Airport Extreme - USB Hard Disk Runs Slow

I have the new Airport Extreme with a USB hub connecting to an HP printer and a Hard Disk. Everything works fine except the HD is very slow in Windows Explorer, saving and opening files. The access and speed to the disk from my macbook is great. Runs very slow from my dell laptop running XP.
I am running the Airport Disk Utility.
Any ideas how I can speed up the performance from my Dell laptop w/XP?
Dell Windows XP macbook

I've had a similar problem, but unlike you, the drive's contents completely disappear... I dont dare try to add anything to the drive in that condition.
Here is what seems to work, but I am still fiddling with it. I am a PC Windows XP environment, with 2 wireless laptops and 2 desktops. I was having trouble with the reliability of the drive until I reformatted the airdrive as a MAC HFS+ file using MacDrive. This creates some of its own problems and hence this suggestion might not apply to you. The problem seems to arise when I unplug and reconnect the drives from my Airport. When I plug it in directly to my PC, it says there are some volume errors. When I run the repair facility (kind of like chkdsk on FAT32 drives) and then reconnect to my AEBS, it seems to work. You might want to try that. Hope this is helpful, but clearly, Apple needs to issue a patch to resolve these issues.

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Airport Extreme usb hard drive connection loss after closing finder window

I just did a software update on my MacBook Pro and now I am experiencing a weird Airport Extreme usb hard drive issue. I can see the name of my airport extreme in the Shared section of my finder window. However when I click on it, the finder indicates the it's connecting, but it stops immediately and displays the 'Not Connected' message. When I click on the 'Connect As' button, I am prompted to enter my password and if I click 'Connect', it just spins out endlessly. However, when I re-enter the password and press Connect, my usb drive mounts. I can view, access and use the drive's contents, but if I close the finder window, the connection drops and I have to re-connect. What else is weird, is that once I see my drives, the finder indicates that I am connected as another user(not a user native to this computer). This issue did not exist before my software update.
My software log update indicates that the following items have been installed:
Canon Printer Software Update 2.3 and Security Update 2010-003.
I suspect it has something to do with the Security Update. Is there a way I can revert to the previous security version? Or is there any other solution that could help me avoid re-connecting to my airport extreme usb hard drives?
I will really appreciate any feedback.

Free Solution:
Sure there's a »fix« with Apple software. You'll need to install the Developer Tools (Xcode) from the Snow Leopard Install DVD, though.
After you've done that, you can use "SetFile" to clear the Alias bit from the misbehaving Volume:
/usr/bin/SetFile -a a /Volumes/<YourExternalDriveName>
Please keep in mind that using this command might be dangerous, so don't try this solution unless you feel confident on the command line. (See http://developer.apple.com/mac/library/documentation/Darwin/Reference/ManPages/m an1/SetFile.1.html or invoke /usr/bin/SetFile without arguments for more info on the SetFile command.)
...a similar discussion and answer can be found at: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2131824&start=45&tstart=0

AirPort Extreme USB Connected Disk Drive Not Visible To Time Machine

My AirPort Extreme USB connected disk drive is visible in the Finder and desktop. It is not visible to Time Machine. When I open Time Machine and bring up the "Choose Backup Disk" the AirPort Extreme USB connected disk drive is not visible.
What am I missing here?

Hi Pete Mackie-
Nope. You aren't missing anything.
Mac OS X 10.5: Time Machine doesn't back up to AirPort Disks
Luck-
-DaddyPaycheck

How to share Windows 7 Internet connection AND Extreme USB hard disk?

