Airport Utility no longer sees Airport Extreme and I think I need to redo my entire network - can someone help?

Question

I just purchased this new Airport Extreme after my older Airport went down.  This Airport Extreme at times is super fast, but it gives me more headaches than the older version because it seems to drop its signal too often.  Last week I was able to see my Airport Extreme in my Airport Utility and was able to configure it - now Airport Utility can't find any Airport Extreme, although, it shows that I have an internet connection.  I was hoping that someone who knew how to do a nice easy network set-up could help me start from scratch so this is set up right.  As of now, our home uses the wi-fi for 2 Wii consoles, a wi-fi printer, cell phones, and an internet connection for my MacBook Pro - not too many connections, but still my connection drops all the time, all day long for no particular reason whatsoever.  I want to be able to have one good strong connection for my computer and the rest of the connections could be secondary.  I would like if the secondary items used a password, but not the same password as the main connection.  It seems to me like I'm not asking a lot, but I have no idea how to set this up because now I can't even find my Airport Extreme to configure it.
So, if anybody has some advice on the best way to set this up and how I would be able to start that process without being able to even detect my Airport Extreme, I would sure appreciate any effort to help me out on this.

Answer 1

Is your profile up to date?? Lion is not so commonly used now.. but was a lot more reliable than Yosemite.
What modem do you have? Actual make and model is a big help.
What is the main router? Is the modem supplied by ISP? Is it a gateway device?
If you use the airport as bridge or router, I also need to know how it is connected into the system. Mostly people have it via ethernet to the main modem or router.. please confirm.
One very important point.. the Wii need WEP security at least for older models.. You must NOT change security on the Extreme.. It must be set to WPA2 Personal (or nothing if you live at least 2km from other humans).
So, if anybody has some advice on the best way to set this up and how I would be able to start that process without being able to even detect my Airport Extreme
reset to factory and you will get control back.
The best way to test is full factory reset.
Factory reset universal
Power off the AE.. 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 AE 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.
Then redo the setup from the computer or iOS device with latest utility.
1. Use very short names.. NOT APPLE RECOMMENDED names. No spaces and pure alphanumerics.
eg AEgen6 and AEwifi for basestation and wireless respectively.
Even better if the issue is more wireless use AE24ghz and AE5ghz for each band respectively.. with fixed channels as this also seems to help stop the nonsense.
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 AE always takes the same IP address.. this is not a problem if you are using AE as main router but is a problem for when it is used in bridge.. you have to use dhcp reservation from main router or use static IP on the AE setup.
4. Check your share name on the computer is not changing.. make sure it also complies with the above.. short no spaces and pure alphanumeric..
5. Make sure IPv6 is set to link-local only in the computer. For example wireless open the network preferences, wireless and advanced / TCP/IP.. and fix the IPv6. to link-local only.
6. If the AE is bridged and still having dropouts use a LAN port to connect to the main router instead of WAN.. we are finding the AE is problematic on the WAN port.