My Airport Extreme failed security test

Hi,
I just purchased an Airport Extreme (802.11n) to replace my old Linksys router (so that I can have wifi). After I have everything installed, I went to Symantec's Security Check page and ShieldsUP! page to make sure my connection is secure.
http://security.symantec.com/sscv6/home.asp?langid=ie&venid=sym&plfid=10&pkj=ANL RPWFYJOKMFIDPMSV
http://www.grc.com/x/ne.dll?rh1dkyd2
To my horror, Symantec says that one of my ports is OPEN (ICMP Ping), while all others are CLOSED. In my limited understanding, this is definitely not the most desirable situation--not as good as my old Linksys, whose ports are all reported as STEALTH. ShieldsUP! just said that I failed because of the open ICMP port.
My questions are:
1. Is this the best Airport Extreme can do?
2. Am I safe?
3. Can I change any settings to make my network more secure?
I can't find much info from Apples' documentation and the Support website.
Thanks!
Al

Hi lancia,
I am not that worried about security between the Airport and my computers. As I understand it, that connection is pretty secure. What I am worried about is the security between the Airport and the Internet. Namely, whether the Airport can protect the computers behind it.
As the connecting point between my home network and the outside world, the Airport has what is called a Firewall to keep people from outside of my home network from accessing my computers. It is supposed to block all the ports except those that are in use by the computers so that outsiders cannot hack in. For each port there are three possible settings: Open, Closed, and Stealth. If a port is open, computers from outside can talk to my computer which is behind the Firewall (for example, web browser traffic typically goes through port 80). If a port is closed, Airport tells the outside computer that it is not taking any calls. If the port is set to stealth, the call is left unanswered, thus hiding my very existence from that computer.
Apple chooses to make Airport's Firewall to only close all the ports not in use, since that is sufficient for protection. But from what I have read about Internet security, it is best to set your Firewall to stealth. The theory being that, what the hacker does not know exists, he cannot hack.
It is beyond me why the Mac's own Firewall has a stealth setting (System Preferences...>Security>Firewall>Advanced...>Enable Stealth Mode), but the Airport, which is further in the front line, does not.
Hope this helps.

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[svn:bz-trunk] 5137: Fix failing security tests on BlazeDS/ trunk by using a remote object to invalidate the FlexSession at the end of each test method which should cause each test method to run with a new /clean session.

Revision: 5137
Author: [email protected]
Date: 2009-03-02 10:28:59 -0800 (Mon, 02 Mar 2009)
Log Message:
Fix failing security tests on BlazeDS/trunk by using a remote object to invalidate the FlexSession at the end of each test method which should cause each test method to run with a new/clean session. It looks like some test methods were leaving some things in a bad state which was causing the next test that ran to fail. These may be legitimate bugs/issues so we should investigate further to see what sequence of events gets things into a bad state but for these tests we want all of the test methods to run in isolation.
Modified Paths:
blazeds/trunk/qa/apps/qa-manual/WEB-INF/flex/services-config.mods.xml
blazeds/trunk/qa/apps/qa-regress/WEB-INF/flex/remoting-config.mods.xml
blazeds/trunk/qa/apps/qa-regress/testsuites/mxunit/tests/messagingService/security/stream ing-amf/JMSAuthSendSubscribeConstraintTest.mxml
blazeds/trunk/qa/apps/qa-regress/testsuites/mxunit/tests/messagingService/security/stream ing-amf/MessagingAuthProSendTest.mxml
blazeds/trunk/qa/apps/qa-regress/testsuites/mxunit/tests/messagingService/security/stream ing-http/JMSAuthSendSubscribeConstraintTest.mxml
blazeds/trunk/qa/apps/qa-regress/testsuites/mxunit/tests/messagingService/security/stream ing-http/MessagingAuthProSendTest.mxml
Added Paths:
blazeds/trunk/qa/apps/qa-regress/WEB-INF/src/qa/messaging/SessionManager.java