Hi All,
I'm trying to share the mobile broadband Internet connection on a Windows 7 PC as well as the USB hard disk connected to the Airport Extreme (2nd Gen) with other WiFi devices. The problem is that I can get either the one to work or the other, but not both.
When I configure the Airport Extreme for DHCP+NAT, all machines on the Airport network can see each other, share files, etc. When I enable Internet Connection Sharing on the Windows 7 machine, the only way I've gotten that to work is to set the Airport Extreme to bridge mode, but then file sharing of the Airport Extreme's disk no longer works.
Device info: Internet-connected Dell Latitude E5420 Windows 7 Professional 32-bit, Airport Extreme 802.11n (2nd Gen), Windows XP Home Edition + Nokia N8 + etc. WiFi devices.
I've read all the manuals I could find and searched these forums but haven't been able to figure out a solution. I'm really getting desperate and will really appreciate any and all suggestions!
Many thanks,
Francois

I've found a solution that works with my existing equipment. It's now possible to share the Windows 7 machine's Internet connection at the same time as the AirPort's drive. An additional challenge was to avoid having to manually reconfigure every WiFi client, but it turned out that's also possible.
For the sake of posterity, here's the guide! :-)
Background
My setup is based on an AirPort Extreme access point WiFi network. The AirPort shares a hard drive, and a number of Windows clients connect to the network. One of these, a Windows 7 machine, has a USB mobile broadband dongle which I also wanted to share with the network.
Previously I got this to work, but whatever configuration I came up with required manual reconfiguration of each network client, one way or the other. This was not ideal. Also, Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) defaults to IP address .1, the same one to which the AirPort defaults. This needed manual reconfiguration of the ICS host each time ICS was turned on.
Solution
THIS SOLUTION REQUIRES THE AIRPORT TO BE IN EITHER DHCP + NAT OR DHCP MODE. IF FOR SOME REASON YOU DEPEND ON THE AIRPORT BEING IN BRIDGE MODE, UNFORTUNATELY THIS SOLUTION WILL NOT WORK FOR YOU.
1. Do the AirPort's non-Internet configuration
On the AirPort Utility main screen, click the AirPort button, work through all the tab sheets and configure the items as you require. Do the same for the Printers, Disks and Advanced buttons. Once that's complete, we can do the Internet configuration.
2. Set the AirPort to DHCP & NAT
This is needed so you can choose the AirPort network address in the next step (but you can still set a different Connection Sharing mode later on, see step 7). For now, set Connection Sharing to Share a public IP address:
3. Set the AirPort to the same network address as ICS
Set the AirPort to the network address used by ICS, namely 192.168.137.xyz. Note that the AirPort does not allow a beginning address below 2:
4. Obtain the AirPort's MAC addresses
These will be used in the next step. Record both the Airport ID as well as the Ethernet ID:
5. Fix the AirPort IP addresses to prevent clashing with ICS
The AirPort will default to the same IP address as ICS, namely 192.168.137.1. To prevent this, assign different addresses to the AirPort with DHCP reservations. Underneath DHCP Reservations, click the '+' and create reservations for each of the AirPort and Ethernet interfaces. You can use other values, but to be consistent with the rest of this guide use 192.168.137.253 for the AirPort interface and 192.168.137.254 for the Ethernet inteface:
6. Distribute ICS configuration data with AirPort DHCP
Yes, you read right! This is where the magic happens. To avoid having to manually configure each WiFi client for the additional ICS network, that configuration data is included with the AirPort DHCP configuration. Assuming you've stuck to the numbers above, configure the TCP/IP screen exactly as shown. .254 is the AirPort router (and also its Ethernet interface) address, and .1 is the IP address that Windows configures for the ICS interface:
7. Set AirPort Connection Sharing
If your AirPort is sharing a connection on its WAN port, choose Share a public IP address, otherwise choose Distribute a range of IP address. In the latter case the NAT tab disappears:
8. Save your AirPort's configuration
Your AirPort configuration is now complete and you can push the Update button. Once your AirPort has rebooted, its network will be fully operational.
9. Ensure your Internet sharing port is correctly configured
ICS involves two network ports on the sharing computer - the shared Internet-connected port, and the sharing port connected to your local network. When you enable ICS on the shared port, Windows will temporarily configure the sharing port's settings to fit in with the scheme above (it will get the fixed IP address 192.168.137.1). When ICS is disabled, Windows will restore the default configuration of the sharing port. The purpose of this step is to ensure that the default sharing port configuration is correct. When ICS is inactive the sharing port needs to obtain an IP address automatically from the AirPort via DHCP. Right-click your chosen WiFi sharing connection > Properties > Networking > Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) > Properties and configure as follows:
10. Share your Internet connection
Right-click the connection you want to share > Properties > Sharing and configure as follows (you may find the other settings also useful but they're not covered here):
And now you're ready to enjoy your local network services as well as your shared Internet connection, all on your Airport Extreme network - without having to lift a finger to configure network clients!
Windows Network Profiles
If you use Windows network profiles to distinguish between Home, Work and Public networks, here are some additional notes you may find useful.
As Windows recognises networks, it applies their assigned profiles which add or remove sets of restrictions wrt. network discovery, file & printer sharing and so on. The amount of ICS configuration data that can be included with AirPort DHCP information is limited and in some instances this interferes with how Windows recognises networks.
It seems that Windows recognises a network once a default router has been configured for it. Following are some known scenarios with fixes for each, based on that principle.
1. WiFi network not recognised
When ICS is enabled, on the ICS host Windows configures only an IP address for the sharing port and no default router. When ICS is disabled, on the ICS host this port receives its configuration from the AirPort via DHCP, as do all other WiFi clients. This DHCP configuration includes router information for the ICS network, but again no router information for the AirPort network itself.
Therefore the AirPort network is not recognised on any Windows machines on the WiFi network, under any circumstances.
To make Windows recognise the AirPort network, execute the following from the command line with Administrator privileges:
     route -4 add 0.0.0.0 mask 0.0.0.0 192.168.137.254 metric 3000
This metric is high enough to ensure that "real" default routes get preference over this one.
If you want to remove the above routing table entry, execute the following from the command line with Administrator privileges:
     route -4 delete 0.0.0.0 192.168.137.254
For convenience I created shortcuts for these two commands.
2. WiFi network recognised, unrecognised network remains
Once you've added the route above to make Windows recognise your AirPort network, when ICS is disabled Windows will probably identify TWO networks on your WiFi adapter:
     Unidentified network, your_AirPort_network
Windows now recognises your AirPort network, but the DHCP router entry for the inactive ICS network makes it think there must be yet another network. However, the 192.168.137.1 ICS port is not present when ICS is inactive, so Windows reports the inactive router entry as an unidentified network.
If you want to remove this unidentified network/router entry, execute the following from the command line with Administrator privileges:
     route -4 delete 0.0.0.0 192.168.137.1
On your Windows ICS host, removing this entry can cause no harm.
However, on network clients where you removed this entry and subsequently want to share your Internet connection from again, you'll need to add it back.
To restore the ICS router entry, execute the following from the command line with Administrator privileges:
     route -4 add 0.0.0.0 mask 0.0.0.0 192.168.137.1 metric 1

