Airport Extreme does bad selection on BSSID in repeater network (same SSID)

My iMac sees a weak signal, and the repeated signal for a SSID. The iMac always chooses the weak signal from the base station not the stronger repeated signal.
I've tried to override this choice, by using the airport command line utility:
airport --associate=<SSID> --bssid=<BSSID> --password=<passphrase>
The network is WEP encrypted.
The result of the airport command is again a connection to the base station far away.
Does anybody know how to force the airport to connect to a specific BSSID??

I am having the exact same issue. The GUI doesn't provide any option to select the BSSID or channel, and the command line utility seems to completely ignore the --bssid option.
Have you found a solution?

Similar Messages

Two Airport Extremes no longer working in tandem to extend network

Trouble has cropped up with my home network, I think dating back to the installation of Leopard (though I'm not sure about that). I have been using two Airport Extreme (both 802.11n) to extend my wireless network throughout the house. For some reason, the two no longer seem to be communicating with each other. I have done factory resets on both, gone through the streamlined setup routine outlined in the Knowledge Base article on configuring Airport Extreme networks, and no dice. The remote station, once set up to extend the base network, no longer appears as a separate station in Airport Utility, and its indicator light is a steady amber. I seem to recall this was the case when it was working, too.
Any thoughts?

Here is some more info. I had a look at the posts on this issue from Nov. 19th, where Jane describes setting up the two base stations in a particular sequence using the assisted (not manual) setup process. My problem is that none of the relevant options ... allowing the network to be extended, designating the second base station as a remote station, etc ... come up in the assisted menus. I can only get to those options via the manual setup.
I would also note that I called Apple about this problem. After being informed, to my extreme frustration, that Apple does not support manually setup WDS configurations over the phone, the Apple rep told me (in a decidedly dismissive tone) that I should be using the assisted setup process. So Apple has confirmed that this is the way to go ... but Airport Utility doesn't seem to work that way.
Help? Anyone?

Airport Extreme Card (will not automatically connect to home network)

Running OSX (10.4.7) on a G5 2.0 DualCore. I just had an Airport Extreme Card installed by Apple a week ago. Everything was working fine with WiFi ( I use a Lynksys Router. But oddly now when I cold boot up, the Airport Extreme will not automatically connect to my home network. The little Airport icon on the upper right is always greyed out ( even though clicking on the icon... says that Airport is "On" ). So I now have to manually select my home network everytime I boot up. The first week or so though, I didn't have to do this...it just automtically connected to my home network. I made no changes to the router settings, nor the Network prefs.

I have been able to get my home network running with simultaneous access to the internet with the MacMini and the PB G4 via a WL router (Netgear WGR614v4 with four ethernet ports).
This was the process:
1a) Turned off airport on both computers.
1b) Turned off both compters and
1c) disconnected the router from the cable modem.
a) Disconnected ethernet cable from WL router to Macmini.
2b) Powered down the router for 10 seconds.
3a) Keeping both computers unpowered,repowered router and pressed the reset button (behind an unmarked tiny hole in the back of the router) then re-connected it to cable modem. Waited 30 - 40 seconds until internet service lights flickered green.
3b) Reconnected ethernet cable to MacMini and turned on power for MacMini. No Airport running. With administrator privilege I configured in Syst. Prefs. "Sharing" folder Internet access using "Built in Ethernet" port for computers running "Airport".
4) Turned Airport network on in MacMini and started browser.
Result: Internet connection established.
5a) Powered up PB G4 and then turned Airport on.
5b) In Syst. Prefs. in "Sharing" folder turned Internet Sharing off. But set "Share your connection from Airport" to computers using: Airport with check-mark. (No Built-in Ethernet and no Built-in FireWire!)
5c)Started browser. Result: Internet connection established.
6a) In the Finder window of both computers I clicked on "Go" in toolbar and looked for the name of the other computer, which were listed as alias besides the "Library" and "Servers" aliases. Clicking on the computer alias brought up the 'Networked Globe' and a control button "Connect".
6b) Clicking on "Connect" brought up the mounted drive of the other computer.
Result: Wireless network operational.
PS: I don't dare yet using encryption for the airport network. That's for another day.
Power Book G4, MacMini Mac OS X (10.4.7)

How do I use Airport Extreme to create wired access point on wireless network?