In general theory, one now has the Edit button for their posts, until someone/anyone Replies to it. I've had Edit available for weeks, as opposed to the old forum's ~ 30 mins.
That, however, is in theory. I've posted, and immediately seen something that needed editing, only to find NO Replies, yet the Edit button is no longer available, only seconds later. Still, in that same thread, I'd have the Edit button from older posts, to which there had also been no Replies even after several days/weeks. Found one that had to be over a month old, and Edit was still there.
Do not know the why/how of this behavior. At first, I thought that maybe there WAS a Reply, that "ate" my Edit button, but had not Refreshed on my screen. Refresh still showed no Replies, just no Edit either. In those cases, I just Reply and mention the [Edit].
Also, it seems that the buttons get very scrambled at times, and Refresh does not always clear that up. I end up clicking where I "think" the right button should be and hope for the best. Seems that when the buttons do bunch up they can appear at random around the page, often three atop one another, and maybe one way the heck out in left-field.
While I'm on a role, it would be nice to be able to switch between Flattened and Threaded Views on the fly. Each has a use, and having to go to Options and then come back down to the thread is a very slow process. Jive is probably incapable of this, but I can dream.
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Airport card does not work with Airport Extreme when security is turned on

I have an iMac running OSX 10.4.11 with an Airport card installed (firmware version 9.52).
I recently replaced my Netgear wireless router with an Apple Extreme Base station and now I am not able to connect my iMac to the wireless network when WEP security is turned on - I get an error from the Airport Setup Assistant when I attempt to connect to the wireless network.
It works fine if the wireless security on the Extreme Base station is turned off.
Please help and thanks in advance.
Motasim

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o Re-create the Network Name (SSID) on your AirPort Extreme Base Station (AEBS)
o Try using 128-bit WEP, with a 26-Hex character key for the encryption type.

Airport Extreme N speed test????

I just installed my airport extreme. did a few speed test. The fastest speeds I'm getting are 1436 kbps download and 190 kbps upload.
The N channel is enabled on the iMac (I checked).
Now I just ran a speed test on the same wireless newtwork with my 3 year old PC laptopwith a 802.11b card and I got faster speed..***???? (1453 kbps download and 192kbps upload respectively)
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did I wast $179 on my airport extreme??? I was running a cheap $10 wireless B+G router with okay results
Or am I doing something wrong??
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So is this N channel just a bunch of BS???
No. I presume you did a speed test off the Internet. The Internet connection you have tops out at, perhaps, 1500Kbps down and 256Kbps up. An 11b connection is capable of real-world speeds of about approx 6000Kbps, an 11g capable of 25000Kbps and 11n much faster than that.
The limiting factor here is your Internet connection. Having a faster link between your iMac/laptop and the router is not going to get you any faster speed than what your Internet connection can give you.
did I wast(e) $179 on my airport extreme???
In a sense, yes. Especially if all you do with the wireless link is access the Internet. If you do frequent computer-to-computer file transfer within your home network, then you will be able to benefit from the faster link. Otherwise, even the 11b would have been fast enough for you.

Airport extreme lost secure network

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Welcome to the discussions!
From your description, it sounds like the power outage may have reset some or all of your configuration settings back to factory default settings.
Does your wireless network look something like "apple network a6h3f2", for example?
If so, you will need to open AirPort Utility and click on Manual Setup.
On the next page, click the word "Status" and a message will appear with information about what needs to be corrected and/or reconfigured.
If you do need to reconfigure your settings, try to use the same device name, wireless network name, password, etc that you used before if possible.

Airport Extreme Fails to mount/share disk

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Like Todd, in the original post, I have:
1. verified that connection between cable modem & comcast is fine by connecting both ThinkPad and PowerBook and both remain connected and are able to perform random downloads for hours on end.
2. Wireless connectivity works fine for my two laptops as they both work with an airport express and a Linksys wireless access point & router.
3. Hard reset teh Airport Extreme till I'm blue in the face.
4. Already have firmware 5.7 installed, the AEBS is brand new.
Symptoms are:
Both Thinkpad and Powerbook work fine after a power reset on the AEBS. But after an indeterminate amount of time -- anywhere from 15 minutes to three hours they fail to get beyond the AEBS out to the net.
It isn't the WiFi, because I can have one laptop computer connnected to the ethernet port and it fails get beyond the AEBS.
By simply restarting teh AEBS via the Airport Admin Utility or disconnecting power when the Airport Admin utility fails to connect to the AEBS, I can resume my work on the net.
It's not like I'm transferring large amounts of data, just doing casual surfing, so the error buffers should be overfilled.
It is that comcast is doing a regular expiration of my WAN IP address.
any clues?
any way to fix it?
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I have been struggling to get my new Airport Extreme to work with my already existing and functioning internet. The DSL modem and the Airport unit don't seem to want to communicate with each other. After I have appeared to have everything set up correct and I click "update," it reads "This device and its network services will be temporarily unavailable." After all is said and done, it still doesn't work at all. I have tried everything I can think of to get everything in sync with each other including:
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Scooter, Welcome to the discussion area!
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Airport Extreme USB problems