AirPort Extreme & USB Hard Drive Time Machine Backups

Hi everyone. I'm a brand spanking new MacBook Pro owner and am looking at ways to backup my machine and to save my films, photos and files on a wireless network that is available to everyone in my home.
I'm the first to admit that I'm not the most computer savvy person but I'm okay with the basics. I've read through a lot of forum sites and the community pages on here and most seem to recommend Synology products. They do seem very good but are a good price too once you've bought the hard drives to go with it. I already own an external hard drive so I thought that maybe the AirPort Extreme would be the ideal choice as I know that it can be connected and files can be saved wirelessly. I did read tonight however that you cant backup your macbook using time capsule which is a little bit annoying.
I have two questions really, firstly is it the case that time machine won't backup to an external hard drive connected to the AirPort Extreme and secondly, how important is it to back up through time machine? I'm what you could describe as a low level user and will only be using it for simple tasks such as watching/saving films, storing and editing photographs, surfing the web and saving the odd pages and numbers document.
Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.
Simon

I have two questions really, firstly is it the case that time machine won't backup to an external hard drive connected to the AirPort Extreme and secondly, how important is it to back up through time machine?
The very latest 802.11ac version of the AirPort Extreme DOES support Time Machine backups to attached external USB HDDs. All other 802.11n models are not supported by Apple for these types of backups. A number of folks have been successful doing so, but most typically post here about data corruption issues.
Time Machine is not the only backup strategy, but it is very convienent. I would recommend that your overall backup strategy includes at least two types of backups: 1) Incremental ... like the ones Time Machine supports, and 2) Disk cloning. The latter is very effective for quickly getting you back up and running if your Mac suffers an internal HDD loss.