Bit of an odd situation. I just went from cable to DSL at home and the modem moved from right by my computer to upstairs.
Trouble is, there's no real easy way to get a cable from the modem upstairs to my X-box (sans wireless connector) downstairs.
I could buy the wireless adaptor for the X-Box, but I was hoping I wouldn't have to spend any more money.
I have my airport extreme, and I was hoping I could use it to create a wired access point on the network, recieving the signal from the wireless modem upstairs and allowing me to plug in the X-Box.
Is this possible? If so, how? I've been through the config panel about a dozen times, but can't figure out what combination to set up.
Thanks.

Will it work if I use the express to create the network?
Yes, providing that you have an 802.11n version of the AirPort Express and the Express has been configured to "Allow this network to be extended".
Then, the AirPort Extreme can be configured to "extend" the Express network. When you do this, the AirPort Extreme will provide more wireless coverage and the LAN Ethernet ports are enabled, so you can connect an Ethernet device.
This will not be a "normal" Ethernet connection. It will only work as well as the wireless "hop" between the Express and Extreme allow.
For best results and performance, a wired connection through the hole in the wall is always best. If you decide to do this, you will need the "new" AirPort Express with both a WAN and LAN port on the device. But, you could try wireless first to see if it will meet your goals before you reach for the tools.

I have a 4 gen Time Caps. and a 2nd Gen Airport Extreme I would like to extend my TC network to use the Extreme for the purpose of having internet available to my TV box wired. Is this possible and how to I get them to work together?

I have a 4 gen Time Caps. and a 2nd Gen Airport Extreme I would like to extend my TC network to use the Extreme for the purpose of having internet available to my TV box wired. Is this possible and how to I get them to work together?
How can I get my Time Cap (TC 4 gen) to recognise my 2gen Airport Extreem (AE)
Frank

Thanks for the info, this really helps.
Power up the AirPort Extreme for a few minutes, then hold in the reset button on the back of the Extreme for 10 seconds and release. Allow a full minute for the Extreme to restart to a slow, blinking amber light.
It might be possible to use wireless to configure the Extreme, but I recommend using a wired connection. Temporarily, connect an Ethernet cable from your Mac to one of the LAN <-> ports on the Extreme.
Click the AirPort icon at the top of the Mac's screen and wait a few seconds for a listing of New AirPort Base Station to appear. Just below that, click on AirPort Extreme.
The illustration below shows an AirPort Express. You will see AirPort Extreme on your screen.
AirPort Setup will open up automatically and take a minute to analyze the network, then announce that the Extreme will be configured to extend the Time Capsule network.
Enter a device name that you want to use for the Extreme and click Next
Wait a minute while AirPort Setup configures things for you. When you see the message of Setup Complete, click Done.
You can disconnect the Ethernet cable that you used for the set up now. Things should be working. The Extreme is providing additional wireless coverage the the Ethernet ports are enabled. You can connect to any port that you want since they all operate the same in this type of setup.

I would like to buy the AirPort Extreme and I wanted to purchase a repeater or extender with that, what would that product be?

I would like to buy the AirPort Extreme and I wanted to purchase a repeater or extender with that, what would that product be?

The extender would be either another AirPort Extreme....if you want to match the performance of the "main" AirPort Extreme.....or....an AirPort Express.....which would not match the performance of the "main" AirPort Extreme.....but it would provide more wireless signal coverage.
Whether you choose the AirPort Extreme or AirPort Express to extend the signal, try to plan to connect the extender back to the "main" AirPort Extreme using a permanent, wired Ethernet cable connection.
If you must connect the main and extending devices using wireless only, then there will be a significant performance drop on the entire network due to to the limitations of extending a network wirelessly. Unfortunately, you lose about half of the potential speed on the network when you do this.

