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Level 1

10 points

Comcast "traffic management" blocks Extend mode of AirPort Express 'n' ???

In another thread, I posted that I was unable to access the Internet using my AirPort Express 'n' to Extend my AirPort Extreme 'n'. With the AirPort Express 'n' in the Extend mode, computers connected to it, either wirelessly or via the Ethernet port, were unable to access the Internet, even though the Network preferences of the computer showed that it had a valid IP address, and the Network preferences Diagnostics indicated that the connection appeared to be working correctly and showed all green status lights. This problem occurred only in the Extend mode of an AirPort Express 'n', and regardless of whether the AirPort Extreme 'n' being extended was in the 5.0 GHz 'n' only mode, the 2.4 GHz 'n' only mode, or the 'n' (b/g compatible) mode. Both AirPorts were running the latest firmware version 7.3.1, all IP and DNS information was verified to be correct, and OpenDNS addresses were tried with no effect on the problem.

In this previous thread, three other people reported the same problem with the same symptoms, and two people reported that they were NOT having the problem and that they WERE able to access the Internet with their AirPort Express 'n' in the Extend mode. Of the people reporting the same problem, ALL reported that their ISP was Comcast. Of the people reporting that their Extend mode WAS working, ALL reported that their ISP was NOT Comcast.

This seemed like too much of a coincidence to ignore, so I have started this thread to see whether or not other people are experiencing the same problem with their AirPort Express 'n' in the Extend mode and to see what ISP they are using.

Here are the results from the previous thread, and I will keep a running total of any new results reported.

People with Comcast ISP whose Extend mode is NOT working --- 4
GARYsParries
devasolomon
Boston Dog
dannym098

People with Comcast ISP whose Extend mode IS working --- 0

People without Comcast ISP whose Extend mode is NOT working --- 0

People without Comcast ISP whose Extend mode IS working --- 2
cardsdoc
MusicMan0725

For those of you that have not been keeping up with the news reports about the Comcast "traffic management" issue, Comcast has been accused by BitTorrent and the FCC of conducting unfair practices to manage their Internet traffic for the purpose of keeping traffic flowing smoothly. As a result, Comcast has agreed to discontinue these practices by the end of 2008.

MacBook Pro 17" Core Duo, Mac OS X (10.5.2)

Posted on Apr 5, 2008 6:43 AM

237 replies

Morgan2

Level 1

66 points

Jun 30, 2008 6:57 PM in response to Fabian Ramirez

OMG! Success my friends. I just updated the firmware on both my AX and AE. I did not do 10.5.4. I am currently plugged into my AXn, extending my main network and all is good. Perhaps faith is restored...

Message was edited by: Morgan2

GARYsParries Author

Level 1

10 points

Jun 30, 2008 7:35 PM in response to GARYsParries

That's great news, Morgan. Congratulations.

Let's hear a few more posts like that!

Message was edited by: GARYsParries

Jun 30, 2008 7:47 PM in response to GARYsParries

Ditto, congrats Morgan!

Hopefully, it's finally fixed and now I go out and upgrade my G Expresses for Ns to extend my N network.

kaos75

Level 1

0 points

Jun 30, 2008 9:50 PM in response to GARYsParries

I have lurked this post for a few weeks as I was having the same "extend" issue with my game consoles. Yes, I am a comcast Internet subscriber. Yes, my network worked fine in extend mode on my MBP but I still could not connect to the internet via PS3 or Xbox 360.
I even went so far as to call apple tech support and asked if I could exchange the express N for another extreme, as some of you have done, and they agreed. Fortunately, I wasn't too hasty to returning it. I was browsing another apple board and saw that there were some Airport updates.
I updated my extreme and express N and now everything works flawlessly in extend mode. I even had an issue with connecting to the VPN for work that was fixed by this update. This has restored my faith in Apple as I had purchased a linksys router and planned to sell my apple gear on ebay. Not any more!

Thanks goes out to this post and the OP for calling attention to this issue. It definitely lets me know that apple listens to it's customers.

Jun 30, 2008 11:05 PM in response to GARYsParries

Just chiming in to let everyone know that the 7.3.2 firmware has fixed the issue I was having with my TC extending the internet from my AEBS. No more WDS!

