Airport extreme keeps dropping connection and its driving me crazy

Sean,

I am having the same problem with an Airport Extreme version 7.1.1 on a Macbook Pro 2.2.

I also have an old Lombard G3 Powerbook and the connection drops on that as well.

I have tried many of the same troubleshooting techniques you have without success. It does not seem to matter if it is WEP/WPA/WPA2 or even open.

I have noticed in the log the following below. I wonder if you are seeing the same in your log?


Aug 11 20:40:41 Severity:1 End soft reset mode.
Aug 11 20:40:43 Severity:5 Deauthenticating with station ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff (reserved 3).
Aug 11 20:40:46 Severity:5 Associated with station MY:MAC:AD:DR:Es:S0
Aug 11 20:42:34 Severity:1 End soft reset mode.
Aug 11 20:42:38 Severity:1 End soft reset mode.
Aug 11 20:42:41 Severity:5 Deauthenticating with station ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff (reserved 3).
Aug 11 20:42:43 Severity:5 Associated with station MY:MAC:AD:DR:Es:S0

I have the same problem, I use a MacBook and an IMac, this seems to be a quite common problem.

Nothing really useful to add, just wanted to say I have the same problem. Resetting doesn't help and so far no software update has patched it either.

At first I thought it might be due to my being on with an 802.11n and then my wife coming on with a slower one, but it kicks me off when nobody else is connected.

Happens with both my home and work MBP, both using the 802.11n channel.

I am also having trouble with drop-out using the Airport Extreme. I am not a newbie, but it took me far too long to set up my modem in bridge mode and configure the Airport Extreme so it would handle the ISP password. Would it be better to have the modem handle the security, and put the Extrme in bridge mode, I wonder?

I am not sure how to do that, but thought it might be worth suggesting. My Extreme drops out around every 20 minutes making iPod sync with my external drive iTunes folder frustrating, not to mention web browsing and file transfer.

Any help would be great.
Thanks
Jacob

Alright so I have an airport extreme, and I have been having these "dropping out" problems for a long time now

Is this the 802.11n AEBS?
Is it in 2.4ghz frequency or 5? If 2.4 have you tried switching?

Hey Guys,

I've been having the same problem as well. Have done a lot of searching and found this a very common problem without any response from Apple.

This has been an ongoing problem since the firmware update. Glad to see Apple is on top of things...

I changed my settings from n, b/g comp., 2.4 GHz, to 802.11n only (5 GHz) and have had far less dropouts.

Also, the above changes reduced transfer time to airdisk of an average 350gb file from 14 minutes to less than two minutes!

Message was edited by: Host

I keep getting the same error also. The airport log says (reserved 2) to the computer that is trying to connect.

What do these (reserved X) mean?

SOMEONE FROM APPLE PLEASE HELP US!

Well I've got the same issues with an n (WDS Main), two extremes (1 WDS Relay and 1 WDS Remote) and 1 express (WDS Remote). The n keeps logging this (the MAC is of the WDS Relay extreme):

Nov 02 20:27:14 Severity:5 Deauthenticating with station 00:11:24:9d:74:91 (reserved 2).

and the WDS Relay keeps logging this (the MAC is of the WDS Main n):

Nov 02 21:01:06 Severity:5 Deauthenticated with station 00:11:24:23:15:d4 (authentication invalidated).

