Airport Extreme reverts to solid amber

I have two airport extremes, both connected via ethernet to a router, which is connected to a cable modem. All of the cables are new cat5e cables. The airports both run the same wifi. Normally this works great - both airports are up and running and we have great connectivity.
Once or twice a day, every day, I'll look at one of the airports and it is solid amber. I don't know how long it's been that way - it happens when I'm not looking. Pulling the power for a few seconds and plugging it back in solves the problem.
The issue I need help with is: what could be happening that puts the airport into that state, such that it cannot recover on its own?

Hi,
Thanks for your reply.
Well, you may have discovered the answer for me also.
I have a Netgear Router in my Mix which looks like this:
FIOS CABLE>FIOS ROUTER (DHCP OFF)>Netgear ROUTER (DHCP ON)>Airport EX4thGEN MAIN conected to WAN.
These devices are hard wired through ethernet.
To them I add the REMOTE EX4thGEN extending wireless network created by MAIN EX4thGEN which has the internet through it's WAN port, and DHCP from the NetGear Router.
DId anyone say why you had to remove the Belkin Router? I'd love to know the "WHY" of this.
I just got FIOS about 3 weeks ago, and prior to that my setup performed very well.
Right now 90% of the office is CAT6E hardwired ethernet, and the Airports only serve 2 remote computers, one laptop and 1 music sharing iMac.
At the time of the FIOS upgrade, I decided to update the firmware in both the the Airports, and ever since it's been a struggle with the going amber issue.
If I remove the Router I am going to have to add an Ethernet switch, and then have the Airport be the DHCP Server - NAT Addressing device.
Thanks for your help, and so long for now, TOM

Similar Messages

Airport Extreme stuck on solid amber light - no response at all

I got my Airport Extreme this morning, set it up easily and was online for a few hours. I decided to set up my printer to the Airport, and when doing so - I unplugged the Airport Extreme and plugged it into a new outlet.
Now the base will only show a solid amber light, and Airport Utility says that it is unable to find any base stations.
I've tried unplugging the base, unplugging my modem, resetting the base, and nothing is working.
Can anyone help, please?
Message was edited by: tvchicklet
Message was edited by: tvchicklet

Have you tried connecting your MacBook directly, using an Ethernet cable, to one of the AEBSn's LAN port, and then, tried using the AirPort Utility to access it?
If so, and have already done multiple "hard" resets on the AEBSn, something might have gone wrong when moving the unit, possibly a voltage surge. Have you tried plugging it back into the original outlet to see if that would resolve the problem. Otherwise, if practical, you might want to take it to your nearest Apple Store to have them take a look at it.

My Airport extreme light is solid amber

The light will not turn greeb

Pull the power cable from the back of the AirPort Extreme
Let the Extreme rest for 15-20 minutes
Hold in the reset button on the back of the AirPort Extreme and keep holding it for an additional 7-8 seconds while you simultaneously plug the power back in to the Extreme.
Release the reset button after the hold period and allow 30 seconds for the Extreme to display a slow blinking amber light.
If you try this a few times and the light remains solid amber after the reset, your Extreme unfortunately has an internal electrical problem and it will likely need to be replaced, since Apple does not offer repairs.

I just replaced my airport extreme and now the amber light on my airport express is flashing and so it is not being recognized. I have been on the computer and gone to airport utility and it is simply not showing up at all. What can I do?

I just replaced my airport extreme and now the amber light on my airport express is blinking. When I go to utilities and try to find the airport express it does not show up.
What should I do?

Anytime you change networking hardware it is always a good idea to perform a complete power recycle of that hardware. Check out the following AirPort User Tip for details. Please post back your results.

Brand new Airport Extreme Base Station flashing Amber light

hi
I know this question had been addressed before , but i couldnt find satisfying answer yet
I bought this Brand new airport extreme base station, I hooked up my ethernet cable into WAN Port as per the manual.
I installed airport utility 5.1 on my windows xp SP 2 laptop
and then I powered on the base station
The light in front was Solid Amber and then it turned Flashig Amber .
I tried resetting the base station and Cable modem. but no luck with Flashing Amber Light
Any Help for beginner Apple user?
thanks
Airport Extreme Base Station ( 802.11n) Windows XP SP2

Here is another post that addresses your question:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1005682&tstart=15

Airport Extreme light flashes green, amber, then goes out

When I pug in the Airport Extreme the led status light flashes green, amber, then goes out. Matters not if I press the reset button, unplug and press, or anything else.
So it seems I have power, but it will not work, and the light goes out.
Any Ideas?