Time capsule or Airport Extreme + USB hard drive

I would like to get a wireless update solution (to work with time machine) and I am considering the following options:
1. Time Capsule 1TB
2. Time Capsule 500GB + USB external hard drive attached to the time capsule (in case I need more storage than the 500GB on the Time Capsule)
3. Airport Extreme Base Station + USB external hard drive attached (to use with Time Machine)
I am wondering what the opinions are in this forum. What is cheaper? More reliable? Better?
Any other suggestions? Thanks!
I am running Mac OS X 10.5.5 on an iMac

Yeah, I've seen your explaination that those are glasses before. But I can see why some might be confused. (First laugh of the day!)
No I hadn't tried that yet because my 2 external HDs are Firewire. But it just so happens that I picked up a USB WD500Gig yesterday and am starting an initial TM backup to it now via USB - after having reformatted it of course.
I am assuming, though, that as soon as I move it from my MB Pro to the TC that the TM backups will be broken and I'll have to start a new set of backups to create the disk image (sparsebundle). However, it will give me an opportunity to see if backups created locally (USB) can be viewed via "Browse Other TM Disks" when they are connected to a TC.
I'm curious how it works out, though, because I've noticed a few comments here that state these drives (or one of the WD models) has trouble waking from sleep for routine backups when connected to the TC USB port. I guess I'll find out.
Great to hear from you.

Remote access the airport extreme usb hard drive over the internet with multiple users?

I just purchase the new airport extreme 802.11n and set it up on my LAN behind a comcast modem with broadband. I plugged a 3 tb Seagate hard drive formatted with fat32 (default) to it and have set it up for access for all of my computers, ipad, iphone, android in my house. Everything works as expected, internet access, file access to the USB HD on all devices locally through back to my mac. I would now like to allow my daughters in another state to access this drive through the Airport Extreme remotely from their location and have there own accounts on this hard drive to store and move their files for on the go access. I have studied many of the forums and have enabled share disks over WAN, Enable file sharing but no body really gives an exact method of connecting remotely. I had one of my daughters try on her Macbook Pro laptop through the finder, connect to server, by giving her the IP address. She could see the name of the Airport Extreme but could not access the hard disk and got a "Not able to connect message". I am obviously missing something simple that needs to be checked or setup but have drained my brain trying to figure it out. Most of the forums describe clicking manuel setup on the Airport utility, but with version 6.1 this is now where to be found. I have a DYN account but could not figure out where to input this in the Airport utility.
There is a network option which has DHCP lease and range and a box for Enable NAT port Mapping Protocal with Enable default host at:
I am guessing that this is for some other purpose though. Please help

Try installing AirPort Utility 5, then you may be able to follow the guides you mentioned earlier:
http://macintoshdesktop.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/airport-utility-56-and-mountain-l ion.html

Access AirPort Extrems USB hard drive from Android

I'm starting a new discussion because I erroneously marked my earlier discussion "solved".
I've been using a USB connected disk drive on my AirPort Extreme from my Android tablet for years. Since upgrading the AirPort to version 7.6.4 I can no longer access the disk drive from the tablet. I have not changed anything on the tablet, only the AirPort.
The tablet can see the AirPort itself as 10.0.1.1 and can see the attached disk drive, but when I try to access the drive I get a series of possible errors including Firewall issues, SMB service is off or out of scope and WLAN is off.
I don't know how to look at the firewall on the AirPort or check on the SMB service (I can't find either topic in AirPort Utility).
I have tried a factory reset, and also reverting back to version 7.5.2 as suggested in the other thread, but I still get the same message when I try to connect.
The drive is fully accessible from either of the two Macs on the network.
Please help - I really need to access files on this disk from the tablet. I konw Dropbox will work, but ti's cumbersome and I don't really want some of the files to live on Dropbox.
Walt