This seems to have begun with a firmware update of the n (7.2.1) and now the n constantly goes from a green status icon in AirPort Utility to an orange one and reports a WDS Error about not finding any other WDS units. Then it switches back to green. At the same time all the base stations disappear from the AirPort Utility and then come back after turning the AirPort on and off on my powerbook menu bar. Cycling the AirPort from the munu bar also restores lost internet connectivity. The actual network connectivity via the WDS network seems to stay up because I have a VOIP box attached to the WDS Remote extreme and don't loose phone service. While I'd like to get the issues reported by the n and the extremes solved at this point I'd settle for finding a way to not loose network connectivity (not the actual AirPort connection) from my PowerBook every 4 or 5 minutes. The syslog on the PowerBook shows:

Nov 3 20:39:59 MacDaddy lookupd[4076]: lookupd (version 369.5) starting - Sat Nov 3 20:39:59 2007
Nov 3 20:39:59 MacDaddy named[277]: /etc/com.apple.named.conf.proxy:21: no forwarders seen; disabling forwarding
Nov 3 20:39:59 MacDaddy named[277]: /etc/com.apple.named.conf.proxy:21: no forwarders seen; disabling forwarding
Nov 3 20:39:59 MacDaddy configd[44]: posting notification com.apple.system.config.network_change
Nov 3 20:39:59 MacDaddy named[277]: /etc/com.apple.named.conf.proxy:21: no forwarders seen; disabling forwarding
Nov 3 20:39:59 MacDaddy named[277]: /etc/com.apple.named.conf.proxy:21: no forwarders seen; disabling forwarding
Nov 3 20:39:59 MacDaddy lookupd[4077]: lookupd (version 369.5) starting - Sat Nov 3 20:39:59 2007
Nov 3 20:40:01 MacDaddy mDNSResponder: Repeated transitions for interface en1 (FE80:0000:0000:0000:020D:93FF:FE84:E333); delaying packets by 5 seconds
Nov 3 20:40:04 MacDaddy launchd: Server 4f23 in bootstrap 1103 uid 0: "/usr/sbin/lookupd"[4077]: exited abnormally: Hangup
Nov 3 20:40:04 MacDaddy configd[44]: posting notification com.apple.system.config.network_change
Nov 3 20:40:04 MacDaddy named[277]: /etc/com.apple.named.conf.proxy:21: no forwarders seen; disabling forwarding
Nov 3 20:40:04 MacDaddy named[277]: /etc/com.apple.named.conf.proxy:21: no forwarders seen; disabling forwarding
Nov 3 20:40:04 MacDaddy lookupd[4078]: lookupd (version 369.5) starting - Sat Nov 3 20:40:04 2007
Nov 3 20:40:04 MacDaddy configd[44]: AppleTalk startup complete
Nov 3 20:40:47 MacDaddy kernel[0]: in_delmulti - ignorning invalid inm (0x656e0018)
Nov 3 20:40:47 MacDaddy natd[4080]: failed to write packet back (Can't assign requested address)
Nov 3 20:40:47 MacDaddy launchd: Server 4f27 in bootstrap 1103 uid 0: "/usr/sbin/lookupd"[4078]: exited abnormally: Hangup
Nov 3 20:40:47 MacDaddy configd[44]: posting notification com.apple.system.config.network_change
Nov 3 20:40:47 MacDaddy lookupd[4089]: lookupd (version 369.5) starting - Sat Nov 3 20:40:47 2007
Nov 3 20:40:47 MacDaddy natd[4080]: failed to write packet back (Can't assign requested address)
Nov 3 20:41:00 MacDaddy bootpd[276]: server name MacDaddy.local
Nov 3 20:41:00 MacDaddy bootpd[276]: interface en0: ip 192.168.2.1 mask 255.255.255.0
Nov 3 20:41:00 MacDaddy bootpd[276]: interface en1: ip 192.168.69.73 mask 255.255.255.0
Nov 3 20:41:00 MacDaddy bootpd[276]: dhcp: re-reading lease list
Nov 3 21:05:47 MacDaddy kernel[0]: AirPort: Link Active: "tom" - 001124068b49 - chan 8
Nov 3 21:12:40 MacDaddy kernel[0]: AirPort: Link DOWN (Client disAssoc 0)
Nov 3 21:12:40 MacDaddy configd[44]: AppleTalk shutdown
Nov 3 21:12:40 MacDaddy configd[44]: AppleTalk shutdown complete
Nov 3 21:12:40 MacDaddy launchd: Server 0 in bootstrap 1103 uid 0: "/usr/sbin/lookupd"[4089]: exited abnormally: Hangup
Nov 3 21:12:40 MacDaddy lookupd[4204]: lookupd (version 369.5) starting - Sat Nov 3 21:12:40 2007
Nov 3 21:12:40 MacDaddy configd[44]: posting notification com.apple.system.config.network_change
Nov 3 21:12:40 MacDaddy launchd: Server 31ef in bootstrap 1103 uid 0: "/usr/sbin/lookupd"[4204]: exited abnormally: Hangup
Nov 3 21:12:40 MacDaddy lookupd[4205]: lookupd (version 369.5) starting - Sat Nov 3 21:12:40 2007
Nov 3 21:12:43 MacDaddy kernel[0]: AirPort: Link Active: "tom" - 001124068b49 - chan 8
Nov 3 21:12:43 MacDaddy configd[44]: AppleTalk startup
Nov 3 21:12:46 MacDaddy launchd: Server 31f3 in bootstrap 1103 uid 0: "/usr/sbin/lookupd"[4205]: exited abnormally: Hangup
Nov 3 21:12:46 MacDaddy lookupd[4209]: lookupd (version 369.5) starting - Sat Nov 3 21:12:46 2007
Nov 3 21:12:46 MacDaddy configd[44]: posting notification com.apple.system.config.network_change
Nov 3 21:12:46 MacDaddy named[277]: /etc/com.apple.named.conf.proxy:21: no forwarders seen; disabling forwarding
Nov 3 21:12:46 MacDaddy named[277]: /etc/com.apple.named.conf.proxy:21: no forwarders seen; disabling forwarding
Nov 3 21:12:46 MacDaddy launchd: Server 31f7 in bootstrap 1103 uid 0: "/usr/sbin/lookupd"[4209]: exited abnormally: Hangup
Nov 3 21:12:46 MacDaddy lookupd[4211]: lookupd (version 369.5) starting - Sat Nov 3 21:12:46 2007
Nov 3 21:12:48 MacDaddy configd[44]: AppleTalk startup complete
Nov 3 21:14:48 MacDaddy bootpd[276]: server name MacDaddy.local
Nov 3 21:14:48 MacDaddy bootpd[276]: interface en0: ip 192.168.2.1 mask 255.255.255.0
Nov 3 21:14:48 MacDaddy bootpd[276]: interface en1: ip 192.168.69.73 mask 255.255.255.0
Nov 3 21:14:48 MacDaddy bootpd[276]: dhcp: re-reading lease list

