Airport Extreme (802.11n) - Connection drops (no auto-reset)

I returned mine to the store where I buy it, and they replaced the defect unit with a new one and now it work since two weeks without drop connection. I don't make the firmware update to 7.2.1.
Hardware issue?

Another me too as well. I've had the AEBS since July and never had problems with it until the middle of October. I've called tech support twice, with no solution in sight. They tell me their engineers are working on it. I use VoIP and just hate being cut off while making international calls. I feel the same pain as you guys as I hate having to unplug/replug it and having to change the port forwarding address while on Bit Torrent.

Another update to my super-detailed posts above (I keep posting these because I hope either my own QA might help, or at least save someone from my own mistakes).

In short - 5-6 days of stability, but now we're back to falling over.

Nov 17th - I did return the one Express I could (AE#1) - which seemed to be the more troublesome one.

Nov 17th - I reconfigured the 2nd express to work like the first - a WDS point to the Extreme, but did not allow it to broadcast a wireless signal (I have an old house, I didn't want to run wires, I needed it for the TiVo and airTunes for my stereo). I also remove the 1st express from the AEBS list of "WDS" allowed points. Everything works ok.

Nov 18th - The morning before I left town I wake up and everything's dead - AEBS has a solid orange light, same with AExtreme. Reset AEBS, everything's fine again. Leave town.

Nov 23rd - return to town. Amazingly, *everything still works* . The TiVo has been getting updates the whole time, the network still runs, etc, etc

Nov 24th - Network still working. I need to transfer a boatload of photos and data from my Mac to my PC. Plug the laptop in via ethernet to the network and transfer 6.5 GB of data to my PC no problem (took about 5-6 minutes). Leave the PC (running XP Pro) on overnight.

Nov 25th - get up this morning, and a network update program that happened to run overnight is reporting failed to connect. Check TiVo and AExpress, neither can talk to AEBS at the moment (trying to reset both now). My network appears to be up (green light and all) and I can connect via wireless or wired, but I can't believe this is *HAPPENING AGAIN*. Exact same situation, exact same timeline (about one week). AEBS still speaking IPv6 local only (effectively "off") - no apparent tie to key rotation as it's set to 5 days and would have failed Friday morning.

Apple - seriously mates, what's going on? If it worked before, just backrev it! I trust my neighbors more than I can tolerate my wife's business not being able to function because of this, or be able to reliably work from home. If I had this to do all over again, I wouldn't. Simple as that.

Update from last post -

1) Everything had a green status light even after the fallover - even the Express.

2) Unplugging the TiVo alone *did not* fix the problem. After it came back up (wired into the express) it couldn't get a dhcp address or talk to the network.

3) Unplugging the Express (but not the Extreme) did fix the problem. After the Express came up green, I plugged the tivo ethernet back into the express and turned the tivo on. It got it's address and could complete a network test just fine.

So it appears the Extreme "blips" the network (I notice it more wireless, but the app that died on my PC was ethernet wired only), the Express loses the ability to communicate right (does not pass DHCP packets any more at the very least), and yet both merrily show green status lights.

Disabling IPv6 to Local-link only fixed the problem I was having regarding connecting to the internet. Once I put the extreme in IPv6 local-link only it has worked perfectly. Weird that the default setting you get when initially setting up the Extreme was the problem all along.

It seems to me that the problem has been found. Just about everybody that has the entire drop-out (as opposed to just dropping wireless or wired connections) problem, switching off the IPv6 seems to have done the trick.
For the rest of the people that have other problems (like just wireless dropping, or slow/intermittent connections, or whatever else), it's probably a different issue, which is much less prominent than the entire thing dropping the connection. I don't think Apple is doing as bad as people make it sound. Although I do agree they could at least acknowlege the problem(s).

Not entirely - as I said, I disabled IPv6 a while ago and am having issues again, though they seem more related to the Express now interacting with the Extreme (and the express not being able to turn off IPv6). The craziest part of this bug is the inconsistency of it - I'm sure that's what Apple's engineers are dealing with too.

Either way, in the disk thread they had people that turned off IPv6, and experienced the same thing I did - good workings for 5-6 days (much like a factory reset) and then boom, falling over again.