3 Airport Extremes, 1 as router 2 as APs, Guest Network

I have 3 Airport Extremes, all 5th Gen, all Wired with CAT6. I have the first one setup as DHCP and NAT, with wireless off(basically acting as just a router)...Then its connected to a gigabit switch whitch then the 2 other Airport Extremes are set in bridge mode to create the same network name and pass. What i am wondering is can i still create a guest network? the option shows up in wireless in AU 6, but i noticed there is no way to set the IP range as for obvious reasons (they arent in dhcp mode)...has anyone tried this or have any advice?

so the first AEBS has to have wifi enabled? in order for the other 2 AEBS to create the guest network?
Yes. If the Guest Network is not enabled on the first AirPort, then other AirPorts will not be able to extend a network that is not there in the first place.
what if i the 2 AEBS wifi stations are in dhcp only and guest network enabled
This will not work.
is the a way to have all 3 AEBS on the same wireless channel to create this?
The correct setup in a roaming network is for each AirPort to be separated by 4-5 channels from others. This will usually happen automatically if you use the default "Automatic" Radio Mode setting, or you can set channels manually. You would not want each AirPort to use the same channel.

I have an Airport Extreme which I'm using for a wireless network. Can I also plug in my iMac to one of the free ethernet ports on the Airport Extreme to connect to the Internet that way? Thank you.

I have an Airport Extreme which I'm using for a wireless network. (The wireless router is connected to a DSL modem.) Can I also plug in my iMac to one of the free ethernet ports on the Airport Extreme to connect to the Internet that way? Thank you.

Yes, you can.

Sometimes , when I open ITunes Radio, an ad saying that I'm listening to iTunes Radio over and over and I don't get to listen to music. Usually other stations work but select stations just keep repeating the same ad. Why is this?

Sometimes , when I open ITunes Radio, an ad saying that I'm listening to iTunes Radio over and over and I don't get to listen to music. Usually other stations work but select stations just keep repeating the same ad. Why is this?

It started working again. I guess it just got messed up

Has my Airport Extreme gone bad?

We had bad storms on Saturday that knocked out a lot of people's power. Mine was not but the next afternoon,and since then, I haven't been able to get online. The ISP (Mediacom) said everything is fine with my modem and that speeds are up to snuff. I checked the AEBS in airport utility and got couple errors. They were DNS needed and conflict with my beginning and ending IP addresses. I resolved these by putting in the OpenDNS IPs and putting some DHCP IPs in but still won't connect. The WiFi meter on macbook pro shows zero bars but when I click on the part to select which network to join it shows my network with full strength yet won't join.
Then I tried plugging Ethernet from my modem (Motorola surfboard SB4200) directly into my macbook pro and I keep getting a 'self-assigned IP address and won't connect to internet' message.
I've tried just about everything (powered everything on and off, different cords) but can't get 'et up and running.
Is my AEBS failing? Should I reset to factory default?
I need internet for part of my income so help is GREATLY needed.

+Then I tried plugging Ethernet from my modem (Motorola surfboard SB4200) directly into my macbook pro and I keep getting a 'self-assigned IP address and won't connect to internet' message+
This would suggest that the modem is not functioning correctly. If it were, you should have an internet connection assuming that the computer is working correctly.
If you verify that you can get an internet connection when your computer is connected directly to the modem....but then find that you cannot when you hook the AirPort Extreme up directly to the modem, then that would suggest a problem with the AirPort Extreme.
It won't make much sense to try other things until you can verify that your internet service is working correctly. I don't mean to place blame, but in my experience, the ISP always says their stuff is working perfectly. That may be, but you need to verify.
Be sure you reset the modem when you make any change in the device that is connected directly to the modem. I assume that you are doing this already since this is common practice with a cable modem.

The USB port on my 4th generation Airport Extreme does not recognize any peripheral devices whatsoever. In other words, it does not function at all. What can I do?

