Switch makes AirPort invisible to AirPort Utility?

Hi all.
Wired connections:
iMac27" Yosemite connected to a D-Link dumb switch connected to a AirPort Extreme v7.7.3.
When wiring run through switch, iMac intermittently can't see the APE. Removing switch from setup and going direct iMac->APE resolves issue, and then can reinstall switch and still see APE with switch in place. Alternately, when wired if the APE isn't accessible I can turn on wifi, and the utility will then see the APE., and I can turn wifi back off - retaining visibility of the APE for a while again.
This is just odd behaviour - as the switch isn't actually doing anything but directing the packets.
Any thoughts, ideas, or even a "hey I know exactly what that problem is" with solution would e very much appreciated.

Bob,
I agree, asking "what changed?" is a great starter. I did a fair amount of this sort of head scratching before posting the thread here, and that is something I asked a bunch. If the ONLY way to have the Utility see the APE was by bypassing the switch, I could answer the what changed with 'I removed the switch". That would directly lead to troubleshooting the switch itself.
The problem is this: I can get the exact same result by turning on the wifi and then turning it off again (without touching any wiring, using the software switch).
Further (and i already posted this) - ALL OTHER IP TRAFFIC IS BEHAVING AS IT SHOULD. If i had a bad connector or a bad cable or a switch that was misbehaving, wouldn't I experience drops/lag/nonconnectivity in other apps/services? I would have hangs in streamed content, oddly slow load times for webpages, etc - if I had line/switch basic function issues **it would show up in other ways as well as with the Utility!
So we need to ask (more accurately for diagnosis) "what changed in BOTH of these scenarios that temporarily fixed the problem?"
The answer, I now realise, is 'a new connection is made from the iMac to the APE in both sets of actions - one by physical disconnection and reconnection and the other by activating a new NIC'. This revelation still leaves as an open question the matter of the other IP activities being totally fine during the same time period of the Utility's inability to 'see' the APE...
As a failsafe to eliminate the switch as being the problem, I have removed it from the setup altogether, and will await a re-occurance of the 'can't see it' issue. If I get the issue to happen with no switch in place, we can kick that possibility out the door. Since this is an intermittent issue it may be a day or so until I can prove it.

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apikoros wrote:
The Utility transferred all of the AE's settings, so I still have to change the password, which leaves me with only 2 other questions, I think:
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N.Korean hackers.
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http://pondini.org/TM/Time_Capsule.html
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os x installation so it will boot properly on the new volume it is being installed on.
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CCC is not a "magical" application, it is in fact a front end to applications that already exist separately
in OS X (asr, hdiutil, diskutil, bless, etc.).
It doesn't matter to me how you do it. It's your time not mine. Everyone should spend some time
behind the command line in terminal. I do many tasks using the command line, including and not
limited to complete system restores, backing up data, disk partitioning, installing software, disk
repair, permissions repair, ACL management, restoring data, managing disk images, network
management, user management, file management, etc. Many people are fearful of the command
line. I feel just the opposite, I'm fearful without it.
Say Hello to my little friend.
http://manuals.info.apple.com/enUS/Command_Line_Adminv10.5.pdf
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/unixopensource/clix.html
http://www.macobserver.com/tips/macosxcl101/index.html
http://www.matisse.net/OSX/darwin_commands.html
Kj

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Philippe Platon1 wrote:
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Sorry, you lost me on that last post.
Let's start over again.
Open AirPort Utility on your Mac
Are you asked for a password at this point? If yes, enter the base station or device password that you used when you originally set up the AirPort router. Depending when you did this originally, you might have been given an option to use the same password as the wireless network. If you were not, then you have a separate password for the base station.
You need that password to be able to access the settings for the AirPort router in AirPort Utility.
If you see a window listing basic information, click Edit in the upper right corner of the window.
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If you forgot the password, a Soft Reset will allow you to go in and reset the base station password. Might be a good idea to write down that password.
If you are still stuck, then the only option that you have at this point is to perform a Hard Reset to return the settings to factory defaults and then set up the AirPort router again.
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I see many complaints on the internet, but no solutions.
If I go into the airport extreme via the utility and make some changes that require the airport to reboot, it becomes invisible to the airport utility. Therefore, anytime I want to make changes, I have to make them all at once and redo everything if I ever need an additional change.
I see that Apple support wants $29 for a call, however I have an extended warranty from the store I bought it from. It is probably a waste of time and money for all parties involved, but I could just bring it back every time I get a chance and get a new one until a new firmware update arrives.
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Details: Connection: wired ethernet. Utility version 5.4.2 Firmware 7.42
Sometimes a soft reset works to restore visibility and my settings survive. Sometimes a hard reset is required. Other than that, it appears to work just fine. If I didn't need to regularly maintain port mappings I probably won't care -- but I do and this is the most expensive router I have purchased for home use by far. The problem is easily repeatable so this is definitely a bug.