I would venture to say that the issue may be related to the AirPort firmware update not being compatible with the current version of firmware on your Android tablet. Of course, you probably already know this. I'm not aware of any incompatibilities between these two devices as Apple has not provided any information on this.
As far as firewall on the AirPort, unless you are accessing the Extreme from a remote location its NAT firewall would be a mute issue. About SMB, this is automatically enabled when you configure the Extreme to share out an external USB HDD. So there is no setting to change there either.
I have tried a factory reset, and also reverting back to version 7.5.2 as suggested in the other thread, but I still get the same message when I try to connect.
If your Android was not having this issue when the Extreme was running 7.5.2 firmware, but is now after downgrading it to this version tends to make me believe the issuse may be with your tablet. Is there a potential firmware update for it?

Airport Extreme USB Hard Drive & Time Machine?

For my iMac I have a FW800 external drive set to perform Time Machine backups.
My question though, is for my Macbook Pro. If I get a USB drive, can it be set and operate as a Time Machine backup through the Airport Extreme? I thought this was a possibility, but have not seen anything addressing this.
Thank you!

As Tesserax says, backing-up to a USB drive connected to an Airport Extreme is not reliable.
You do have a wireless option, though: back up via your network to a "shared" drive connected to the iMac. If it's large enough, you can use the same one the iMac is backing-up to. See #22 in [Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/FAQ.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of the +Time Machine+ forum) for details.

Airport Extreme - USB Shared Disk Access

I've configured my AEBS for wireless internet and I have a USB ext hd connected to it as well. Airport Utility recognizes it, but how do I access it from my computer? I've followed the steps to enable file sharing on the WAN, but I don't know where to locate the drive.
Help?
macbook pro Mac OS X (10.4.10)

Assuming that you have in fact set up your AEBS correctly and that AirPort disk is enabled, you should be able to connect to it several ways. The simplest way is to launch the AirPort Disk Utility and tell it to auto-mount the drive whenever you are connected to your AEBS. If you are like me, however, and don't like to have your external hard drive mounted all the time, then you can manually mount it by navigating to "Network" in the Finder, selecting your base station, and clicking the "Connect" button. You should then be presented with a list of the hard drives connected to your AEBS which you can select from and mount.

Hard disk runs slow/beach balls since installing Leopard

Hi,
Since installing Leopard I've found any sustained disk use (copying files, extracting archives etc) incredibly slow, much slower than under 10.4. I've even done a clean install after a format, performed a disk verify and repair from the install boot CD and still no luck. It just seems that hard drive operations run frustratingly slow, and also cause general use of the system to momentarily hang.
Has anybody else experienced this problem? I have a 24" iMac Core 2 Duo (not the aluminium new one) with 4gb of ram.
best,
andrew

You may be able to repair this with the10.5.1 Combo Update
(I usually don't recommend updating to fix an issue but this is the first combo update in 10.5)
The combo update is a fuller install, as opposed to an incremental "delta" update (the one you get through SU) so it should overwrite any files that are damaged or missing. It does not matter if you have applied it before. It has worked well for many.
Remember to Verify Disk before update and repair permissions after update from /Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility.
-mj
[email protected]

HT1331 How to mount an airport extreme UBS hard disk volume in iOS ?

Looking to access my network drive from my iPad, iPhone and Apple TV

Don't know about an Apple TV, but an App like Filebrowser will allow your iPhone and iPad to access files on your network drive.
Stratospherix - Products - FileBrowser - Overview

Using Airport Extreme- Printers & Hard Drives - Mac and WIndows XP Network

I might be asking a really dumb question now, I have a Mac Pro, a PC my sons use and a laptop my wife uses. The PC and laptop both run XP Pro.
I have my Airport Extreme set up and working well with my BT Home Hub acting as my modem only - that went much easier than I thought.
All I want to do is to set up a network - my Mac (wired) to my Airport Extreme with a Canon Printer and external hard drive. I also want to be able to share files on the PC and Laptop (wireless) with other users as well as the printers. Ideally, i'm looking for a video website that will easily show how to set this up. I appreciate I may need to view several clips to get this sorted. I have tried YouTube without much success.
As I said, this may be a dumb question.
Thanks in advance, Matt

