn't fix anything.
Anyway, if anyone has a solution to this problem, I would be VERY appreciative. Also, I can return the unit for a new one within the next 14 days, so if you guys think it's a hardware problem, I would definitely replace it with another unit.
-Thanks

I have the same problem with my new AEBS. The AEBS n Giga is connected via ethernet to my G5. About 2 or 3 times a day my entire network will go down. The AEBS light goes off completely and the Airport Utility cannot find it. The only way to get it back is to power cycle it. I called Apple and was told this is a "known issue" and that I would just have to wait for a firmware update to correct the problem. I'm not happy.... I plan on calling and insisting on a replacement as this problem doesn't seem to happen with EVERY unit. My friend bought one the same day and store that I did and he has no problems. Anyone else experiencing this problem?
Update:
Apple exchanged it and I got a new one today. I plugged it in only to have the exact same problems!!!! The "geniius' at the bar said he had the same problem and it was his modem. Whatever.... Mine's going on ebay today. Too bad, cause when it worked it was great!

Macbook connectivity to internet via airport extreme is flakey

Hi,
Just bought a brand new airport extreme and I already own a June 2009 Mac book pro w/ snow leopard.
I always run software updater, so the Airport 2009-002 patch/fix is on this system.
I have a strange problem with my connectivity to the internet from my mac via the airport extreme.
Very regularly (and seemingly randomly) the laptops connectivity to the internet will drop out... i.e. websites won't respond, big websites (like google) don't respond to pings or anything. While these internet "drop outs" are happening, i can jump onto my PC (which is connected to the airport extreme via ethernet) and the internet is working fine.
Also, Wifi never drops out through this whole situation. This means that while I can't access the internet, my reception is still FULL and I can SAMBA connect to my PC and with other computers on the network.
It's very strange that purely internet via the Airport Extreme is having these issues.
The Airport is in Bridge mode (which means the ADSL modem/router is the DHCP server). The ADSL modem/router does not have wifi active or anything connected to it (other than the airport).
I've never had any issues with my internet - this is the first. My only real option if this can't get resolved is to return the airport, as this is inhibiting me from working from my laptop.
Anyone else experience similar issues?
Can someone recommend any course of action to work around this issue?
Is there anymore information this forum needs to debug this problem? How can I obtain this info?
I hope someone can help.
Regards,
Vijay

I seem to be in a very similar predicament, however I'm served even worse:
I'm loosing Internet connection over both LAN and WIFI. And the Airport Extreme does not detect the loss of connection even though the logging indicates the internal ntp client (trying to connect to time.euro.apple.com) fails (already on dns resolution).
Currently, I'm dvlp-ing a shell script that checks 4 websites, and if all 4 are unaccessible, I launch an applescript that restarts my airport extreme basestation.
This however does not always seems to solve the problem. Seemingly I would have to reset the modem.
The problem can - according to me - not be provider related, since it does not occur when the TimeMachine is replaced by a SL-installed mac mini (that however cannnot function as router (yet)).
Any hints ? anyone ?
I previously had installed an Airport Extreme 10/100 version, which showed the same behaviour. Since the system was out of warranty, I decided to upgrade to a faster system, including TimeMachine, but unfortunately, the problem is still there.
I'm guessing now it could be related to the router being configured in dhcp (getting its ip address over dhcp), but the server provides a static ip address (never changes),... and maybe here there's something fishy.

Airport Extreme Sudden Speed Problems

Router: Latest Airport Extreme model with the most up to date firmware
Main Device: 2012 Retina 15" running 10.9.4
Problem
I am having a rather unusual problem with my router. Until about 3 days ago, my computer iPad and other devices had consistent internet connection quality and speed. Now I am experiencing a slow internet connection, constant dropped calls in Skype, failure to access that App store, and a host of other internet problems on my Retina display 2012 15" macbook as well as slow connection on my iPad and iPhone. Websites will "hang" as they begin to load, nothing will happen, and then they will load a bit later. Streaming of videos is very slow and large file streaming and downloading is significantly inhibited (if it works at all). I have a fast broadband connection that is working very well with Xbox live (direct connection to the router) so I am quite sure that the router is the issue, not the internet connection. Interestingly, when I clock my speed my connection I get 10 and 1 mbps (using speedtest.net). I have all full wifi signal strength according to the indicator in the upper right.
Strange Airport Utility Readings
In airport utility, the internet symbol appears to be going orange (disconnected) and back to green. In the past, I have noticed a flashing orange light on my airport extreme but I would just restart it and it would go green. The light is currently green.
Troubleshooting
I have tried a factory reset and it has not done anything to help. I have tried changing the channel and it also does not seem to help.
Any help or direction would be much appreciated. I am hoping this is a problem that can be resolved here at home but I am beginning to suspect I may have a faulty router.

