air port extreme looses internet connection frequently

Sound typical of radio interference from another wireless network or a 2.4GHz portable phone.

Try changing the channel on the Base Station - this setting found under the Airport tab of the Airport Admin Utility. Start experimenting with the channel setting - try either channel 1 or 11 first.

I am also having fluctating airport signal. I tried to change my channel but I don't have access to that. It is greyed out, how do I get access to that option?

Carol,

Are you using the Airport Admin Utility?

yes I am in Airport Admin Utility, under Basestation everything is grey....I can not access.

Run the Airport Admin Utility. Click on the name of your Base Station. Click the Configure button. Click on the Airport tab. The channel setting drop down box should appear there, and shouldn't be "greyed out".

I am having the same issue! The airport-Ext had been working just fine until two weeks ago. It looses signal frequently. There were times when it really did not connect at all (even though the network was shown as an available signal). However, everytime I check the USE INTERFACE ROBUSTNESS in the top right of the screen (clicking in the wi-fi icon), the signal shows with more strength and then the airport becomes available. How bizarre is that? I don't recall having to click that option never before. Any suggestion about why this is happening?

Cool.

I am sorry to be such a needy person but when I open Airport Admin Utility no base station comes up....if I choose rescan noting happens. If I choose Other, it asks for the password for the other basestation. I don't know what that is. Any other suggestions?

Carol:

There are three common explanations for why the Airport Admin Utility doesn't see the Base Station:

1. Your base station is hooked up incorrectly. Make sure your cable or DSL modem is connected to the Base Station's WAN port - that's the port labelled with the "circle of dots" icon. Don't connect the modem to the LAN port.

2. Related to point 1. On the Mac, open System Preferences->Network->Show ethernet->PPPoE tab. Make sure "connect using PPPoE" is NOT checked.

3. You have an active firewall on the Mac. Make sure the OS X firewall is off (in System Preferences->Sharing->Firewall). Make sure all third-party firewall software you might ever have installed is either disabled or (better still) uninstalled. Same goes for any VPN client software you may ever have installed.

I am hooked up as you suggested....a password is being requested and for the life of me I can't figure out what I used for a passwork. How do I cancel all my passwords and start over. I tried doing a reset from the airport extreme but the password issue remained. I think starting over might be my best option. THis setup worked fine until just recently, I don't understand what happened.

I am new to Apple, I have a windows machine that is my main computer. So I need help from an experienced apple person.

Henry B.

Thanks! I could not figure out what was wrong for about two days. You saved my sanity.

Steve A.

Here is some more info on this problem. I haven't solved the puzzle, but maybe someone can use this to solve it.

I have a airport extreme with comcast. I have used wireless for several years and have not had any problems until the last few weeks. I use OSX.4 with Extreme base station and cable with a imac and ibook - imac has airport card, ibook has extreme card. I noticed the bands from my airport would show full signal then quickly fade to 2, sometimes 1, sometimes none.

I put in a new extreme card, changed channels, re started everything, and traded in my old rca cable modem for a modern one. no luck.

This is where it gets interesting. I took my ibook to work where everyone uses wireless, and it did the same thing. Also my imac works fine. Everything is pointing to my ibook. The only thing I can think of is a bad update in software. My base station works fine. Now I am looking at the discussions here and see it is happening to others. I have checked for updates, restarted the base station.

Could a date, virus, or bad update caused this problem?

Marcia:

Could I suggest you repost your question into a brand new discussion, rather than at the end of an existing discussion on an unrelated topic? That way the responses to your topic and the existing topic won't get all mixed up and hard to follow. Just click on the link to "Post a new topic" found on the home page of the Airport Extreme discussion forum.

Hello everyone. New to computing; long time amateur astronomer: big sunspot(s) recently.... Big SME's in the news a few days back (solar mass ejections: result- aurora borrealis, magnetic storms or :radio nightmare!!
But that comes and goes... from visible ejection add a few hours to a week...
But too: airport admin utility, click configure, in that window ckick airport,then at bottom click on wireless options... read about multicast rate, and click on the interference robustness (this does the base station,the tool bar one does the computer) then read about the transmitter power....if it is already at 100% I would say look into an antenna. Be sure to click on the "update" tab at bottom, so the base station gets the new settings Or, listen to astronomical news, and plug in, when that huge sunspot comes back around. Peace C

Hello:
I am having a problem with connectivity with my Airport Extreme.
This just started in the last 2 weeks and is happening more frequently.
I have a G4 dual 800 base and a G4 icicle Laptop all running OS 10.4.2
The Airport Extreme is connected to the G4 dual and kicks a signal through the house.
Suddenly, the Airport Extreme will drop the Internet connection. It still is
pushing out a signal that my laptop acknowledges but there isn't a connection to the Internet. The dsl modem still shows a connection and after numerous attempts at trouble shooting, it comes down to the Airport Extreme needing to
reboot to gain access to the internet. After rebooting, it is fine. Then suddenly,
it will drop the connection.

I have recently run both of the security upgrades in the last two weeks and
suspect them to be the culprit. Anyone else having this specific issue with
their Airport Extremes?