I have had my Airport Extreme for almost a year now. I have not been able to get it to work. It has never worked. I have tried everything in the apple manuals, my peripheral device manuals, and online help. My Airport Extreme Base Station has a completely dead USB port. The USB connector does have voltage and ground. Apparently there is no data transfer. I do not know how to test the data pinouts. I don't know if it is a software or driver problem, or if it is a hardware or wiring problem. My computer is a mid-2009 13" MacBook Pro. All of my external devices work well with the MacBook Pro. The USB functionality on the MacBook Pro has always performed without a glitch. It seems the problem with the Airport Extreme must either be a network communication problem or a hardware/hardwire problem. I bought the Airport Extreme to build a home inTRAnet network. I have a seperate 3rd party router for inTERnet. Contrary to what the manuals declare, the initial setup of my Airport Extreme requires inTERnet setup during the process. Even when the choice is made to limit the network access to LAN only, when I reach the end of the setup process, a prompts reads that the Airport Extreme may not function because I have not set it up for inTERnet with the WAN. Well, Dah... during the intial stages of the setup I told the machine to configure an inTRAnet only LAN setup. So... I went ahead and set it up for inTERnet and WAN. Either way, the USB port is not working. Then I set it up for the whole package, WAN, LAN, and everything. Still... no function out of the USB port. Any ideas?
P.S. The Ethernet works and so does the 802.11 tranceiver. The USB port is the only problem, but a major, major one for my needs. There is no peripheral functionality.

Okay so I figured it out. I inherited the Configurator already set up so I didn't realize that our former administrator was brilliant and set things up a little differently. To anyone else who finds themselves in this spot try this:
After you plug the iPad in and open Configurator instead of trying to 'Prepare' the device click 'Assign'
There should be groups of Users listed on the left hand side of the screen.
Select the group you want the ipad to be a part of, or make a new group. ***Note a group can be one person so this is a good feature for teachers to have individual app assignements for students.
After you select the user group click the little plus ( + ) button on the bottom of the screen under the second column of info where names and device serial numbers should appear.
Type the name of the person, group, whatever you want to identify that assignment by into the blank that pops up after you hit the plus ( + )
Then select the assignment you just made and tohe 'Check Our' button at the bottom. At this point a box will pop up with a window at the top listing all devices supervised by Configurator. There is a tiny down arrow button that opens a scroll down menu to the right of this box. Click that, then select the device connected by USB as the one to assign.
The name of the assignment you gave it will show on the lock screen now and you can assign apps and profiles to the device like you would any other device in your Configurator inventory.
Good Luck.

Airport Extreme does not have a valid IP address

My Airport Extreme Base Station 802.11N (AEBS) no longer has an internet connection and I cannot share internet or even access the internet via an ethernet cable from the AEBS to my iMac unless in Bridge mode. I have a 2.6 Ghz Intel Core iMac running OS X 10.5.6. I also have an Airport Express (802.11b/g) currently offline.
When I plug my ethernet cable directly into the iMac I've got a fast and reliable internet connection. I have also done 2 hard resets on my AEBS without any success. I have ensured that my cables are properly plugged in and had it checked by another person.
I do not have a specific IP address from my Internet Service Provider (ISP). I have contacted my ISP and have confirmed that there is nothing wrong on their end. I had an internet connection previously with "Using DHCP". Now when I select it blanks out the IP address box. I referred to my last working saved Airport setting and my AEBS still does not have an internet connection.
I'm not sure what else I can do. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Byron

Hello,
I'm having a similar problem. Saturday morning my Comcast Internet was gone. I went through all the steps to troubleshoot (powering everything down, checking connections, powering back up from outside, connecting directly to the cable modem via Ethernet, etc.). I only got a valid IP address for a brief few minutes when directly connected. Comcast swapped out my modem, but same issue. Then Sunday they said known problem in area. This morning I got on the line with a level 2 tech. We went through just about everything again, and I can connect very reliably via direct Ethernet connect to modem. If I unplug the ethernet and give it a minute to recognize its gone, ip address goes blank. When I plug it back in, it gets a valid IP address and Internet connects almost instantaneously.
However, with my AEBS (n) I can't get a valid IP address. I use the exact same Ethernet cable from the cable modem the AEBS Internet WAN port. But it gives itself a self-assigned IP of 169.254... I've gone through the cycles of powering down and back up a couple of times, checked my connections several times, and reset my AEBS to factory defaults. Still no dice. Internet is set to DHCP and to share a public IP address (in the default 10.0.1.x ranges). Has my AEBS effectively lost its ability to get a valid IP from the modem? Is it dead? Anything you can think of that I can try?

