"bufferbloat", Airport Extreme, and bandwidth limiting?
I have a somewhat complex network setup at home. I have a Cable connection with 20Mbps down, 2 Mbps up, my own Motorola SB6141 cable modem upstream. Plugged into that, I have a recent model Airport Extreme (802.11ac), and an older Airport Extreme set up with a roaming network. The primary clients are recent vintage macbooks, iOS devices, with a smattering of other connected devices (DVR, windows, Synology NAS, etc.
The problem that I'm running into is that network connectivity has lots of issues if I run a large upload that saturates the outbound connection, e.g. with Dropbox or another online backup tool like Arq. When that happens, inbound traffic gets super spotty, and things like Netflix become unusable. peer-to-peer within the network continues to work fine.
As near as I can tell, these are the classic symptoms of "bufferbloat" and from what I've read, the solution to the problem would be to introduce an outbound bandwidth limit (say at 1.98 Mbps) at the first outbound bottleneck, in this case, at the Airport Extreme (ac) connected to the cable modem.
Is there any way to do this? I couldn't find any kind of bandwidth limitation mechanism in the Airport Utility.
Is there any way to do this?
Sorry, but no. The AirPorts are all very simple, bare bones routers with a minimum of functionality.
Similar Messages
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I already have a hard drive connected to my airport extreme, and ws wondering if i could use it as a network storage device. If so would I have to format it with two partitions , one for time machine and the other for network storage. Aprreciate any advice
If you have the hard drive connected to the AirPort Extreme....it is a network storage device.
One issue that you may want to think about is that Apple does not support Time Machine backups to a hard drive at the USB port at the AirPort Extreme.
In spite of this, some users who try this are able to make it work. Others have some limited success and some have no success.
It's not supported....so there will be no help from Apple in the event of problems.
If you decide to proceed with this, make sure that the partition for Time Machine backups is formatted in Mac OS Extended (Journaled) as other formats will not work with Time Machine.
Having a secondary backup plan would also be something that you might want to consider. -
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. -
802.11n AirPort Extreme and Express
Hello,
Thank you in advance for all your help and replies, I truly appreciate it.
I'm looking to purchase an 802.11n Airport Extreme and AirPort Express. I want to setup the Extreme next to my DSL modem and setup the Express in another room and have it extend the wireless network. The Express will also serve as an ethernet port from my DVR unit. I have read different posts that indicated that if I setup the Express to wirelessly connect to the Extreme, via WDS, or some other method, the wireless network will be downgraded to 802.11g. I currently have a 802.11g wireless network. I have one Buffalo Technology 802.11g wireless router and one Buffalo Technology 802.11g router (setup as an access point) and can do everything I need except connect a external HD via USB.
If at all possible, I would like the entire network (Extreme and Express) to use the same SSID and password. Have the Extreme perform the MAC filtering, provide DHCP address, and service a guest network.
So, do I understand what I have read correctly, that connecting an 802.11n Extreme and 802.11n Express via wireless (WDS, or other method) will downgrade the network to 802.11g? Are there any other recommendations on how I should connect these two devices and provide 802.11n service?
Again, thank you in advance.
--GMReedWhen using the "extend" feature with the new 802.11n base stations, the extended wireless network operates in the 802.11n mode. I believe you may be referring to one of two things that may have led you to that conclusion: 1) When extending a network with the older static version of a WDS, the extended network operates in the 802.11g mode. This is true when either or both base stations are 802.11g models, and 2) Non-"n" wireless clients, connected to a "n" network, will bring the network down to the lowest bandwidth level of the oldest standard. Although connecting these types of clients does affect the overall bandwidth available to "n" clients, it does NOT bring the overall wireless network down to "g" or "b" level.
>If at all possible, I would like the entire network (Extreme and Express) to use the same SSID and password.
By default, both base stations must uses the same Network Name or SSID and wireless password to work properly.
>Have the Extreme perform the MAC filtering, provide DHCP address, and service a guest network.
For MAC filtering in an extended network, both base stations must be configured with the same MAC addresses for all clients that you want access to the extended network. The Extreme would provide DHCP service, but (unfortunately) you cannot extend the guest network. -
Hope this makes sense.