How old is it?
See if you have a 12v power supply of around 2A around.. and try that.. sometimes the power supply goes.. but often it is the internal supplies.. in which case you cannot really do anything but replace it.
If it is less than 3years old and you have apple care on a computer Apple might replace it.. if you match all the requirements. outside 3years.. buy a new one.

Airport Express 802.11n - Solid amber light after initial setup

Hi,
I got my refurbished Airport (from the official Mac Store) earlier this week.
It actually looked brand new, from the packaging to the flawless device itself.
I plugged it in and set it to act as a bridge, and after it had rebooted, Airport Utility could no longer find it.
As the title states, the light is solid amber. When it boots, the green light comes up for a split second before it turns amber.
I have tried countless times to do the factory default reset to no avail. The light blinks when i hold in the reset button, but other than that it seems completely dead.
I live in a share, without amin access to the router.

Welcome to the discussions!
It sounds like you have tried to reset the device by holding in the reset button while it is plugged in until the amber light blinks quickly, correct?
Try this instead:
Power down the Express
Hold in the reset button and keep holding it in while you plug the power back in
Release the reset button after approximately 10 seconds
This full hard reset will return the device to factory defaults so you can reconfigure it. If you still have issues after trying this a few time, you have a defective Express that should be exchanged.

Brand new AirPort Extreme has only flashing amber light

Hi all,
I just brought home an airport Extreme Base Station 802.11n to get online with my snazzy new MacBook Pro. So, I hooked the router up to my cable modem as per instructions, and all I get is a flashing amber light. I've tried rebooting the modem, and still zip. There's nothing wrong with my internet connection ~ when I connect either the desktop or the laptop via Ethernet directly to the modem, I get on line immediately. But I just can't get the base station to connect with the modem. I've waded through the forum and haven't found an answer, and since Apple no longer provides a phone number in their manuals, I have no way to get an actual human to walk me through this. I don't know whether I'm missing some crucial step, or if I have a defective base station and am just spinning my wheels trying to get it to work. Any assistance would be MUCH appreciated!
Thanks, Kate

OK, I'm putting this back out to the group.
I've tried resetting the AEBS back to factory settings, I've unplugged and rebooted the modem & AEBS numerous times. I tried to install the 7.5 firmware, but my MacBook can't see the AEBS to perform the installation, and still, no internet connection and the persistent flashing amber light.
Comcast tells me they don't support routers, so they can't check to see if the AEBS is visible on their end ~ but I'd bet it isn't.
I'll try Apple's support line tomorrow, but in the meantime ~ has anyone else experienced this level of problem, or does it sound like I have a faulty unit?
Thanks!
Kate

I changed my internet box and now my airport extreme light flashes amber what I need to do to get the green light back

I changed my internet box and now my airport extreme light is flashing amber but I have internet connection, how can I get the green light back

When you change modem (the internet box I presume) you should reset the AE to factory and redo the setup completely.
However if you merely want to stop the amber flashing.. find the cause.
Open the airport utility and click on the AE..
It will give you a list of faults or problems... fix each one and the light will turn green.
The most likely fault is double NAT.
That means the AE should be in bridge mode.. but if you list the fault we can give you further help with what to do to fix it if you cannot understand the instructions.
Apple does give a procedure to remove the problem although it may not always be the best solution.
eg Ignore.. the light will turn green.
Lately Apple is saying to use double NAT and ignore the problem.. I do not thing that is a good idea at all.
To bridge however may be easier after a full factory reset than trying to do a change to the setup.
If you run Yosemite.. then I recommend the following.. please read AE for TC.. (Time Capsule is what I mainly use but the setup is identical).
Factory reset universal
Power off the TC.. ie pull the power cord or power off at the wall.. wait 10sec.. hold in the reset button.. be gentle.. power on again still holding in reset.. and keep holding it in for another 10sec. You may need some help as it is hard to both hold in reset and apply power. It will show success by rapidly blinking the front led. Release the reset.. and wait a couple of min for the TC to reset and come back with factory settings. If the front LED doesn’t blink rapidly you missed it and simply try again. The reset is fairly fragile in these.. press it so you feel it just click and no more.. I have seen people bend the lever or even break it. I use a toothpick as tool.
N.B. None of your files on the hard disk of the TC are deleted.. this simply clears out the router settings of the TC.
Setup the TC again.
ie Start from a factory reset. No files are lost on the hard disk doing this.
Then redo the setup from the computer with Yosemite.
1. Use very short names.. NOT APPLE RECOMMENDED names. No spaces and pure alphanumerics.
eg TCgen5 and TCwifi for basestation and wireless respectively.
Even better if the issue is more wireless use TC24ghz and TC5ghz with fixed channels as this also seems to help stop the nonsense. But this can be tried in the second round.
2. Use all passwords that also comply but can be a bit longer. ie 8-20 characters mixed case and numbers.. no non-alphanumerics.
3. Ensure the TC always takes the same IP address.. you will need to do this on the main router using dhcp reservation.. or a bit more complex setup using static IP in the TC. But this is important.. having IP drift all over the place when Yosemite cannot remember its own name for 5 min after a reboot makes for poor networking. If the TC is main router it will not be an issue.
In your case bridge is most likely required.. and it is up to you how you deal with this one.. for now see if it is stable.. if it gives you issues come back and fix it.
4. Set IPv6 to link-local only on the computer..
This is strange one in that apple should have fixed this up ages ago.. but we are finding the auto setting even on Yosemite is still giving the wrong setup.