I had a similar problem--I lost connections using both wireless and wired connections, on a PC and on my Mac. I finally replaced the cable modem and so far (7 days) I've not had any "failed to connect" messages. The modem I was using was from Motorola model SB5101 and I now have a Motorola SB 5120. When I returned the modem to the cable company, there was another customer with the same problem and was using the SB 5101 modem. Replace the modem if you can but don't bother calling technical support because they know less than you do and chances are the connection will be working so everything will look fine on their end.

Same issue, I drop out every 20 min or so and then my SSID is not even broadcasting anymore. I checked the back of the APE and it seems the CAT5 lights are even out, but the green status light in front is still lit. APPLE HELP!

Jep me to! exact same error.

I hoped it would maybe get better from me upgrading to Leopard, but no luck 😟

Still no one with a solution?

I'm having this issue, but I'm not even using the wireless part. My wired connection is dropped. Suggestions? Cable modem is fine and if I activate the wireless on my laptop it will connect for a while then get dropped. Bizarre!

I had the same issue with my (sky) Netgear DG834GT.

I fixed by changing the wireless security setting to "WPA-PSK" was on "WEP" and its been running for ab our 3 hours now and no disconnections (was every 30 seconds or so)

also to note, my wireless channel is on 6 (set to europe) on 108Mbs

I hope this helps others.

Good Luck!