Help - Airport network not working - confused!!

Question

Hello, I wonder if anyone out there can help. I have got a problem with my airport network that doesn't make any sense and I havent seen another post with the same problems.
I have an imac G5 with 10.3.9. I have a wireless network set up, with an airport wireless card and two ax boxes (the second was bought later to boost the signal when we moved the Mac to another room). Initially it set up fine and worked for about 8-9 months. Then I noticed the second ax started behaving strangely. It would occasionally turn from 'green' to flashing amber for no reason - often after it had been on for a while. Turning it off and on did not change anything. Usually though it would work again the next day after being off all night. This continued to happen randomly until a couple of months later it switched to flashing amber continually.
I thought it had 'lost' the network so I tried using the airport set up assistant to reconnect it. However the set up assistant does not recognise ax number 2 any more, so I am not able to reconnect it. At the moment I am running off a faint signal from ax number 1.
I also tried setting up a completely new network from scratch. Again the new network is fine from the base ax bx but ax number 2 is still not recognised by my mac.
I also have a wireless printer connected to the network which does not work any more. This is where things became more confusing. The printer needs a boost signal to operate so when my booster ax went wrong the printer would not work. So I moved the printer and mac nearer ax number 1 to ensure it would pick up the network. However it still didn't work. So I attempted to set up the printer as wireless again, thinking it had become 'disconnected' somehow. However during installation you have to select the network to connect to. The computer would not pick up the apple network at all from ax number 1, yet it easily recognises our neighbours network from the flat above us. Strangely when I tried turning on the faulty ax box, the printer set up program picked up the faulty ax and not the original ax. But obviously I can't use the printer from the faulty ax box because it doesnt connect to the rest of the network.
So now I am confused. I am not sure what has gone wrong and what I need to replace. Originally I thought it was the second ax box that had gone wrong. But as the printer software can identify the second ax box I am not sure that this is the problem. Could there be something wrong with the airport card? I have checked that the card is properly connected and there is nothing visibly wrong there.
If anyone can help - please reply as I am going crazy here with things not working and don't know what to do next.
Thanks, Wrenster

Answer 1

Hello Wrenster,
I understand why you are confused, I was too while reading your post. However I have the solution for you. I believe you are a victim of environmental interference. Someone in your neighborhood just moved in with a another network, someone had a baby and is using a baby monitor, or maybe a local ham radio operator just got his license. Who knows!
This is what you need to do. Get all the devices in the same room and preform a hard restart on each one them per http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=108044. Remember to preform a hard restart! After performing a hard restart on all three devices check the wireless networks available. You should have 3 ( one main and 2 airport expresses) ( or two depending on how many airports you own, I am not sure from your post). If you don't have the correct amount you may a bum base station and it may need to be replaced. But if you have the correct number of wireless networks ( Apple network XXXXXXX), use the airport admin utility ( inside of the utility folder ) to locate the main base station and configure it.
You will know when you are on the configuration page when you can read Name, Contact and Location.
First change the name to the location of the main base station, ie; it is the den so name should read DEN. leave the contact and location alone. On the bottom half of the page is where you create your network, so under network name change it to your desired network name ie; when others come over to my house I have them select COWSWEAT from the network list.
Second click on the change wireless security and set the security to WEP 128 BIT and make your password. Once you have configured a successful password be sure to click on the lock on the main configuration page ( the one with password under it) to get the HEX password for your PC friends.
Third ( we are almost done ) Select the WDS tab at the top and enable this base station as a main station. Select allow other wireless client on this base station as well. Now on that empty list box below click the plus sign to the right to add other base stations to this WDS network. From here you should be able to select the other 2 base station that we have not configure yet ( but preformed a hard restart on). After you have added them ( be sure the check box for auto configure is selected) they should read in the list that was empty on the WDS page.
Now update this should start the update process and may take 5-10 mins, it should provide a summery pop-up when with each station is done.
( Also you may get a message that there is update for the base station, please preform the updates for the selected base stations)
Now when it is completed check to see how many networks you have available ( it should only be one ). Select the network and confirm that all of your base stations appear under the select a base station in Airport admin utility, then move them back to their homes around the house. Giving them 45 secs to restart they should turn green if not , they could out of range of each other or the environmental interference could be affecting them. So you my need to rearrange them until they all green.
Good Luck,
Cowsweat