Airport Extreme not working after firmware update

apple updater lol@u all. every airport update ever has done this. dont even expect apple to admit it but just read the hundreds of posts of users trying to get working again on both occasions of airport extreme updates. never accept any update from apple before visiting the forums and checking for yourself if anyone else get jacked by it. ill probably get called a troll for pointing this out but check out the posts for yourself and see if my words are the truth.

good luck and beware

I wonder if I am part of a "silent majority" as I did not have any problems with this upgrade. I have multiple Macs and two independent 802.11n networks, using two separate Airport Extremes; one for my home office and one for personal personal/family use.

I have three Airport Extreme N's (two 100Mbit wired, one gigabit wired - all not the new dual-band wireless), a Time Capsule (not dual-band) and a G and an N Airport Express, all in one network.

FWIW I have had no problems at all - no dropouts, no slowdowns, nothing - with any of those devices individually, or my network as a whole (or with anything that connects to it) as a result of the new 7.4.1 firmware. It all worked just as I expected it to, but what I don't understand is how the same firmware (applied to what should be identical hardware) is not working well for some subset of people.

I really don't know how to help out the people on here who are reporting 7.4.x issues (other than to suggest they check their network SSID is not hidden, and that the channel their network is on after the upgrade is set to the same as it was before the upgrade), because neither I nor any of the people I know in real life who have Airport networks have actually had any problems I can talk from any first-hand experience with as a result of this new firmware.

That seems pretty common with the helpful people in these Airport forums with the high post counts also; that is they are all suggesting things for people with issues to try but it seems almost universally those experienced posters haven't themselves encountered the problems they are trying to help with. Difficult all round.

I had the same problems with my AEBS after the update to 7.4.1. I successfully downgraded to 7.3.2 and at least my base station was visible to the Airport Utility once again, making it possible for me to reconfigure its settings. I have a new problem now, though. Once any of the Macs in my wireless network (an iMac, a MacBook Air, and a MacBook) are powered up from shut off or sleep, they pick up the airport signal immediately but there is no internet connection initially because there is "No IP Address" (even if the light on the AEBS remains green). If one waits anytime from a minute to fifteen minutes, an IP address will finally be assigned, and the internet connection is transmitted wirelessly. Alternately, one can shut off and then turn on the DSL modem which results in a quicker assignment of an IP address. This never happened before the upgrade and subsequent downgrade. Can any of our experts here figure out what may have gone wrong with my network? Would appreciate any help I can get. Thanks all!

Hi Do you have any sucess? I downgrade for 7.3.2 but I can't find my USB HD in Time Machine.
I Found that in directory and so on, but I can't set this USB HD in Time Machine any more.

Regards

I just got an Airport Extreme last week and did the firmware upgrade. It worked for a few days...

I'd like to downgrade the firmware, but I can't find it anywhere; I don't have it locally, and it isn't downloadable from Apple anymore. Does anyone know where I can find the 7.3.2 .basebin file?

My AEBS ran smoothly for about a week after making this change, but it's back to the same unmanageable mess: the connection drops from two different macbooks every so often, and sometimes the whole network collapses and has to be rebuilt from scratch. I have to re-join the network one or more times a day from the appletv. On the bright side, I'm getting really good at navigating with the remote to re-enter the password.

Currently I have to try several times to get the AEBS to factory restore, and no previous firmware packages seem available on it to downgrade, so I'm just running off an old airport express while my AEBS sits idle in the corner. If anyone knows how to grab previous firmware online, I could use the tip.

For now I'll reminisce about how my network ran smoothly for a year before I got the new macbook pro and itunes 8, which was when everything started to go downhill. I used to look forward to updates from Apple.

I got the AEBS to show me previous firmware packages, but when I try to downgrade I get error -1. I'll try by connecting with ethernet and see how that goes.

Had to roll back the change. Interestingly my friends iPhone was able to see the network and join no problem. Nothing else could though. This was a 3G phone. I also have an xbox, ps3, apple TV and some other toys. My main computer and my laptop both were not able to see the network.

The channel 13 thing worked for me - thanks.

I also had to spool back to 7.3.2 to get my network working again. Now, a message keeps popping up on every computer on the network trying to update the AEBS back to 7.4.1 and to install the latest Airport utility. I don't know how safe the utility is without the firmware update, but I'm not taking any chances. I lost too much time on this problem already. So how do I tell the update utility to stop bugging me?

BigCat400 wrote:
Now, talking about going a different route, I've been looking at SIMULTANEOUS-dual-band routers, there are three or four out there, I just haven't seen enough reviews to decide which one is good. Perhaps they are still too new.

The current, newest Airport Extreme is a simultaneous dual band gateway/router. It comes with firmware version 7.4. I had zero problems updating it to 7.4.1.

Some suggestions that might help avoid post-firmware update issues:

1. Do not start by manually download any Airport firmware update.

2. Make sure Airport Utility is at the current version (5.4.1) for any & every computer on the network that you allow to manage the Extreme; i.e, to run the Airport Utility.

3. Attach the computer you will use to update the firmware to the Extreme by Ethernet, temporarily if necessary. Make sure the Ethernet connection is the preferred (first) port for this computer.

4. Launch Airport Utility & have it check for & apply the firmware update.

5. If necessary, return the managing computer to a WiFi connection after the Extreme restarts.

My Airport Extreme is not working after firmware update 03/24/09. It does not appear in Airport Utility.
How can I go back to previous firmware if my Airport Extreme does not show up in the airport utility?

I too upgraded my Airport Extreme to 7.4.1 (74100.25) firmware and immediately after the upgrade Airport Utility reported "An error occurred while reading the configuration. Make sure your Apple wireless device is plugged in and in range of your computer or connected via Ethernet and try again. (-5)"

Additionally the wireless would not assign a valid IP address to my MacBook Pro.

I resolved this by connecting to the Airport Extreme via ethernet. Then I launched Airport Utility and chose File - Configure Other. I entered the IP address (10.0.1.1) of the device and my password. This brought up the configuration options. I chose from the menu "Base Station", Upload Firmware. This presented a list of firmware choices and I chose 7.3.2. The downgrade completed and I was able to use the wireless again as well as normally configure the Airport Extreme via wireless or ethernet. No more Error -5.

Thanks to all who posted ideas, suggestions, etc in this thread. Saved me a call to Apple Care or a trip to the Genius bar.

Apple - it just works (?!).

I just wanted to say thanks to all those with solutions - I've had weeks of problems: updating, downdating (?), buying new modems, etc etc. Finally got it to work but with one fascinating quirk - my windows machines would log on through the WPA2 security fine - but the Apple products wouldn't. Finally I closed down Airport Utility and reopened it only to find my network - automatically - given a new name but still having the same password. And Airport found it and connected.

Glad to have it working but what on earth is going on? This is a company that believes in zero configuration, that bases its credibility on not giving out printed manuals to new users - how on earth are, how can i put it, those less committed than we are going to sort out this mess?

But - thanks to each and every one of you who has come up with solutions - your skills never cease to amaze me.