1. So, what I want to do now is share an external hard drive also connected to my AEBS using a USB hub.
AirPort: How to mount an AirPort Extreme USB hard disk volume in Mac OS X and Windows
2. Share files on my other PC machines as well as their printers. So, if I need some text printing done quickly, I would print it from my sons' pc printer downstairs but request it from my mac upstairs.
I'm sure that Windows has the ability to share a printer, but I have no details on how to enable it.
3. Access / share files between Mac Pro, laptop and PC
On your Macs, go to the Sharing preference pane and enable File Sharing. Now they can be seen by other devices.
"How to Share Files between your Mac and PC"
"File sharing between Mac and PC"
4. Access Mac Pro online via Back to my Mac (I do have a mobile me account for this).
In the MobileMe preference pane on the Mac Pro, enable the Back To My Mac feature. Then on your remote Mac the Mac Pro should appear in the Finder's sidebar as a shared item.

Airport extreme will not boot with USB hard disk plugged in.

Hi there,
I'm using the Airport Extreme Base Station, and I find that if I have a USB hard disk plugged into it, it will not boot up, it only hang-ups with an amber light, and stays there indefinitely. It's not a terrible issue because it can be overcome by unplugging the disk then rebooting, but it's irritating, especially when I'm not home and there is a power temporary outage and my wife can no longer access the internet or I can no longer access my disks over the internet.
Is there a solution to this problem?
Thanks,
Marc

I'm going to have to replace the unit, as I'm unable to turn off DHCP services, which is wreaking havoc on my server based environment.
Considering THIS issue *AND* the major DHCP show stopper, frankly, I'm debating etiher the fire pit or tossing the damned thing into the intersection and watching it be reduced to the trash that it is.
Either way, there'll be 7 feet of pack ice in **** before I buy another Apple networking product.
I'll decide later, with a jaundiced eye, regarding our XServe unit. Might reformat it to Linux...

Airport extreme doesn´t recognize usb hard disk

After one year of no problems using it, suddenly, the airport utility doesn´t find my usb hard disk connected to an Airport Extreme base station. There is a firmware upgrade to 7.7.1 for this same but unfrequent and rare issue (Apple´s words), though it is only forseen for the new base stations AirPort Extreme 802.11ac and mine is 802.11n.
Has anyone experienced this problem, any solution?
Thanks in advance.

I just called Apple Care and I'm astonished by the answers that the operator gave me :
- he couldn't confirm if Airport Extreme could handle 4 TB disk drive or not. More : he said he cannot obtain this information.
- he advised me to plug on my Aiport Extreme a 4 TB drive borrowed to a friend, or buy a new 4 TB drive in a shop with a 4 days refund policy (to return the drive after the test).
I was very unsatisfied by these answers, arguing to my operator that for me HE is Apple and I expected him to have informations about the specs of Apple products. In the end he advised me to go in a Genius bar with my hard disk. So I asked him a ticket number to give to the Genius bar. He said there was not.
I'm very frustrated by the very low level of information of this call :
- Apple Care didn't confirmed an information that looks correct according to newsgroups or a technical support reseller,
- Apple Care couldn't confirmed the problem was handled by a developpement team at Apple, neither when it could be published.
Another point about Apple Care : when I called Apple Care Yesterday, they said they couldn't handle my request because I haven't the serial number of the Airport Extreme. I said I wanted to confirm the incompatibility for ALL the Airport Extreme, but they argued they must give me a correct answer for my case, especially. Today, after giving the serial number, they said they couldn't answer.
The Apple technical specification of Airport Extreme don't show any limitation in the size of the drive :
http://support.apple.com/kb/SP628?viewlocale=en_US
The MacWay reseller technical support confirmed me that no Aiport station they sell are supporting today 4 TB drives.

Airport Extreme - USB Hard Disk Runs Slow

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