At the moment, an Airport Extreme (n) is connected to a single wall outlet by ethernet and sends wifi signals at both 2,4 and 5 GHz.
I would like to add a Time Capsule (also n), position it immediately next to or above this Airport Extreme and connect to the AE with a very short ethernet cable (so not extending the Extreme's wifi signal since that could reduce the signal's strength by half).
This way both are connected to the internet by ethernet (the AE directly to the wall outlet, and the TC to the AE's ethernet out), hence both should be able to send wifi at full signal strength.
In order to achieve full wifi strength I would then set the Extreme to (only) send at 2,4 GHz and the Capsule to (only) send at 5 GHz.
Please note that the house has an open (loft style) floorplan, so there's no reason to position the AE and the TC at a distance from each other for wifi reach throughout the house.
Dear Bob, what do you think? I've been reading up but didn't find a directly related post.
Is this the right way to go about it?
KInd regards.I would like to add a Time Capsule (also n), position it immediately next to or above this Airport Extreme
The position immediately above is poor.. and next to each other is even worse.. you are blocking the antennas from one side or the other..
Please use a patch lead of around 2M (6feet) min.. and place them that far apart.
very short ethernet cable (so not extending the Extreme's wifi signal since that could reduce the signal's strength by half).
Having the devices link wirelessly causes the speed to drop by half which is caused by double hop wireless.. it does not reduce signal actually.. but you can have interference issues.
In order to achieve full wifi strength I would then set the Extreme to (only) send at 2,4 GHz and the Capsule to (only) send at 5 GHz.
Please note that the house has an open (loft style) floorplan, so there's no reason to position the AE and the TC at a distance from each other for wifi reach throughout the house.
The gap between two radio transmitters is so they don't flood the receiver on the unit next to them.. It has nothing to do with the room. If I stick two transmitter/receivers next to each other they need some space. It is also to give full access to the antennas which are spaced around the sides on the older N models.
You also cannot turn off one band.. If they are dual band models.. ie Gen3 AE and later. Gen2 TC and later.. they are permanently dual band. You cannot do anything about it.
You can simply set the channels.. although auto should work.. there are 11 channels for 2.4ghz.. set one to channel 1 and the other to 11.
At 5ghz there are heaps of channels.. set one to 36 and the other to 149.. or whatever is available.
You are not going to achieve anything much doing this unless you have more clients than bandwidth.. ie both boxes can fully service internet to up to 10 clients.. maybe more if each band is used properly.. you will gain nothing using two routers next to each other.
Beaten by your preferred forum eggs spurt.. !! -
Setup a wired network between Time Capsule, Airport Extreme and Express
I currently have a Time Capsule, Airport Extreme N and an Airport Express N. They are currently connected wirelessly via the "extend network" mode. So I do have wireless connection throughout my home but I notice that it is slow especially compared to gigabit Ethernet. I now like to do the same but then connect the three devices over Ethernet as I have on each floor also Ethernet connections available that are connected via a wired switch.
How can I configure the three devices in such a way that they use the gigabit Ethernet wired connections as their "backbone" and then give wireless access to each floor as if it is one wireless network, and where I can connect other wired gigabit devices via the time capsule and airport extreme Ethernet ports?
I have one Internet connection that comes via Ethernet from my cable modem. This is now connected to my time capsule who creates the internal network and assigns internal IP addresses.
Can anybody advise how to configure each device? And to which ethernet port I should Airport Extreme?
Thanks
AlexanderWelcome to the discussion area, Alexander!
+How can I configure the three devices in such a way that they use the gigabit Ethernet wired connections as their "backbone" and then give wireless access to each floor as if it is one wireless network, and where I can connect other wired gigabit devices via the time capsule and airport extreme Ethernet ports?+
You will be setting up what is known as a "roaming" network using the etherent backbone for your network. This will produce the best possible bandwidth on your network for both ethernet and wireless connections.
_On the Time Capsule_
Open AirPort Utility - Click Manual Setup
Click the Wireless tab below the row of icons
Remove the check mark next to "Allow this network to be extended" (This is only checked if you are extending your network using wireless only and you will be using ethernet to connect your devices, not wireless).
Update to save changes and the Time Capsule configuration is complete.
