Airport Extreme (simultaneous dual-band) lost Radio Mode options

Question

Airport Extreme (simultaneous dual-band) lost Radio Mode options

I'm using a simultaneous dual-band Airport Extreme Base Station (AEBS) as my only (wireless and wired) router, to connect a cable modem (eth), two MacBooks (wifi) and a NAS (eth) at home.

I've been using a 5GHz wireless network - with a separate name - for the MacBooks to get higher speeds for communication with the NAS, and a 2.4GHz network for my girlfriend's laptop and sporadic guests - so the "802.11n (5GHz only) - 802.11b/g/n" Radio Mode.

Yesterday all of a sudden the 5GHz network disappeared, while the 2.4GHz and the guest network were still accessible.

I tried rebooting the AEBS - the 5GHz network did not reappear, and when I opened the AirPort Utility and connected to the AEBS, in the settings the choices for "Radio Mode" have been decreased to only 2 (see pic.: goo.gl/VyhiF)

Has anyone had similar issues?

Or do I have to bring it to service now? (which takes forever in Germany, as we only have one genuine Apple Store with "Geniuses" in Munich - everything else are resellers, who need weeks for even simple diagnostics =/ )

I have tried to downgrade the firmware and reapply the latest update; I also tried to reset to default settings - all to no avail.

AirPort Extreme (simult. dual-band)-OTHER, firmware 7.5.2

Posted on Apr 27, 2011 4:52 PM

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Answer 1

Apr 27, 2011 4:58 PM in response to boywithumbrella

when I opened the AirPort Utility and connected to the AirPort Extreme, in the settings the choices for "Radio Mode" have been decreased to only 2 (see pic.: goo.gl/VyhiF)

Hold down the option key on your Mac as you click on the Radio Mode selection box and you should see about 14 different choices.

Does that help?

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Answer 2

Apr 27, 2011 5:07 PM in response to Bob Timmons

That was fast! ^__^ and helpful. While it doesn't answer the question why the 5 GHz SSID disappeared in the first place, re-enabling it did solve the problem (at least for now).

Is it the default/normal behaviour of the AirPort Utility to only show two choices without an opt-click?

That would mean I used it when setting up the AEBS a year ago and forgotten it since...

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Answer 3

Apr 27, 2011 5:40 PM in response to boywithumbrella

While it doesn't answer the question why the 5 GHz SSID disappeared in the first place

I don't have an answer for that.

Is it the default/normal behaviour of the AirPort Utility to only show two choices without an opt-click?

Yes

If you use the "option" key when you check other settings, you may sometimes find some other "options" than you did not know were there.

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