AirPort Extreme Auto Channel Selection

I monitor my wifi environment and noticed that when I turn on my AirPort Extreme it chose a channel (11) that was also being used by multiple near by networks. These networks indicated the highest signal value of all the other nearby networks indicated, a value between 45 and 49. I am not experiencing any concerns and my AirPort seems to perform much better than the Verizon WiFi which I turned off. I left the AirPort on for a few hours and noticed that a couple other networks joined the same channel 11. I cycled my router and the new channel it chose was 6 and no other network nearby was on 6. The popular channels nearby seem to be 1, 6, 11. Would I be better off selecting say channel 8 or 9 or some channel other that the three popular ones and setting channel control to manual??? As I said I have no issues and my Apple TV seems to like the AirPort Extreme because I have not experienced the connection to the Apple store problems that I was having where I had to retry several times plus authorization and loading time has gone down. I shut down my AirPort and Verizon devices at night or when they will not be used for a few hours. By doing so at least the Airport picks a new channel. Thanks for any advice.

Would I be better off selecting say channel 8 or 9 or some channel other that the three popular ones and setting channel control to manual
I don't know who first said that wireless was half science and half voodoo, but they pretty much nailed it.
There really are only 3 wireless channels that do not overlap....1, 6 and 11.....so it is not hard to figure out why they are the most popular. If you choose channel 8 or 9 for example, then it will overlap both 6 and 11, so you actually increase your chances of picking up interference. Same for channel 3 or 4 for example, which will overlap both 1 and 6.
If you have the time to experiment, it won't hurt to try different channels to see if you can find the magic setting. But, since other routers around you are constantly changing as well, what might appear to be a good channel now, might not be a few hours from now.

AirPort Extreme does not show in list

I have tried rescan, reset etc but my new AirPort does not appear on the list in the AirPort utility and flashes amber. My 2 other base stations are fine. Is it faulty or am I doing something stupid?
PowerBook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.9)

derek61, Welcome to the discussion area!
Verify that you are using "AirPort Utility"... not the older "AirPort Admin Utility".
Try temporarily connecting to the AirPort Extreme base station (AEBS) with Ethernet. Configure the AEBS so that it is using a channel between 1 and 11.

AirPort Extreme automatic channel select setting question

Hello, all -
Just got an AirPort Express that I'm using in bridge mode through a rented Actiontec PK5000 DSL modem/router combo through Qwest. (Broadcast antenna is truned off now on the Actiontec and I'm just using it as a modem.) I have a question about the automatic channel setting on the AirPort. I assumed when you leave it on automatic, the AirPort will scan the area to find the best channel to use (1-11 on 2.4 GHz) and then switch your connection to that on the fly, checking it throughout the day. But it's defaulted to channel 1 on automatic and hasn't changed since I got it. My PK5000 used to switch channels (6 or 11) if there was a better one available. Somehow I get the feeling the AirPort isn't doing that on the fly.
The cool thing about the Actiontec was that it defaulted to the strongest channel, and even mentioned what channel was 2nd strongest. The AirPort seems content to just stay on channel 1 all the time. Can someone tell me if this is normal on the AirPort Extreme. Thanks!

The cool thing about the Actiontec was that it defaulted to the strongest channel, and even mentioned what channel was 2nd strongest. The AirPort seems content to just stay on channel 1 all the time. Can someone tell me if this is normal on the AirPort Extreme.
From my experience, I have yet to verify that the AirPort's "Automatic" option periodically scans the local area, and then, resets the channel when it finds too much interference. Instead, it attempts to find a clear channel when first configured and sticks with it ... as you have already ascertained.

Airport Extreme does bad selection on BSSID in repeater network (same SSID)

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