Yes, pack it up and take back to apple for checking / replacement. I think they are often unreliable.
See the long thread about this issue.
New Airport Extreme (6th Gen) Dropping Connection from Time to Time.
This has been ongoing since the AE gen6 came out..
And there are many many threads started like yours that don't get much attention.. but it is the same today..
Wireless issues with airport extreme for external sites only
And it is better to just let Apple deal with it..

New airport extreme not recognized by airport utility

I've got a 2011 MBP. Right now I have an older Airport extreme up & working with my Time Warner cable modem. When I tried to connect my new 802.11n airport extreme, I couldn't get it to stop blinking amber. First the airport utility told me that I didn't have a valid IP. The second time, after unplugging everything (cable modem & plugging it back in & resetting the airport, the utility couldn't find the router at all.
The manual says contact your cable company, but I got someone who's only solution was to go to system preferences/network & see if "airport" was checked. The second time after specifically asking for someone who understood macs,I got a bit more useful info, but it still doesn't work. I've unplugged everything countless times, reset the airport extreme, renewed the DCHP twice, restarted the computer & swapped out the ethernet cable. Still no luck. Any ideas?

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3728

How to connect a hard drive on Airport Extreme (second edition)

how to connect a hard drive on Airport Extreme (second edition)? Does it need a special format? It is now fromat on FAT32, but i don't see it ??

The USB port your Mac is high powered. The port on the AirPort Extreme is not.
So, it tends to be borderline as far as its ability to supply sufficient power to a hard drive...even if the hard drive has its own power supply.
Often, users...including me....need to use a powered USB hub when they attach any drive to the USB port on the AirPort Extreme.
You might want to give that a try. Double check to make sure that the drive is formatted in FAT32 as well, since Windows NTFS or exFAT will not work with the AirPort Extreme.
Powering down and restarting the entire network.....modem first, then router, etc.....is something that you would always want to do after any change or addition to a network.

I have several questions: 1. When I connect my Iphone using Wi-Fi what can I then do? Why won't my Iphone recognize my home network run off of Airport Extreme, and the app Nike Ipod sensor never activates.

I went to Starbucks this morning and my Wi-Fi on my Verizon Iphone connected, what does this allow me to do? My Wi-Fi does not recognize my home network from which I connect wirelessly to my MacBookPro and to my Apple TV using Airport Extreme router, why? Lastly, what do about the app NIke + Ipod not working. The sensor does not activate even after walking a half mile.

It might be best to ask only one question in each post otherwise you may never be able to mark them as solved.
I went to Starbucks this morning and my Wi-Fi on my Verizon Iphone connected, what does this allow me to do?
It should allow you to access the internet, read mail, etc.
My Wi-Fi does not recognize my home network from which I connect wirelessly to my MacBookPro and to my Apple TV using Airport Extreme router, why?
Try restarting your router (remove power for 30 seconds and restart). It may not be properly assigning an IP address to your iPhone.

AirPort Extreme (802.11n) dual band is reporting problems?

Hi.
I can not find an answer for my error-problem:
AirPort Extreme (802.11n) dual band is reporting problems!
I have an optimum on line cable modem connected to my AirPort Extreme (802.11n) dual band.
Ethernet cables connect it 1. into my new Nehalem Mac Pro, 2. into my back-up Quicksilver PowerMac. I also have 2nd gen. iPod touch works on WiFi.
This set-up has been working well but now I daily get the above error. Sometimes it says also: You have different locations set-up and it asks me to go through the set-up procedure. May be I did the initial set-up incorrect. I don't quite understand "locations" and it's purpose.
Also the Airport runs very hot so I put a small fan in front of it. A few times I had to disconnect the cable mains to reset and get back my service. Please help.
W.W.