Jun 30, 2008 11:17 PM in response to kaos75

YES! Houston, we have contact! Per Morgan's post, I updated to 10.5.4 and opened Airport Utility which notified me of not one, but TWO firmware updates. I did both. Then, using Airport Utility, changed the security of my Extreme N to WPA. I then did the unplug and paperclip reset thing to my Airport Express N, selected it from the Airport icon in the menu bar, and set it to join/extend my Extreme's 5Ghz, N network WITH WPA. It works! I have internet AND security! YES! Thank you, Apple. I hope this reaches a broader audience. As I posted earlier, I was worried that there would come a fix, but no notification and then be waiting and waiting and waiting... but without WPA security. Glad I stayed subscribed to this thread to hear of the fix!

I am not sure what Comcast has to do with this. My guess is nothing. Probably an Express N- to - Extreme N thing. But I would like to see what happens... Please keep us posted on how things are moving along, all you Comcast folks. I'll be staying subscribed...

jseg2005

Level 1

40 points

Jul 1, 2008 12:38 AM in response to TailOfTheSun

Works fine after update. I have run several speedtests hardwired to the express at n and received results of 29 Mbps +. Way to go apple. Now to get a crappy third party router so my roomies computer doesn't slow my network down... Also, I can attest to the fact that is is possible to configure this drunk. Have fun all! Not a moment too soon, seeing as IE takes over 2 minutes to load and format this forum. Good luck in the future all.

Jul 1, 2008 5:33 PM in response to jseg2005

Firmware update did the trick.
Confidence in Apple restored.
Comcast still s**ks.

Jul 3, 2008 1:47 PM in response to GARYsParries

And from the non-Comcast camp.... Success!

$600 hardware investment now revalued at $600.

Thanks for a great thread everyone. I will miss being part of such a large group of really knowledgeable Mac people. I still wish I could understand what was going on to prevent my access to select parts of the internet, but I guess I will never know.

And in case anyone was wondering, Apple Engineering never got back to me. No surprise there.

Good luck all.

Todd

GARYsParries Author

Level 1

10 points

Jul 4, 2008 10:38 AM in response to GARYsParries

Okay, now that we have heard from all camps, it is certainly safe to say that the new Airport firmware version 7.3.2 completely fixes the Internet access problem of the Airport wireless Extend mode. And though we still have no clue as to what caused the problem, it is again safe to say that the problem was entirely due to an Apple bug, and Comcast was in no way at fault ... although I really don't know why anyone would have thought that in the first place. 🙂

So what have we learned from this experience? Here are my wisdoms. Feel free to add your own.

1. While the past few months of enduring this problem may have been aggravating, in all fairness to Apple, once they learned of the problem, they made a nice effort to resolve it in a timely fashion. It may have seemed like an eternity for some, but three months is a reasonably good turnaround time for a large corporation. I would give Apple very high marks for their efforts in this regard.

2. Having said that, it can also be said that one hand does not know what the other hand is doing at Apple. That became quite obvious from the posts on this thread regarding conversations with Apple support. Even up to the day of the firmware release, the support personnel did not have a clue. However, again, this is not unusual for a large corporation, especially with one where secrecy is a necessary way of life.

3. Things are not always as they appear to be. Right from the beginning, it was quite obvious that Comcast users (over 50 on this thread alone) were experiencing a totally different set of symptoms than non Comcast users. As each new post to this thread further supported that observation, it was only natural to draw the conclusion that Comcast, which was already being investigated by the FCC for their Internet 'traffic management' practices, was at the very least somehow contributing to these symptoms. But, in spite of this large body of the evidence, the fact that an Airport firmware upgrade completely eliminated all symptoms, for both Comcast and non Comcast users alike, one can only draw the conclusion that Comcast was totally free of any blame in this matter. Pity. 🙂

I would like to extend my thanks to everyone who contributed on this thread. I enjoyed reading all your posts and tried to offer any help that I could with regard to working around the problem. I also must say that, in spite of all the frustration, everyone remained completely civil, and even objective, and that really made it a pleasure to be involved with the forum. I think it says a lot about the Apple community.

For now, I will continue to monitor this thread, just in case any new problems arise, but I really don't expect that to be happening. So everyone take care, and I wish you all the best of luck.

Happy computing!

wmrpdx

Level 1

8 points

Jul 11, 2008 11:29 AM in response to GARYsParries

Gary,

Thanks for leading this discussion. I've been out of the country for a few weeks but it sounds like the update has fixed the issue. I will update tonight and hopefully get "n" up and running.

wmrpdx

Jul 11, 2008 11:45 PM in response to GARYsParries

WooHoo finally! Now I just have to find my Airport express since it was collecting dust. Thanks Gary.

Comcast "traffic management" blocks Extend mode of AirPort Express 'n' ???