I have the same issue. I used to be able to get to my Airport Extreme by going to the File menu in Airport Utility and typing in its IP address and password but even that doesn't work anymore... What's going on Apple?
I'm accessing my AE over ethernet due to wi-fi bugs in Snow Leopard.

After configuring my airport express, airport utility can no longer see it.

Configuring airport express seems to make it invisible to itunes and the airport utility that configured it. This seems to have started happening since Yosemite.

Sorry, can you explain what you mean by the AirPort Express is invisible to iTunes.
In any case, it sounds like something glitches when setting up the APE. Reset it using these instructions, then configure it again to see if that helps:
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Looked at Airport: light is green, all cable modem lights are normal
Tried Airport Utility on iPad: initially couldn't connect, then asked for a password; never got any status/config info
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Unplugged Airport, then reattached power. Now LED is blinking orange (after startup); still doesn't appear in Airport Utility on iMac
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Please start another post for your question, as you do not have a 2nd Gen AirPort Extreme...and...you are also asking about extending the network.
Include information about "how" the AirPort Express connects to the Time Capsule.....wired connection?....wireless connection?
What operating system are you using on the computer that is used to administer the AirPort Express?

Airport Utility can't see the airport, nor are shares visible (Why is there no very extensive 'cookbook' on troubleshooting Airport Extremes?)

For quite a while my MBP (10.5.8) cannot see the Airport Extreme 802.11n (AE) (2nd ed) anymore when I start Airport Utility (AU) (v5.5.3). My solution was to lower security settings of the MBP to 'accept all incoming connections', knowing that this was not a nice solution. Normally I had selected 'acces for specific services and programs' (the lowest option - my AE differs in language). In the past I denied access for requests that regularly came from mDNSresponder (etc), as I could not easily find out how necessary they were. I am not sure whether Bonjour is running; I try to stick to TCP/IP (without Netbios); the same might be the case with other obscure network services...
Then I added another network drive (WD Mybooklive) that works based on shares. The installation program worked fine, I was able to set up the drive for Timemachine backups and -in the proces of upgrading to Snow leopard (I always stay one OS version behind)- my MP3 collection could be read from another drive that was connected to the AE.
I am not sure what exactly lead to the loss, but now I can not see the shares anymore in the finder. Unless I select 'connect to server' (Cmd-K) and fill in afp://ip-adres. I had some trouble with the MBP-drive and Disk Utily could not fix it in multi-user mode. Applejack-auto in single user mode finished after some repairs (catalog file and catalog hierarchy errors), but I doubt that causes the trouble.
In all cases, internetting and accessing the connected drive was no problem.
The funny thing is, my Mac Mini (10.5.8) however can see the AE with Airport Utility (different version) fine. Somehow I get the idea that the networkstack of my MBP has been messed up, but I don't know what it should be, nor how I could check it, or how to repair the stack. But maybe it is not the stack at all.
Right now, I've just reset the AE by holding the reset button for about 10 s. The name has returned to 'Base Station xx', which is visible in AU, but when I click on another button ('manual configuration' or 'continue'), first the message "Are you sure you want to connect to another wireless network?". Finally no connection appears and the error 'AU cannot find your Airport' shows up (while the Base Station is visible in the left column) - or does not show up when I refuse to switch to another network.
So, who can help me to reconnect to the Airport Extreme and/or repair the network stack?

WDS is a difficult setup for many users because it is so easy to make a mistake (while swearing that you are not).
Apple's instructions for WDS are here:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4262
I still think the instructions provided by Tesserax are the best available:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2422028&tstart=0
I can't add any more to this other than to say that long ago when I used WDS, I would swear that I had all the MAC addresses entered correctly, etc and would still have problems. So, I ask my wife to watch me and she immediately catches something like I entered a "l" (letter L) instead of a number "1", or a "O" (letter O) instead of a "0" (number zero).
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Hopefully, Tesserax will have some additional thoughts.

Switch makes AirPort invisible to AirPort Utility?

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