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User profile for user: JayIsMyName
JayIsMyName Author
User level: Level 1
4 points

Need AirPort Extreme (1st gen) RAW firmware 7.8.1 .afrm or .basebinary

I have a 1st generation AirPort Extreme currently running firmware 7.0. No current versions of AirPort Utility on macOS or iOS will talk to it as they say it needs version 7.3 or later first.


I've got a Windows AirPort Utility 5.6.1 talking to and able to update the AirPort but when I use Upload Firmware it wants a file and there are none that I can locate. (Unlike the macOS version, it doesn't seem to automatically download the new firmware or can't find the server anymore.)


It seems to want one of: .basebinary .afrm or .bin

Where can I get firmware 7.8.1 (or really anything 7.3 or newer!) in one of these formats?


Looking at pages such as https://support.apple.com/kb/DL2008?locale=en_US is great but either none have a download button or the download links go to a broken link like http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=305301


Options to use this old, but still good, AirPort?

Posted on Aug 21, 2020 9:32 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply
User profile for user: LaPastenague
LaPastenague
User level: Level 9
67,244 points

Posted on Aug 21, 2020 10:53 PM

Actually the first two generations of the airport extreme N wireless model have same model number but different part numbers.

January 9, 20071st generationMA073LL/AA1143802.11a/b/g/n*

August 7, 20072nd generationMB053LL/AA1143802.11a/b/g/n*


You need to check the product ID by checking the number inside the firmware.


This is the listing from version.xml several years old of the first three products in the N wireless airport series.

Double check the Product ID first and if you cannot upgrade firmware I will check if I can help in some way..


  • Product ID 104 = (7.6.7, 7.6.4, 7.6.3, 7.6.1, 7.6, 7.5.2, 7.5.1) 802.11n AirPort Extreme Base Station (AEBSn) 1G, Fast Ethernet
  • Product ID 105 = (7.6.7, 7.6.4, 7.6.3, 7.6.1, 7.6, 7.5.2, 7.5.1) 802.11n AirPort Extreme Base Station (AEBSn) 2G, Draft-N, Gigabit Ethernet
  • Product ID 106 = (7.6.7, 7.6.4, 7.6.3, 7.6.1, 7.6, 7.5.2, 7.5.1) 802.11n Time Capsule (TC) 1G, Draft-N


As you can see A1143 can have product code of 104 or 105 depending on the year.


So the way to get product ID is as follows.

Use airport utility export the configuration.. this is option in the top menu while you have edit open.



In the exported configuration file.. which will be airportname.baseconfig


so in my case tcgen4again.baseconfig

Open the file in text edit (whatever)

Look for the following keys


<key>syAM</key>

<string>TimeCapsule6,116</string>

<key>syAP</key>

<integer>116</integer>


Voila the internal apple designation for your airport.


In a 5.6 airport utility you will use,



One thing I have done is get earlier firmware by going through my Time Machine backups for a version.xml file from a while ago .. and get the link to much earlier firmware.. not all firmware is listed..


I don't have an Extreme that old but here is a Time Capsule. Gen1


This is showing the full summary page.



And the list of firmware does not go back far enough for you.




Frankly the Airport Extreme Gen1 should be placed in the trash.. but up to you.. using a >10 year old router is clearly not going to match modern equipment.


Nor would I over worry about the firmware... that is the least of your issues.. as it is unlikely to actually fix or improve anything.

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User profile for user: LaPastenague
LaPastenague
User level: Level 9
67,244 points

Aug 21, 2020 10:53 PM in response to JayIsMyName

Actually the first two generations of the airport extreme N wireless model have same model number but different part numbers.

January 9, 20071st generationMA073LL/AA1143802.11a/b/g/n*

August 7, 20072nd generationMB053LL/AA1143802.11a/b/g/n*


You need to check the product ID by checking the number inside the firmware.


This is the listing from version.xml several years old of the first three products in the N wireless airport series.

Double check the Product ID first and if you cannot upgrade firmware I will check if I can help in some way..


  • Product ID 104 = (7.6.7, 7.6.4, 7.6.3, 7.6.1, 7.6, 7.5.2, 7.5.1) 802.11n AirPort Extreme Base Station (AEBSn) 1G, Fast Ethernet
  • Product ID 105 = (7.6.7, 7.6.4, 7.6.3, 7.6.1, 7.6, 7.5.2, 7.5.1) 802.11n AirPort Extreme Base Station (AEBSn) 2G, Draft-N, Gigabit Ethernet
  • Product ID 106 = (7.6.7, 7.6.4, 7.6.3, 7.6.1, 7.6, 7.5.2, 7.5.1) 802.11n Time Capsule (TC) 1G, Draft-N


As you can see A1143 can have product code of 104 or 105 depending on the year.


So the way to get product ID is as follows.

Use airport utility export the configuration.. this is option in the top menu while you have edit open.



In the exported configuration file.. which will be airportname.baseconfig


so in my case tcgen4again.baseconfig

Open the file in text edit (whatever)

Look for the following keys


<key>syAM</key>

<string>TimeCapsule6,116</string>

<key>syAP</key>

<integer>116</integer>


Voila the internal apple designation for your airport.


In a 5.6 airport utility you will use,



One thing I have done is get earlier firmware by going through my Time Machine backups for a version.xml file from a while ago .. and get the link to much earlier firmware.. not all firmware is listed..


I don't have an Extreme that old but here is a Time Capsule. Gen1


This is showing the full summary page.



And the list of firmware does not go back far enough for you.




Frankly the Airport Extreme Gen1 should be placed in the trash.. but up to you.. using a >10 year old router is clearly not going to match modern equipment.


Nor would I over worry about the firmware... that is the least of your issues.. as it is unlikely to actually fix or improve anything.

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User profile for user: JayIsMyName
JayIsMyName Author
User level: Level 1
4 points

Aug 21, 2020 10:25 PM in response to JayIsMyName

Solved it.

At that apsu site, which I assume is where the AirPort Utility downloads its firmware updates from, I looked at the


<key>productID</key>

<string>104</string>


to find the specific versions of the .basebinary file for the various AirPort versions. Exporting the config for my AirPort I was able to figure out it is internal version 104 so I found a 7.5.2 firmware that worked fine. That got it past the 7.3.1 needed to move back to macOS AirPort Utility that then was able to take it to the current 7.8.1 without issue.


The AirPort Extreme 1st generation is getting 45 Mbps up and down which isn't bad for such an old device and is quite usable for general use.

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User profile for user: JayIsMyName
JayIsMyName Author
User level: Level 1
4 points

Aug 21, 2020 10:01 PM in response to JayIsMyName

Well, maybe getting the raw firmware file won't help after all. Looking at apsu x apple x com slash version . xml I see that I can get the firmware at that location, but downloading that file and trying to do an Upload Firmware to the AirPort Extreme 1st generation using AirPort Utility 5.6.1 Windows gives 'The selected firmware file is not compatible with this AirPort wireless device.'


Note the bottom of my AirPort says 'AirPort Extreme Base Station' and 'FCC ID: BCGA1143 IC: 579C-A1143' which is where I'm getting that this is a 1st generation Extreme.

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Need AirPort Extreme (1st gen) RAW firmware 7.8.1 .afrm or .basebinary

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