_On the AirPort Extreme_
Connect an ethernet cable from one of the LAN <-> ports on the Time Capsule to your ethernet switch. Then connect another ethernet connection from the switch to the WAN (circle icon) port on the AirPort Extreme.
Open AirPort Utility - Click Manual Setup
Click the Wireless tab below the row of icons
Wireless Mode = Create a wireless network (Not extend as you might think. Extend is only used if the Time Capsule and AirPort Express are connecting using wireless only)
Wireless Network Name = Exact same name as your AirPort Extreme wireless network
Radio Mode = Same setting as your AirPort Extreme
Channel = Automatic
Wireless Security = Exact same setting as your AirPort Extreme wireless network
Wireless Password = Same password as your AirPort Extreme wireless
Confirm Password
Click the Internet icon
Connect Using = Ethernet
Connection Sharing = Off (Bridge Mode)
Update to save changes and configuration is complete
_On the AirPort Express_
You can connect an ethernet cable from the switch..or..from one of the LAN <-> ports on either the Time Capsule or AirPort Extreme, whichever is easier.
Set it up exactly the same as the AirPort Extreme above and update to save changes.
Power off the Time Capsule, AirPort Extreme and AirPort Express for a few moments. Then power up the Time Capsule first and let it run a moment, then power up the AirPort Extreme and then the AirPort Express.
If you have a laptop running Leopard or Snow Leopard, you can move your computer around and check to see which device it is connecting to for wireless. Hold down the option key while you click on the fan shaped AirPort icon at the top of the screen and look for the BSSID. That is the AirPort ID of the device to which you are connected at the time.
To get the AirPort ID of each of your Apple routers, open AirPort Utility and click on a device on the left. On the right, you'll see the AirPort ID for that device.
For ethernet connections, you can plug into an available port on the switch, the Time Capsule, or the AirPort Extreme.
You should be all set. Please post back on your progress. -
I have been using a Mac Mini with an external hard and Time Machine. I bought an Airport Extreme and have had problem setting up the hard drive using the USB port on the Airport Extreme. I also just recently bought a Mac Book Air and hope to have both computers back up to the external hard drive using Time Machine and Airport Extreme. I have been using the optical drive from the Mac mini to load programs into the Mac Book Air. I think I'm just getting confused in Finder. I am just not seeing the hard drive. I ended up plugging the hard drive back into the Mac Mini and that is work fine again. How do I setting the external hard drive up to the AirPort Extreme and use for both computers? Or at least to start with the Mac mini.
It's critical to understand that Time Machine (TM) stores backups differently between local and network drives. That would mean the TM backup on your locally attached USB hard drive will not be directly useable when it is connected to the AirPort Extreme Base Station (AEBS). There is a way to copy a local version to a network version, but it is not fool-proof. When you do connect this drive and point TM to it, TM will start a brand new backup, leaving your existing backup as is.
If your current backup is critical to you, you may want to consider getting a second USB drive to attach to the Extreme and use your existing one as a backup ... or use TM's multi-backup process to backup to more than one destination drive alternatively.
So, at this point, you may want to make a decision on how you want to go forward to help provide a solution for you.
To directly answer your question, when you go to select a destination for a Time Machine backup, the drive(s) that show up under "Backup Disks" are those that TM already recognizes and has backed up to. Those listed under "Available Disks" are drives (either local or on the network) that TM can back up to. -
Airport Extreme and external HDD - cannot be found under Windows (XP/Vista)
Dear All,
I am about to loose it. I have an Airport Extreme (7.4.2), most recent version (802.11n)connected to my cable modem. Attached is a 2TB HFS+ Formated HDD. I have a number of machines. My primary machine is a Dell XPS with Vista and MacDrive installed.
Now: On my AirPort utilities through the Dell the different HDD's connected via USB (I have tried half a dozen) are all visible. They are shared and I have tried all options, e.g. "with Disk Password" etc, tried to give and deny access to guests etc.
I have tried various things incl. switching off the firewall has not been a success either. I am basically ready to buy a Mac now, but I am worried that the problem will persist for all my Windows based PC's.
Who can help with a step to step guide? tried the TCP/IP settings on the XP machine as well (entering the IP address of both Airport Extreme and Express).Hi!
I've got the same problem as of Friday when I upgraded my Notebook from XP to Windows 7.
