I have an apple router for 6 years.
It works fine with ethernet and 2.4Ghz wifi for the last 6 years with no issue.
Recently, I set up the 5ghz wifi and every day I have to unplug and plug in the router as devices that are attached to the 5ghz SSID cannot reach the internet the next day. Devices connecting on Ethernet and 2.4Ghz can reach the internet fine.
This appears to be a known problem with other postings.
Any fix?
iPad, iOS 10
Q1 Windows airport utility is well out of date albeit still works OK mostly.
Is your Airport the tall tower model.. that is Gen6 AC model.
If it is flat pizza box looking one it will have a number on the base, A1xxx either on paper label or moulded into the rubber.
(There is a model number on the Gen6 base as well but very hard to read)
Also in the old version airport utility.. I am using the Mac version but same thing.. if it is the Gen6 Extreme you will get this error. A newer version of the Airport Utility is required.
Q3
You need a wireless analyser of some sort. Lots of them available. Just look for a free one.
Mac OS has it built in but I also run netspot which is available for PC.
I have a couple of routers.. but you can see the Airport (Time Capsule in my case).. 2.4ghz is very good this morning for some reason. tc5e and you can see further down the list tc5e5ghz.
It is important to track the signal strength and channel. Mine is using channel 36 and is giving me a signal of -50dBm at the computer.
You can also see the signal at the router by going to Advanced, Logs and Statistics, Wireless Clients.
Q4
Hold in reset before power on.. keep holding in reset for 10sec after applying power.. the unit will start flashing amber rapidly which means you did it right.
Redo the configuration. Make sure you use short names, no spaces and pure alphanumerics.. NOT APPLE RECOMMENDED NAMES. Passwords same rules but 8-20 characters. Do change the wireless name even if you previously had it conforming to rules above.
You can set wireless channel. I often do this for 2.4ghz but 5ghz is a bit different. There are a bunch of channels called DFS you cannot access manually. It might be worthwhile though to fix the channel as well, e.g. 149.
Go Done and then update to apply the settings.
IMHO one of the problems can be the Airport swapping to a DFS channel that a client cannot use or has problems.
You can also do this using the airport utility in iPad or iPhone. IMHO the layout is incredibly messy but it will work better than PC version.
If you continue to have issues get a new router... today.
IMHO one of the problems can be the Airport swapping to a DFS channel that a client cannot use or has problems.
Just to add.. setting the fixed wifi channel on v5 airport utility failed. I went back to it later and found it was still set to auto. You need a Mac or iOS version utility to fix this.
If you look at the screenshot of the v5 airport first tab, airport, it does show the channels being used.
Note also that channel 100 is DFS channel.. you cannot select it but the Airport can use it if there is no weather or military radar devices on the freq.
Day 2 - 5Ghz connection fail to resolve DNS. Pinging local IP works fine. Reboot router and everything works fine. Next day, same problem.
What model airport is this exactly?
Is the Airport your main router running DHCP and NAT?
Is the 5ghz channel constantly changing? Check using a tool like wireless diagnostics in the Mac.
Did you reset the Airport to factory? Then reconfigure it?
If this is standard Airport Extreme AC model and you have had it for 6 years.. it is simply time to replace it. Sorry.. but that is as long as they usually last.. plus quite a bit.
Apple made these things really hard to work on because there is almost no diagnostic tools available.
The issue is not because 5ghz has interference.
The issue I'm having is 5ghz works fine on day 1. The next day, it stops working and to fix the problem I have to reboot the router. Issue repeats the following day.
My goal is to get the router to work reliably under 5Ghz.
Responding LaPastenague
The router works fine. It just don't work reliably when you create a stand-alone 5Ghz SSID.
Thanks, everyone, for your feedback.
The latest "tall" or "tower" version AirPort Extreme does not officially support setup using the Windows version of AirPort Utility. Things might work on some settings, but not on others.
You will do better to use AirPort Utility on an iPhone or iPad, which does officially support the most recent version of the AirPort Extreme.
I don't know what model of Airport Extreme I have because I can't find it anywhere. At the bottom of the device, the words are grey written on black which is impossible to read (elegant but not practical). I tried to find it on the Airport Utility app but could not find anywhere.
I don't know the difference between "tall" or "tower". They both mean the same to me. My apple router is a cube shape like a tall building.
I have an old iPad but it cannot install Airport Utility. It errors out with "Airport Utility isn't compatible with this device." I only have Windows and Android devices to do my configuration.
5 GHz only works well when devices have line-of-sight to the router or are in very close proximity to the router, like around the corner or maybe the next room, depending on the construction type of the wall. The reason for this is that 5 GHz signals are much weaker than 2.4 GHz signals.
Maybe setting up a separate 5 GHz SSID was not the way to go. For example, if you use Apple's default setting, both the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands will use the same wireless network name. WiFi devices will then choose and connect to the best signal.....either 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz..... that they "see".
After all, isn't that what you want devices to do......pick the best signal? They will......if you use the factory default setting on the AirPorts.
Are you saying that devices would not connect to 5 GHz when you were using the default settings and this is why you set up a separate 5 GHz network?
I am unable to duplicate the issue that you are reporting to experiment and try to find a solution. Perhaps another user who has run into the same issue and has found a solution can help.
Day 1 - setup 5Ghz via wireless option with separate SSDID and internet works fine.
Day 2 - 5Ghz connection fail to resolve DNS. Pinging local IP works fine. Reboot router and everything works fine. Next day, same problem.
It's not a connection problem. It's a problem where 5ghz connection fail to resolve DNS.
Right now, I have it setup with dual router setting and let devices connect to Apple Router at 2.4Ghz or 5Ghz. 90% of the time it chooses 2.4Ghz. I would prefer to use 5Ghz connection with the wireless option but I run into unable to resolve DNS issue the next day as I describe above.
Right now, I have it setup with dual router setting and let devices connect to Apple Router at 2.4Ghz or 5Ghz. 90% of the time it chooses 2.4Ghz.
There is a reason why the devices are connecting at 2.4 GHz rather than 5 GHz when they have a choice to make between 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz connections. Devices think that the 2.4 GHz signal is higher quality than the 5 GHz signal, so that is where they connect.
My Mac laptop is normally located within about 10-12 feet of an AirPort router (about 2 years old) in my office which broadcasts both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz using the same SSID. The Mac has always been connected at 5 GHz whenever I've checked in the past. A few minutes ago, I checked again. The numbers look like this:
If you have a Mac laptop or desktop, how far is it located from the AirPort router?
If the Mac is currently connected at 5 GHz, hold down the option key on your Mac while you click on the WiFi menu at the top of the screen and look at the same items that you see above. What values do you see for each of the items in the list?
If the Mac is not currently connected at 5 GHz, wait until it is or until you can change the settings on the AirPort router to use a separate SSID for 5 GHz, then post back with the values that you see for the 5 GHz connection.
You do have the Gen6 AE.
The base of the earlier models is grey rubber. And easily readable.
Honestly for your environment a non-Apple router is a better choice.
At 6 years old the Airport is now well beyond its useful life. You need a new AC wireless router.
To do setup you need a Mac or iOS compatible device.
Windows utility kinda works but not every function is allowed.
Apple Router 5ghz internet unreachable the next day