I am posting this information as part of case number 757-73818. Level 2 support for Airport Extreme has not returned phone calls, despite giving me a specific telephone number to call.
I am new to the MAC world and I must say, I am disappointed. I have been having EXTREME problems setting up my with a USB-2 drive attached to the Airport Extreme. I have a brand new iMAC (Intel version) and OSX with all of the updates. I have Microsoft Office Suite for MAC - 2004 with all of the updates installed. I have also conducted tests with a new Maxtor 300G external USB-2 drive and a Lacie 500G external USB-2 drive. The drives were both formatted using Apple's "journalled HPF+. The problems encountered are repeatable with both products. I have spoken with Apple Level 2 technical support and they are unresponsive and have not followed through on any promises. Based upon personal investigation, I have been able to run the following tests which might help someone correct the problem. I am not an engineer, I am a lawyer, so I apologize in advance if you find the approached flawed:
HERE ARE THE THREE PROBLEMS - THE FIRST WHICH I RESOLVED.
PROBLEM 1: When a USB-2 drive is mounted to the AirPort Extreme and I logged-off as a user, the system hungs. After numerous tests, all of which are repeatable, I determined that one Airport Extreme configuration will cause the system to hang, and the other will log-out normally. See my notes below:
1 Log-Off User w/o hanging computer connected to Airport Extreme with USB Drive
Option Checked Option Unchecked MENU ITEMS
System Preference
Network
Options
Disconnect from wireless
network when a user
logs out Hangs Normal log-out
PROBLEM 2: When saving Microsoft Word documents to a USB-2 drive attached to the Airport Extreme, I get an error message and the program crashes. The same file with the same extension can be saved to the local drive without a problem and to the USB drive if directly attached to the iMac. The problem appears limited to the .DOC extension. The file, saved locally, can be copied from the local drive to the USB-2 Airport Drive without issue:
Here is the error message and the results of my tests:
Note 1: Microsoft Word Message
There is an unrecovable disk erron on file "Word Work File D-2" The disk you're working on has a media problem that prevents Word from using it.
Try the following:
* Try formatting antoher disk.
* Save the document to another disk.
When trying to save the file as "Test.doc", a file is created by Word called "Word Work File D_X"
In "Finder" get info. The icon shows the file as EXEC. The file cannot be opened as an Excel file.
I duplicated this problem on a Maxtor and Lacie USB drives connected to the Airport Extreme.
I tested the following file extensions and obtained these results
2 Saves Microsoft Word Document
EXTENSION LOCAL DRIVE USB/EXTREME USB CONNECT TO IMAC
.Doc Yes No (Note 1 above) Yes
.RTF Yes Yes Yes
Text Yes Yes Yes
.HTM Yes Yes Yes
PROBLEM 3: When saving Microsoft Excel Workbooks to a USB-2 drive attached to the Airport Extreme, I get the following error messages. If I save the same file using any Excel extension to the local drive, no problem and no problem with the USB drive connected to the computer. The problem appears to apply only to the certain Excel file extensions when saving to the Airport Extreme USB drive. The files can also be copied from the local drive to the USB-2 Airport Drive without issue:
Here is the error message
Note 2: Microsoft Excel Message:
Microsoft Excel cannote access the file '[servername] SERVER:\{username]:Documents'
There are several possible reasons:
* The file name or path does not exist.
* The file you are trying to open is being used by another program. Close the document in the other program and try again.
* The name of the workbook you're trying to save is the same name as another document that is read-only. Try saving the workbook with a different name.
None of the above recommendations had any utility. Here are the results of my tests:
Saves Excel Worbook:
EXTENSION LOCAL DRIVE USB/EXTREME USB CONNECT TO IMAC
Excel Workbook Yes No (Note 2 above) Yes
Excel 97 - 2004
& 5.9/95
Workbook Yes No Yes
Excel 5.0/95
Workbook Yes No Yes
Excel 4.0 Yes Yes Yes
If you have any information that can resolve these problems, please contact me. Thanks!

I have apples new Airport Extreme base station and I
am trying to get a USB harddrive working. I have a
USB hub connected to the Airport USB connector. I
have a USB Printer and a Seagate USB Harddrive
connected. When I run the Airport setup program, it
finds the drive and configuration goes well. The
drive also works fine when connected directly to my
notebook.
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found.
The Printer works fine. Does anyone know whats going
on here?
Macbook Pro
2.33 Dure core 2 Mac OS X (10.4.8)
Macbook Pro 2.33
Dure core 2 Mac OS X (10.4.8)
The USB drive ability or lack of really is very upsetting. I am sure Steve will have someone take care of it...
WR

Airport Extreme and a Guest House.