Apple's IPv6 support and implementation is pretty maddening overall, because they post warnings all over their other devices about how awful it is to turn it off. Even the AEBS doesn't let you "turn it off", just put it in "local only" mode. Yet with the advent of NAT/PAT solutions in the home and business markets, IPv4 looks like it will be just fine for a long long time. The huge, uber-expensive Cisco stuff we buy at work even comes with IPv6 disabled by default.

Same here. No problems for 3 years with Tiger until Leopard arrived.
J.

Sorry, this post should have appeared a lot higher.

Message was edited by: Johannes de Millo

I have been running iMac w/Leopard 10.5.1 in one room with Airport Express to extend my wireless & allow USB printer to be shared with both computers. I have a MacBook Pro running Leopard 10.5.1 with Airport Extreme in another room. These rooms are no more than 30 yards apart, but I have weak signal where iMac is without Airport Express extending service. Some days I'm getting bumped off the wireless connection often, other times I've been good for several days before losing the connection. When I lose the connection, my MacBook Pro cannot print as it can no longer see the Airport Express w/printer and the iMac can print but can no longer go online as it can no longer see the Airport Extreme. I have to reset the Airport Express and restart the iMac -- very frustrating. I've called AppleCare and they insist I must have interference but odd thing is I was running Linksys prior to Airport Extreme and although I have the weak signal where the iMac is, I was never losing signals. After 3 weeks of dealing with this, I have reconnected my Linksys today and am using Airport Express with it to still allow the printer sharing. So far so good. I'm very frustrated and confused and have read article after article where others are having similar problems. I would prefer to run Airport Extreme but unless I get some solutions here, I'm afraid I'm going to have to return my Airport Extreme for a refund. Any help is appreciated. I know in my gut this is NOT interference.

I wonder if it only me who noticed that immediately after each drop-out there is a log message about TKIP group key being rotated?

I wonder whether it is related to the root cause or is simply a side effect of a drop-out?

I have identified this also.

But TKIP is part of the WPA/2 standard.

People have tried making the network open, with no security, and the same drop outs occur.

I had noticed that as well, but it appears to be a result from the dropped connection. Even with an open network the drop-outs still occur.

IPv6 thing worked for about a week but it just dropped today.

And another me too. I am using a gig AEBS. Mix of wired and wireless machines on the network. I will say that I never saw the problem until upgrade to 10.5.1. Now total drops at random times, could be hours, could be days. Unplugging power cable to AEBS resolves it every time. I'll try the IPV6 stuff after reading this post.

A while ago I reported in this thread that out of frustration I hooked up my older domed AEB stations and have maintained a steady connection to my ISP. Then later, to simply make use of my newer square n AEB I managed to get it to function as a relay station in my household network (it works off an older domed AEB connected to the net). Actually the dome shaped ones work beautifully and cover every area in the house in which I want to work....BUT.... due to sheer stubbornness and some version of Yankee frugality..... I wanted to use the newer equipment (even if it wouldn't work as a base station). It frustrates me to just have it sit around in the box without being able to use it.

For about a week it performed fine as a relay station. (Although I don't get up in the middle of the night to see if it is blinking yellow.) But tonight it dropped out of the network while I was using the computer and couldn't be rescanned back it in. It blinked yellow. I had to unplug it and plug it in several time to get it rejoin the network. What was I doing when it started blinking? Using Safari to access this website. Nothing more.

This behavior is similar to the behavior it exhibited when I was trying to use it as a base station.

History

I bought my square AEB n, May 2007. It dropped its internet connection consistently starting the day I hooked it up which wasn't until early July. At that time I was using an older version of system 10....like 10.4.8 I think. I was running two iBook G-4's off my network. I now have an iBook and and a MacBook Pro both running 10.5.1. I have had all the intermediate system versions, sometimes installed from the full combo versions. Nothing in the house has changed; the older domed airports have never indicated any interference problems. I have repeated tried to use the square AEB n as a base station with all the different system versions, all the AEB firmware, and the various Airport Utility versions, frequently reverting to older versions as people have mentioned above. I live in a remote area and really believe me there are NO other wireless networks near me.

I have fiddled with the IPv6 settings....and other suggestions made above. But this thing can't even maintain status as a relay station, not alone a working connection to the internet.

It has occurred to me, naturally, that there are plenty of AEB n users who are not having having this problem with their equipment. And this makes this issue all the more frustrating and perplexing.