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Airport Express Mysteriously Disconnects and Requires a Restart

I have a theory...

My Environment:
Router: Linksys WRV200
Protocol: 802.11g
Security: WPA2-Mixed
Device in Question: AiportExpress v6.3 firmware

My Issue:
Airport Express will be working. After a period of time the AirPort Express will no longer be connected and will need to be unplugged and plugged back in. Note that this is not the "Audio Dropout" issue. The device goes offline and is not able to be seen by the Admin Utility or iTunes.

My Theory:
I had just purchased my AiPort Express and was getting it configured. After a brief struggle with a windows laptop, which resulted in an OS reinstallation, I had AirTunes up and running. After a while, 3600 seconds to be precise, the AirPort express mysteriously disconnected. So began my exodus to the root cause.

After a very lengthy tiral and error trouble shooting process I believe I have found the root. I believe it is the wireless security key renewal interval. In my router I can configure how frequently the router issues a new key. If I change this to 300 seconds, or 5 minutes, and restart my router AirTunes functions for precisely 5 minutes and then disappears. If I change this to 3600 seconds, or 1 hour, and restart my router Airtunes functions for precisely 1 hour and then disappears.

Last night I configured this key renewal interval to 99999 seconds. This is the maximum allowed. This morning I was pleasantly surprised to find my AirTunes was still connected. This was the first time since purchase that AirTunes had remained connected over an entire night. I will be out enjoying the sun and salt water this weekend. When i return home I will report the status of my AirTunes connection.

Various, Other OS, To many to list...

Posted on Aug 17, 2007 9:38 AM

118 replies

nickair

Level 1

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Dec 6, 2007 9:08 AM in response to SQLGeek

Hi there,

Count me in as well. I have a Zyxel Prestige router, two Extreme 802.11n, one "old" express (probably one year) which works fine and one new express (2 weeks) which causes the problem described here. I have a few MacBook Pro, one iMac and one PowerBookG4. All the computers run Tiger (10.4.x) except two which run Leopard (10.5.1). The network is WDS (one extreme is main, all others are remote), with WPA/WPA2 security.

Apple? would be about time that you take care of this problem, no?

Mouse213

Level 1

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Dec 6, 2007 12:25 PM in response to SQLGeek

Count me in too. I'm gutted. After buying an ipod touch and finding that they really don't like access points, especially when they are 802.11b only, I bought this thinking what could be better, apple hardware to support apple hardware. How wrong I was.

*Owned airport express for:* 7 days
*Worked for (before failing):* 6 days
*Operating System:* Windows XP Professional
*Main wired router (that AE is connected to):* Draytek Vigor 2600V - a £150/$300 router that is most definitely not the problem.
Security: WEP
Channel: Tried 1 - 12
Utility: Airport utility, that came with the product
*Using as*: A wireless access point to connect to my Draytek

Perhaps our serial numbers will demonstrate similarities and help us narrow down the faulty batch? I reccommend everyone registers their product before posting them, though.

Could anyone tell me how to set the timeout to 99999secs as some people above have said. That works out to be 27hours, which for now would be great.

Message was edited by: Mouse212

Dec 10, 2007 9:10 AM in response to SQLGeek

i'm not sure if i'm in the same boat as everyone else as some of my symptoms are similar while the behaviour seems quite different.

the airport utility in leopard will login to the AX unit, then after a couple of operations, get bounced from the device. the icon for the AX unit disappears from the sidebar. AU tries to rescan for bases and comes up with squat.

...but, all my boxes are still connected and still getting net access. sites load, the VPN stays up. no probs.

...after a period of time, DNS resolution seems to drop. it's that, or google, ebay, travelocity, etc. all suffer catastrophic outages simultaneously. logging into my DSL modem and having it perform a DNS lookup seems to refresh the cache or do something else to fix it and then all is well again. nslookups/digs from the host do not achieve the same result for some reason. that's probably due to something gone awry in the AX unit.