AirPort Extreme Would like to eliminate comcast netgear router. Flashing amber light.

Hi. I have Comcast service for TV and Internet. The provided Comcast modem is an Aries and the router is a Netgear. Both are located on my garage at a panel box where all cables come in and get distributed around the house with an 8 port switch (large house- all wired with rg6 and coaxial). The layout is comcast main cable-aries modem-netgear router- netgear switch- wall jacks through out house. As expected the wired signal from the provided netgear router only worked near the garage. So I purchase an AirPort Extreme and hooked it up to the wired signal at the middle of house Internet jack. Questions:
1). My AirPort Extreme has a flashing amber light. Can't get a green signal. But it works
2). Can I get rid of the Comcast netgear modem? Compatibility with AirPort Extreme ?? I would save money from rental!!!
3). If so would the signal from the new AirPort Extreme cover the house from the garage?
4). Is there a better way of configuring the network? Or another piece of equipment that I need to buy?
Thanks

Confirm the Ethernet jack you are using is operative by connecting a computer to it and temporarily disabling the computer's wireless.
If you use AirPort Utility on a computer or iOS device, it will tell you the reason the Extreme's LED is flashing. I suspect it has not been configured as a bridge - change its "Connection Sharing" to "Off (Bridge Mode)". Make its wireless network name and security settings identical to your existing wireless network.
You will still require Comcast's Arris modem.
The signal from the new Extreme, plus that of your existing Netgear router, should be sufficient to provide wireless service for most modest sized houses. It's impossible to be certain due to the nature of wireless communication.
A garage is not the ideal location for either a wireless access point or a switch. Since both of them need to connect more or less radially to the devices that require it, a better location is in the center of a house. Panel boxes are almost always in a corner. That's convenient for public utilities, not so much for wireless. It's also the easy way if you're a Comcast technician. If your house is already wired for Cat 6 as well as cable, it would not involve much additional effort to relocate your Comcast modem and existing router so that your wireless network will serve your house more effictively. Two wireless access points as you propose will also mitigate this.

Having trouble setting up Airport Extreme Base Sation

Hi,
I'm new to a wireless set up for my Mac.
Initially I tried to set up entering various passwords along the way and discovered my cables were not connected correctly - I rectified this and tried again.
I was then encouraged to proceed via Bridge mode which I did and eventually got a confirmation that set up was complete. However my light on the Airport Extreme went from solid green to a slow amber flash and I was made aware of 2 problems by AirPort utility 1) Your Apple Wi-Fi base station does not have a valid IP address 2) This Apple Wi-Fi base station doesn't have any DNS server addresses and might have trouble connecting to the internet
Despite this I am connected wirelessly to the internet and so wondered how, or if I need to, solve these two problems?
Thanks for any help on this

Update
I skipped the problems and updated anyway - It then came back with the 2nd problem and a few moments later said this was resolved. I still had amber light but after starting AirPort Utility a couple of times I eventually got a solid green light and no reported problems.

Airport Extreme invalid IP address, no DNS server

Hardware: Motorola SURFboard SB6141, Airport Extreme A1408
I recently set up a new internet service with Cox, plugged in the SB6141 and A1408 and everything set up perfectly, solid green light and wireless was flawless. However, electricity to my house had to be reset, and when the power came back on the green light on the Airport Extreme started to flashing amber. I did several hard/factory resets of the Airport Extreme as well as unplugging the modem and leaving everything unplugged for several minutes and then plugging everything back in. No matter what combination of things I try to do, the Airport Utility always tells me the same 2 errors: invalid IP address and no DNS server. Why was the Airport Extreme able to automatically set up the first time, but not now? Any ideas of what I can do? Thanks!