Hey all!
I am moving into a guest house and the main house wi-fi coverage is very weak. I was wondering if I could use my Airport Extreme to wirelessly connect to the main house's wifi to boost and re broadcast my own network (ie, using the same name and setting of my current netowrk so I don't have to reconfig all of my devices). Or, do I have to buy the wifi repeater (Apple Espress) and have my Extreme in the main house to get a strong signal?
More info: The main house has Time Warner Cable for internet. The guest house is about 10 feet away form the main house. The Main house resident is using an inexpensive brand router. She only uses it to connect her iPhone in the house.
Thanks!

I was wondering if I could use my Airport Extreme to wirelessly connect to the main house's wifi to boost and re broadcast my own network
The AirPort Extreme could do this only if the main house was also using an Apple wireless router.
Or, do I have to buy the wifi repeater (Apple Espress) and have my Extreme in the main house to get a strong signal?
That might work. See the next question.
The guest house is about 10 feet away form the main house.
Distance is not really the issue that you need to be concerned about. The issue is obstructions in the signal path.
If there are too many walls or other obstructions in the signal path between the AirPort Extreme and AirPort Express, the wireless signal will be absorbed very quickly with the result being that little to no wireless signal will reach the AirPort Express....so there may not be enough signal quality for the AirPort Express to extend.
You can get an idea if this might work by testing using only your AirPort Extreme before you buy an AirPort Express. Hook up the AirPort Extreme in the main house and then see if you can get a wireless connection on your computer in the Guest house.
If you can, the AirPort Express will strengthen that signal effectively. If you cannot get a good signal using only the AirPort Extreme during your test, then adding an AirPort Express will not help.....since it can only extend the quality of signal that it receives.
If that is the case, you need to look at a wired Ethernet connection from the wireless router in the main house to the AirPort router in the Guest house. If you cannot run the Ethernet cable, a pair of Ethernet powerline adapters might work.....IF....the main house and Guest house are on the same master electrical circuit.
It would be a good idea to understand the store's return policy before you purchase any equipment. The reason for this is that you really will not know if things will work until you try.

TM backing up from (not to) Airport Extreme drive

I have TM recognizing my HD connected to my new Airport Extreme & have successfully tested using the drive as a backup disc. However, I'm not going to be using the Airport disc as the TM disc. It is going to hold a shared media repository. What I want is to be able to back up portions of the Airport disc as part of the rest of my TM backup. I'm using an old sata drive in a usb enclosure for my TM backup.
For example: Backing up the remotely stored music collection along with files in my local home directory to the sata drive connected directly to my computer.
I know that I could use other backup software (or even DVD-R's if I want be toatly lame) for the remote backing up issue, but I'd like to stay as consistent (and use as much of the Mac coolness) as possible.
Thanks for any help!

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After 6 months, my airport extreme failed and went into flashing amber light mode. I did a hard reset and reconfigured everything and hooked back up. Green light is on and internet on my main computer (hooked up via ethernet cable and cable modem) is fine.
However, no other computers can connect to the wireless network anymore. All get errors. Now when i go into Airport Utility to try to diagnose the problem, the utility can't even locate the device (even though the device has green light). Error message says "an error occured while trying to access the Apple wireless device. Make sure your network connection is valid and try again."
I know I have a network connection because the computer is working on the internet.
I have tried multiple times to power everything down for 30 minutes or more and restart, with no luck.
Any answers?

so what can i do know , port 80 not open either , i try to check is closed ,,, thnks
is there any way to make it work because i need foward ip address with 9 digit xxx . xxx . xxx
and apple extrme router start with 192.168.1 and i try to make them 192.168.100 it come back defaul
192.168.1.xxx
has to be 192.168.000.000 so i can fill in port on my camera to foward thnks

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I have wirelessly connected my new Mac Book to Airport Extreme, and have tested the connection by using a shared printer. I have connected my old Mac Mini (OSX 10.3.9) via Wired LAN.The MacMini does not recognise a connection to the Airport Extreme. I would like to share files between the MacBook and the Mini, but they do not 'See' each other. What have I not done correctly?
Mac Mini Mac OS X (10.3.9)

I have checked the IP addresses:
Mac Book nn.n.n.200
Mini nn.n.n.199
Airport nn.n.n.1
Al appear to be valid
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