Verizon told me to migrate the PPoE login and settings to the AX and set the DSL modem to bridge mode. i told him that was utter bullsh*t. i don't want (or should have) to change the config on the AX every time i take it with me travelling, which is why bought it in the first place. just an FYI, that didn't work either. (like anyone here thought it would)

so...i'm at a loss.

i'm going to try the keychain workaround someone suggested the next time i reboot. i'm a little p*ssed off that there is not an explanation as to WHY that might work, but what's life without a little mystery sometimes?

Dec 10, 2007 11:23 AM in response to SQLGeek

Still no improvement. Living with this situation for some time now, here's a few additional observations. (Note that my usage is airtunes only, I'm having the AX connect to my home network, and the light is always green even though it seems to disappear off the map after a bit of time).

-- Sometimes, the airport will behave well for as long as four days uninterrupted. Then, bang. This is a very bad thing because it makes debugging or cause-finding extremely unreliable.

-- At other times even rebooting the AX doesn't help: it turns back up green but iTunes cannot connect to the speakers although it does LIST them! The router shows the AX as inactive.

Perhaps entirely unconnected, but my macbook pro's OS X menu bar airport dropdown, since migrating to leopard, only shows the current network I'm connected to -- others are simply not shown (not even in join other...' -> 'show networks'). Anyone else? Familiar? Connection?

Message was edited by: giorgiomoroder

DJH246

Level 1

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Dec 10, 2007 11:44 AM in response to SQLGeek

Just wanted to add myself as another user as having the same textbook problem described in this thread. Purchased AX primarly to use with iTunes but then after purchasing an iPhone I thought it would also serve as an access point in a part of the house that required additional airport coverage. However the AX disappears from the network and only an unplugging brings it back on line but not for long. I am running 10.5.1 with all the latest AU/AEBS/AX software. Been through all sorts of hard resets - soft resets - and factory resets all with the same result.

Apple Tech Support take notice please!

Dec 10, 2007 12:19 PM in response to SQLGeek

A question for those who just experience a drop off the internet every day or every few days that is fixed (temporarily)by resetting the cable/DSL modem and Airport Extreme. Is the one that drops off programmed as a base station connected through an airport express programed as a relay?

A year ago when I had this problem it was only fixed when I reprogrammed the airport express relay to be a base station also. Then I had 2 Express base stations connected wirelessly to an extreme (one was further away from the extreme than the other and therefore had mrginal performance, but stayed online)

Gaweu

Level 1

0 points

Dec 10, 2007 1:10 PM in response to SQLGeek

Hello.

You can add me also as user with same problem. I didnt read exactly all posts so maybe ill repeat many things.

*My network:*
My network is quite large coz we have 5 peeps here and all have 1 or more computer.
Its like 6 PC's and 3 Mac's. I have like 4 switch's connected to new version of AirPort Extreme. We arent using only Wifi so in my teory that isnt problem about security like WPA2 and stuff.
Router: Dlink
Protocol: Basicly tryed all setups with even with Nat and shared HDD's nad Printers :]

Same problem like all here. In some period of time connection go down with out any reason. APEX is working, router/modem is working but both devices are like sorry i dont wanna coperactive with you... :] To solve it im using same method just unplug and plug cable betwen modem/router and APEX or just restart modem/router. I have no freak idea how to solve this problem i tryed all configurations. I just think its problem about connection betwen your wan router/modem and APEX. Maybe it just choke when u stop using it and cant get back working with out restarting connection...