I have also looked through other threads about this same problem, but none of the solutions (e.g. posts by Tesserax, followed to the letter) so far have worked.
Here are other things I have tried:
1. Called Cox to have them reset my modem, internet works through Ethernet directly from the modem
2. Downgraded AEBS firmware to 7.6.1 (oddly enough, now I cannot for the life of me update the firmware back to 7.6.4, always says cannot connect to update server)
I ran through the various solutions from this thread: "No DNS servers" and "Internet connection" problems with Comcast?
Still getting that pesky blinking amber light.

Airport Extreme Disappears (wi-fi and wired)

I've had a Airport Extreme for the past 2+ years and it has worked near flawlessly until a just few weeks ago. At first I thought the problem (described below) was just an isolated incident, but it is now occuring several times a week and sometimes even a few times a day.
My network configuration is simple, I have a Cable Modem connected to the AE which connects to various clients in the house both wirelessly and wired.
I'll be working away on something, either at my iMac (wired) or on my Macbook (wireless), when all of a sudden my connection to the AE and internet is lost. Both my private and guest wi-fi networks disappear as does my wired network, and the AE can no longer be found by Airport Utility via both wi-fi or wired connections. Airport Utility tells me that no base stations are on the network and will hum away indefinately looking for one.
When I physically inspect the AE the status light is green (as are all the status lights on my cable modem), but to correct the issue I must bounce the power on the AE. Once the AE's power has been cycled, all quickly returns to normal, connectivity is restored and the AE can again be seen and accessed through Airport Utility.
I've performed a two factory resets of the AE, but the problem persists.
I'm not much of a network guy and nothing of any substance has changed on the network in recent months, so I am puzzled as to what could be causing this and what to do about it. Any suggestions? Could this be a sign of the AE's impending death?
TIA!

Please post if this happens again. I already posted another thread on this so I won't elaborate here but I am having intermittent freezes of both AirPort Extreme and Express - solid green light, no connectivity of either wired or wireless connections from the devices. Still haven't found a fix! I'm also on 7.6.3 but the problem was occurring on 7.6.1 so I don't think that it is related to firmware per se. There are some threads going WAY back (2006) describing this situation but it never seems to have been resolved.

Airport Extreme Base station cannot connect to Westell C90-36R516-01 DSL modem

Hi,
I just purchased a new Airport Extreme Base station for my 15" Macbook Pro. I set everything up this morning per the docs (all cables are connected properly) but the Airport Extreme is flashing an amber LED, which means it cannot establish communication to the network/Internet.
I'm using an old Westell C90-36R516-01 DSL modem that has been working fine up until now. I've tried switching out the Ethernet cables and different powering on/off combos but nothing appears to work. When I connect the Ethernet cable directly into my laptop, I have to power down the DSL modem, power it back on, and then do several refreshes before I finally get an Internet connection.
I read a previous post about unplugging the modem overnight and then plugging it in the next morning to wipe out the MAC address setting. I will be trying that tonight, but I was wondering if there was anything else I could try in the meantime? Or, is it simply a matter of having to get a newer modem from Verizon because this one is 7-8 years old?
Thanks for any help you can provide.
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Hi Max,
Let's start from the beginning,
The ethernet from the modem should be wired to the Wan port of the Airport...
On page 28 of the users manual it says if the light flashes amber you should unplug the power of the modem, wait a few seconds and power up the modem.
I presume you installed the Airport utility from the disk that came with the Airport?
For more information about the reason the light flashes
Open AirPort Utility, select your base station, and then choose Manual Setup from the Base Station menu. ClickBase Station Status to display information about the flashing light
Here is a link to the Manual CLICK HERE
I was hoping to find out more about the Airport utility to see what's it's capable of doing...

Airport Extreme Printer WI-FI Connection

I'm trying to connect my Epson Workforce 630 to Airport Extreme WI-FI network via PC Windows 7 OS. It asks for a Security code instead of a password. The Airport extreme doesn't have a security code. How do I connect?

Please post if this happens again. I already posted another thread on this so I won't elaborate here but I am having intermittent freezes of both AirPort Extreme and Express - solid green light, no connectivity of either wired or wireless connections from the devices. Still haven't found a fix! I'm also on 7.6.3 but the problem was occurring on 7.6.1 so I don't think that it is related to firmware per se. There are some threads going WAY back (2006) describing this situation but it never seems to have been resolved.

Airport Extreme reverts to solid amber

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for