Walter Wedler wrote:
AirPort Extreme (802.11n) dual band is reporting problems!
I have an optimum on line cable modem connected to my AirPort Extreme (802.11n) dual band.
Ethernet cables connect it 1. into my new Nehalem Mac Pro, 2. into my back-up Quicksilver PowerMac. I also have 2nd gen. iPod touch works on WiFi.
This set-up has been working well but now I daily get the above error. Sometimes it says also: You have different locations set-up and it asks me to go through the set-up procedure. May be I did the initial set-up incorrect. I don't quite understand "locations" and it's purpose.
Can you tell what's telling you about those locations? An Apple AirPort unit can maintain different "configurations" so that it could be used in different locations without a complete reconfiguration. However, I don't believe they're ever referred to as "locations". On the other hand, a Mac can have multiple "locations" defined in the Network panel of System Preferences. Those can be useful if the Mac is used in different places with different arrangements.
If your AirPort Extreme is having problems the status light on the front will probably be amber. If you launch AirPort Utility and double-click on the AirPort Extreme item on the left, you should be able to see more details about the problem.

Will time machine work with airport extreme?

Hi all, is there a way to create a time machine back up on a USB disk that is attached to an airport extreme? I've tried it a couple of different ways and it's not seeming that it works very well. Any help would be appreciated.

I've tried several configurations all of which started with formatting the drive with a single partition Mac OS Extended (Journaled) GUID.
The first configuration was where I did a 100GB Time Machine Backup to the drive while it was connected (so I wouldn't have to deal with a slow first backup over wireless, because my MacBook Pro is of the older 802.11G wireless versus N). Then moved the drive over to my Airport Extreme, mounted the drive and started the backup. It failed with the following error message "The backup volume is not in Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format, which is required."
The second configuration was where, after reformatting to single partition to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) GUID, I connected the drive directly to the Airport Extreme without having done a Time Machine Backup. After mounting the drive, I started Time Machine and it began to run. I left it over nite to back-up and, while it got started, it did not make it past about 9GB after over 6 hours and it stopped.
Trying the second configuration again...and it is running but 7 hours later 25 of 101GB done.
Thanks for any insight!
Happy New Year

Time Machine, Airport Extreme, External USB Drive

Having some challenges using Time Machine on an external drive connected to my Airport Extreme. I've tried several configurations all of which started with formatting the drive with a single partition Mac OS Extended (Journaled) GUID.
The first configuration was where I did a 100GB Time Machine Backup to the drive while it was connected (so I wouldn't have to deal with a slow first backup over wireless, because my MacBook Pro is of the older 802.11G wireless versus N). Then moved the drive over to my Airport Extreme, mounted the drive and started the backup. It failed with the following error message "The backup volume is not in Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format, which is required."
The second configuration was where, after reformatting to single partition to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) GUID, I connected the drive directly to the Airport Extreme without having done a Time Machine Backup. After mounting the drive, I started Time Machine and it began to run. I left it over nite to back-up and, while it got started, it did not make it past about 9GB after over 6 hours.
Any help here would be most appreciated...
Happy New Year

See solution in this thread.
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=8742787

My airport extreme crashes thanks to Lacie HDD

Hi all,
I have a airport extreme (5g) with a Lacie HDD (2 years old) connected to it in my living room.
Now when i'm busy on my HDD, copying stuff or watching movies, my macbook tells me that teh connection with the HDD is interrupted.
When I got that messege, my WIFI fails to. When I have removed the powercable and put it back, it takes the airport extreme a few seconds to restart.
So what can I do, so the airport extreme wont crash?!?
greetz

The drive is formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled), correct?
Are you using a Mac computer?
The drive will not appear automatically on your desktop when you connect it to the AirPort Extreme.
How are you trying to mount the drive on your desktop when the drive is connected to the AirPort Extreme?
The USB port on the AirPort Extreme is under powered, so it is often necessary to use a powered USB hub when you attach a drive to this port....even if the drive has its own power supply.

AirPort Extreme constantly having to be restarted.

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