It does not recognize the HDD anymore, neither on the Windows7 Notebook nor on 2 different XP- PC's.
I disabled the password functionality and removed the HDD several times, no change.
When I look to the data volumes overview in the system settings, all internal HDD's and the CD partition of the Toshiba drive are shown. The HDD partition of the drive is shown as "non allocated".
Is there any workaround to get access to the data????
Best regards,
Helmut -
i have an airport extreme and my computer runs Microsoft windows XP Media Center Edition 2005. I receive an error message saying " airport requires that your computer is running windows xp sp3 or windows vista sp1 or newer"...why?
It is required to be able to connect. Download SP3 here. http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=24
I Hope I Was Able To Help You Or Solve Your Question.
Simmm
3/12/2012
If Someone Helped You, Click
"This Helped Me"
If Someone Solved Your Question, Click
"This Solved My Question" -
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.
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New Airport Extreme and iPhone Issues
I've had the networking day from ****. I previously had a 3rd Gen Time Capsule at our restaurant, connected to a Cisco 26port gigabit POE switch and Comcast digital voice and internet. Over the past few days, employees have reported trouble accessing the the Wifi network. After several restarts and firmware upgrades (including the dreaded "firmware problem" to fine update), nothing worked. I changed channels, back to auto, back to specific channels, back to auto. Made open guest networks. Nothing worked consistently. My iPhone might connect and my friend's might not. Nor his laptop consistently. Our Axis network cameras might take a bit extra time to connect. All quite random and quite frustrating.
So I swap out an older Airport Extreme (4th gen I believe) using the same configuration as the TC (Time Capsule). It works fine, except for the last port not working as expected. No matter, I plug the mac mini into the Cisco switch and off we go. Nevertheless, I'm still told we are suffering random Wifi issues. So I buy a brand new AE (5th gen) today to replace that one. Should work like a charm I thought. Right....
Several hours later, I finally have the new AE working, but only after doing several hard resets/factory restores, the works. For some reason, the mac mini could not successfully update any of the connected AEs - whether connected directly into the same AE, or if the Mini was connected to the switch. Nothing worked. Every time I tried to update the AE, it would hang and force me to unplug and plug it back in. It would also never save setting changes. I finally resorted to a friend's macbook to be able to restore it successfully. And once that worked, the mini was able to update the AE flawlessly. Our Point of Sales (POS) machines connect fine, our cameras connect fine, wifi printer connects, and the mini connects, and everything has internet.
Except my iPhone 5. Of course. It gets a signal fine (full bars). It gets an IP address. But I can't surf the web. Or download email. Or iMessages. Anything. No internet access. I try hard restarts on my iphone. I try assigning IP addresses by MAC address. I try resetting the AE. I try renaming the WiFi name. Nothing. I can make a guest network that works (on a different IP table, btw - 172, not 192.) But other than that, no access. Grrrr.
So I have a "working" AE router where some devices successfully connect (through wifi and ethernet) and some dont' (wifi iPhone). My iPhone connects fine to my home TC. So shouldn't be anything to do with that. But I'm at a loss. I'm going to go back and restore everything and power cycle everything tonight or tomorrow night. I don't know if that will help, but it's worth a try. Lord knows it feels like I've tried everything else.
Anyone have any good ideas of where to start besides voodoo dolls and baseball bats?I took mine back, because I was having these very same issues. We use contivity too. I was able to connect only to one of three of the servers we manage (in Europe). I couldn't connect to the servers in Asia or here in the USA.
Replaced the Airport Extreme with my trusty old d-link 624, and no issues connecting to any of the three hubs.
Otherwise, I liked the Airport Extreme, and I'll consider buying it again when and if they address this VPN issue. I work at home so its obviously a "deal breaker" for me. -
Regarding the product Time Capsule... is the modem the same as the Airport extreme and is the disk drive always running??? I'm worried about it lasting at least five years.
John,
I'd pay good money to bet it wouldn't last 5 years... I don't rate the in built power supply and as for "server grade hard disk" - Hmmmm..... The failure rate of all HD's on the market after 3 year is 60%.