I hope that maybe anyone my info will help you to solve this problem coz im new user of Apple hardware and i dont even want to try fix it on my own 🙂

Dec 10, 2007 5:28 PM in response to SQLGeek

okay, so i was having the same problem all of you have been mentioning as soon as i got my Airport Express. I had set it up to extend the internet and use AirTunes and almost everyday i would have to restart the router to get it to work. However, i tried something about a week ago and AirTunes has been working flawlessly since then. I did a hard reset on both my Airport Extreme (which is the main router) and the Express and using the Airport Utility I set up a WPA2/WPA network on the Extreme. When I plugged in the Express I set that one up as a wireless client only (which means that only AirTunes and Bonjour printing (the last which I am not using on it, I am on the Extreme)) and like I said it has been working since. I believe I've read most, if not all, of the posts and I have not seen this method and it has been working fine for me. This of course is only if you want to use AirTunes and don't care much about extending the network (which is what I wanted and from the looks a couple of you too). Let me know if this has also worked (or not) for any of you and I will surely post something if it decides to crap out (here's hoping it doesn't). otherwise, i'm currently enjoying AirTunes in all its glory.

by the way, I have a G4 cube connected through ethernet to the Extreme and a PowerBook G4 and an iBook G4 both connected through WiFi and all three didn't work before but all work now (in case you were wondering).

Rana127

Level 1

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Dec 10, 2007 6:46 PM in response to SQLGeek

I'm not using a router and it used to be about once a month that I'd suddenly lose my Internet connection via my airport express. Now it's more frequently. I have to unplug the express and plug it back in and then I can get my connection back. This is a HUGE pain to have to keep doing this, especially since it's now about every other day that I have to do this. Any suggestions when you aren't using a router??

Dec 13, 2007 1:53 PM in response to SQLGeek

I have the same mistake ! After a couple of hours, my MacBook Pro (wich is near the Express) can't go on internet... When i go in "Airport Utility", I can only see the Express (and no Extrem). The only solution i found is to unplug the Express and plug it again. After that, i can see the extrem and the express in "airport utility" and all work for aproximately 3 ou 4 hours... After that, all devices (MacBook Pro, iPhone and PC) near the Express can't go on internet because the Express seem not connected to the Extrem.

kahana

Level 1

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Dec 18, 2007 4:44 PM in response to SQLGeek

do i get to add myself to the list here?
running OSX 10.4.11, Extreme (Airport BaseStation v7.2), and once for one day, before installing the extreme, the Express. Tried resets (soft, hard, factory). canʻt even see the express when itʻs cat5ʻd to my powerbook. if i disconnect the extreme, the express reappears in the airport utilities. does this help rule in / rule out anything?
i hope someone in the halls of apple inc decides to do something for us, because all my years of praising the glories of apple are starting to look pretty lame.

Dec 18, 2007 9:35 PM in response to SQLGeek

I thought I should post that the "solution" I posted above continues to work. Once I switched from WPA2 to WEP, my Airport Extreme Base Station and my AIrport Express have communicated flawlessly, without any interruption or drops, for several weeks straight. Clearly the bug is with the WPA2 implementation or setting. I'm posting this with the hope that it will help someone at Apple troubleshoot and fix this so that I can return to WPA2.

-Jeff

kahana

Level 1

0 points

Dec 19, 2007 6:26 PM in response to SQLGeek

ditto on that (WEP 128 bit encryption), although i only have 48 hours of positive connection. everything (file, printer, airtunes sharing) seems to be running, playing nicely together. iʻm having some quirk with airdisk, but iʻm getting ready to tackle that. still, i hope apple gets something out to people - advice, fixes, something.

Dec 20, 2007 2:08 PM in response to Jeffrey Richardson1

That works, thanks Jeffrey for repeating this so new users have better chance of reading that tip.

A pity some can't use this (in my case because the thinkpads in our house don't play nice with WEP -- not that strange either, considering WEP is outdated)

So anyway, airport express simply doesn't do WPA. This product does not work as advertised (see apple AX website: it says WPA/WPA2). Anyone know what action we can take besides talking to eachother on these forums? Isn't it illegal to advertise features that don't actually work?

Dec 20, 2007 8:35 PM in response to giorgiomoroder

Agreed. My unit is faulty in the same way - WPA/WPA2 does not work.

Airport Express clearly does not work as advertised.

Apple are you listening ???????????????

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Airport Express Mysteriously Disconnects and Requires a Restart