Apple AirPort Extreme Network Stopped Working After Xfinity Service Stoppage

I do have internet.

But only on one device, which is interesting.

Something like this could occur if the AirPort Extreme is configured in "Off (Bridge Mode)" instead of the correct DHCP and NAT router mode setting.

Please open AirPort Utility on the Mac that has Internet

Click on the AirPort Extreme to select it

Click Edit in the smaller window that appears

Click the Network tab at the top of the next window

The setting for Router Mode should be set to DHCP and NAT. Is it?

Don't change any settings for now.......just report on the setting for Router Mode that you see.

Very strange.....and very wrong.

When the Router Mode is set to the correct DHCP and NAT setting, the DHCP Range should be set to 10.0.1.2 to 10.0.1.200. If you leave the AirPort Extreme set to "Off (Bridge Mode)" only one device will be able to access the Internet.

My guess would be that the outage at the ISP caused some of the settings on the AirPort Extreme to change, and those settings on the AirPort need to be cleared and reset so that the AirPort Extreme can pick up new correct settings from the modem. Just trying to change one setting at a time won't work, because a number of settings are interactive.......changing one thing changes another that you are not aware of.

If it were me, I would follow Tesserax's advice for the complete power recycle......including resetting the AirPort Extreme back to its default settings ......and then setting it up again.

AirPort - Complete Power Recycle - Apple Community

But, it's your call.

When the circle is clicked, it says "network: OFF."

That should just mean you have wireless turned off on the airport.

I would suggest you turn wireless on and use wireless instead of USB to Ethernet dongle on the MBP that is having issues.

It sounds like everything is working on the network and your issue is really just USB dongles which are known to be problematic.

pacificmm_com wrote:

...I'm curious about this series of modems being problematic. That may be a clue to the problem. Please let me know if you know any more about this if possible.

I'm basing this on both years of experience and the number of posts I see here at the ASC related to using SB61XX-series Motorola/Arris modems. Not much more I can tell you other than what I already provided you.

Meanwhile my Airport Utility screen shows the Internet icon with a solid green light. The AirPort Extreme icon has a flashing yellow light with a red #1 circle. When the circle is clicked, it says "network: OFF."

This could indicate an issue with the Extreme communicating with the modem. It could also indicate that the Extreme's configuration may be incorrect for the type of Internet service you are getting.

The fact that the MBP is getting Internet service does provide a clue. That is, the Ethernet connection from the notebook, through the switch, and to the base station is working. In addition, the communication between the base station and the modem to the Internet is also not an issue ... at least at this point.

It appears that the issue is on the wireless side. When you experienced a Xfinity service outage was this, per chance, due to an electrical brownout/blackout or due to an electrical storm?

I followed your advice.

Was not really my advice. The suggestions were posted by Tesserax as the first reply to your post. If you had chosen to follow his advice at the time, it would have probably saved you a good deal of time and frustration.

Apparently, the service shut off caused settings to change in the AirPort Extreme

Which is very unusual. Normally if the ISP services goes down, when it comes back up, the AirPort Extreme works just fine after a restart.

And attempting to adjust the individual settings was just not going to work.

As we noted, this was because a number of the settings are interactive. Change one setting and another setting changes, but you don't know where.

A factory reset was required.

Now you know what to do when......not if......there is another service outage or the ISP is "updating' things.

Glad that you got things working.

You mentioned resetting the AirPort Extreme base station, but did you also reset your modem?

Take a look at the following user tip article to see if it can help: AirPort - Complete Power Recycle - Apple Community

Two additional things that come to mind:

1. Your AirPort Extreme may be approaching its useful end-of-life. Most consumer-grade networking hardware typically runs from 3-5 years when operating 24x7.
2. The Motorola SB6XXX-series of modems are known to be problematic with the AirPort base stations. Neither of them are "bad" in themselves, but they don't seem to "play nice" with each other. Symptoms are poor or intermittent data transfer rates and/or connectivity issues.

Any suggestions what to do? Thanks!

First item to do would be to check and make sure that the Xfinity service really is back up and running correctly.

To do that, you would connect a computer directly to the SB 6183 modem using an Ethernet connection and see if you can get an Internet connection that way. If you can, then you know that the Xfinity service is at least providing an Internet connection and we can troubleshoot further.

But.....If you cannot get an Internet connection with the computer connected directly to the modem, then your first action item would be to work with Xfinity support to get the Internet connection working again with the modem.

Post back on your progress and we can continue.