Regards,
Shawn -
Can I connect a 4 TB USB drive to the airport extreme and use it as a network drive for Time Machine
Can I connect a 4 TB USB drive to the airport extreme and use it as a network drive for Time Machine
Yes, if the drive is formatted in Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
The USB port on the Time Capsule is under powered, so you may need use a powered USB hub with the 4 TB drive...even if it has its own power supply. -
How to Set Up Time Capsule With Airport Extreme and Airport Express
Just got a new 1TB Time Capsule. I want it to be the main base station for my network. I already have a network set up with an older Airport Extreme base station and an Airport Express to extend it. I am thinking that rather than setting up the Time Capsule to "join" the old network, the best approach is to disconnect the Airport Extreme and Airport Express and reset them. Then set up the Time Capsule as a brand new network and bring the reset Aiport Extreme and Express onto the new network as if my original network never existed.
Is that the right approach or am I complicating it? Can I just join the Time Capsule to the existing network and still make it the main base station for the network?evelK wrote:
Just got a new 1TB Time Capsule. I want it to be the main base station for my network. I already have a network set up with an older Airport Extreme base station and an Airport Express to extend it. I am thinking that rather than setting up the Time Capsule to "join" the old network, the best approach is to disconnect the Airport Extreme and Airport Express and reset them. Then set up the Time Capsule as a brand new network and bring the reset Aiport Extreme and Express onto the new network as if my original network never existed.
Is that the right approach or am I complicating it? Can I just join the Time Capsule to the existing network and still make it the main base station for the network?
I'd first use AirPort Utility to "Save a Copy As" of your AirPort Extreme settings. Then disconnect it, connect the Time Capsule in its place, and use AirPort Utility's "Import" function to read those settings. (Both of those functions are under AirPort Utility's "File" menu.) You may have to adjust a few settings. Once you have the Time Capsule working as you want, you can reconfigure your AirPort Extreme unit as you wish. -
I didn't realize that Time Capsule will only support the print function of a wireless multifunction printer. So I want to use Extreme for my network to have full use of my printer and use TC as the Time machine backup only. How to I make the connections?
Thanks for your response and this is getting complicated but I just purchased a new iMac as well as the Airport TC. I've had the Airport Extreme for a year or so. The Airport Extreme worked perfectly with my old iMac wirelessly and I had all functions of my printer with no problems. I was expecting the same with the TC. But the instruction that came with TC say to connect the printer to the TC via USB...which I did. And the print function worked perfectly but nothing else. In researching I discovered that when wired that way the TC only supports the print function...not scan or fax or anything else. I tried going wireless since my AE worked perfectly via wireless but I got no printer functions at all that way. But I'm wondering also if I tried that during a time I was having other issues...I had to delete and re-add my printer which solved some other problems. I may try that again...and see if I can get all print functions with just the TC connected
As far as connecting both your AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule on your network, we're not clear on exactly how you want to do this. Will the AirPort Extreme connect to your modem using an Ethernet cable and the Time Capsule connect to the AirPort Extreme using an Ethernet cable?.......or......do you want the Time Capsule to connect to the network using wireless?
Well... first of all I would like not to have to use the AE at all...I would prefer using just my TC for network, all print functions and Time Machine backup if that's possible. My printer will not accept Ethernet connections (Canon MX512).
After failing at getting this to work, I decided I would try to use my AE for net and print functions and just use my TC for Time Machine backup. I tried several different connection configurations with no success until finally I connected cable modem to my AE via Ethernet and went wireless with the AE and printer. but connected the AE to the TC via Ethernet and amazingly everything worked like a charm (for a while) and I was patting myself on the back for being so smart. But now I find that the connection only lasts for a short time. If I leave it for a while the TC goes invisible...or at least I see a message saying the Ethernet is unplugged...but it is not... and I lose internet connection even though I have a green light on my AE. So now I'm at a loss. I don't know why I keep losing network signal and why my system thinks the Ethernet is unplugged.
So... after all this...I figured I wasn't so smart after all and I must have things wired incorrectly.
So... it sounds like you are saying I should go back and try again to get my new TC to work as I want it to via wireless instead of connecting via USB...is that correct? Could you tell me exactly how I should wire my equipment from cable modem to AE and/or TC to achieve net capability, full functions of my printer and Time Machine backup...
Thanks...
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