Error -4 when trying to configure AirPort Express

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Error -4 when trying to configure AirPort Express

I've recently upgraded my wireless using an Airport Extreme and in the process added a shared hard drive. Since doing that i needed to update the config of my Airport Express because my network is now secured. The way ( perhaps stupidly ) i chose to do this was resetting to factory defaults and attempting to reconfigure from scratch. The reset works fine and the device creates the wireless network for me to join and assigns me an IP address ( in the 10. range ). I can then also see the 'Base Station facea1' in the AirPort utility but thats when the errors start to go wrong.

The device has a orange light and when i click either manual setup or continue the application displays a progress bar, gets to the end of the progress bar and then gives an error saying :

"An error occurred while trying to access the Apple wireless device. Make sure your network connection is valid and try again. Error -4"

I have tried a number of times but using the wireless connection and also using a cable to the ethernet port on the device. All give the same error. I'm using AirPort utility on Windows 7 and have checked that the Bonjour service is running.

HELP

Posted on Apr 15, 2011 2:02 AM

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William-Boyd-Jr

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Apr 15, 2011 9:10 AM in response to afeltham

afeltham wrote:
I've recently upgraded my wireless using an Airport Extreme and in the process added a shared hard drive. Since doing that i needed to update the config of my Airport Express because my network is now secured. The way ( perhaps stupidly ) i chose to do this was resetting to factory defaults and attempting to reconfigure from scratch. The reset works fine and the device creates the wireless network for me to join and assigns me an IP address ( in the 10. range ). I can then also see the 'Base Station facea1' in the AirPort utility but thats when the errors start to go wrong.

Welcome to Apple's discussion groups.

I routinely avoid trying to give advice to Windows users to assure that I don't try to pass along incorrect information, but as your problem seems specific to Apple gear, I'll try to help you.

Was it the AirPort Express that you reset "to factory defaults"? When you did that, did you hold in the reset button until the status light flashed rapidly several times?

If your AirPort Extreme is your "primary" router, then the AirPort Express should presumably be set to "join" or "extend" the network created by the Extreme, presuming also that the Express is an 802.11n-capable model.

The name 'Base Station facea1' seems like the name of a reset Apple base station, where the characters "facea1" are the last six characters of the MAC address ("AirPort ID") of that station. To configure that device, temporarily join the network that it's creating.

The device has a orange light and when i click either manual setup or continue the application displays a progress bar, gets to the end of the progress bar and then gives an error saying :

"An error occurred while trying to access the Apple wireless device. Make sure your network connection is valid and try again. Error -4"

When I once had a roughly similar problem, I was able to fix it by unplugging the router for 15 minutes.

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Answer 2

afeltham Author

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Apr 23, 2011 8:30 AM in response to William-Boyd-Jr

Hello! Thank you for answering my question despite being on a windows computer! If it makes you feel any better i also have a Mac Pro, iPhone, iPad and Apple TV! The windows laptop is the only thorn in the side!

You were correct in that i was wanting to reset the AX so that it could join the network that the AE had created. Unfortunately unplugging for 15 minutes didn't solve the problem. In actual fact i don't know what the problem was but i've been able to update the AX. In the end i found information about the 'Configure Other' option which allows you to specify the IP address of the AX ( once i established what the default was ). After that it didn't give the problem.

I imagine that this is still a problem because i should still be able to load the airport utility and click continue or manual setup from there and it works. Unfortunately it didn't, but nevermind it got sorted in the end.

Thanks.

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