Where's monitoring and logging in AirPort Utility 6.0?

Airport Utility v6.0 is a minimalist version that is similar to the iOS version. You'll get back ALL the usual functionality by ALSO installing and using Airport Utility v5.6. The two versions don't erase one another. I just finished verifying that v5.6 works fine with BOTH g and n Airport devices.

BUT PLEASE NOTE: According to Apple you must FIRST install Airport Utility v6.0 in order to access and install Firmware upgrade 7.6.1. Do that first. THEN install Airport Utility v5.6 and use it instead if you prefer.

My catch-all list of Airport 6.0 & Firmware 7.6.1 problems:

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I've compiled a catch-all list of problems and changes with Airport Utility version 6.0 and FW 7.6.1. Some of the items may be relevant to this thread.

THE PROBLEMS WITH AIRPORT UTILITY 6 AND FIRMWARE 7.6.1:

Introduction: If you find AirPort Utility v6.0 too limiting or strange, you can ALSO install AirPort Utility v5.6, released alongside v6.0, to maintain all your previous capabilities. It works fine with both Airport g and n devices.

PLEASE NOTE: According to Apple you must FIRST install Airport Utility v6.0 in order to access and install Firmware upgrade 7.6.1. Do that first. THEN install Airport Utility v5.6 and use it instead if you prefer.

1) According to Apple's documentation, Airport Utility version 6.0 is ONLY for Mac OS X 10.7 Lion. It is NOT for 10.6 Snow Leopard. If you accidentally installed v6, you'll have to dig around in Apple - Support - Downloads for the previous relevant version for your devices and OS version. Here is the relevant page:

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1483

2) The HELP for Airport Utility has been updated. When you first access it you may well be looking at the old Help. It is supposed to update itself spontaneously over the Internet. It took a couple minutes in my case. Be sure you are looking at the NEW Help before you start using it. One way to tell is that the list of help topics essentially doubles from what there used to be. Also, the very first topic in the NEW Help should read:

"Set up an AirPort device > Set up a new AirPort Base Station or Time Capsule"

3) The HELP has some WRONG information. Here we go:

3a) There is NO "Enable Guest Network" setting. You CANNOT create a guest network or name it or give it any settings. Why this is still listed in Help, I have no idea. Why the setting is gone: This is most likely because the technology behind guest networks, WPS, has been thoroughly CRACKED in the wild. Google "WPS cracked" for lots of documentation of the situation. It won't be resolved soon.

3b) I can't find any 'Setup Assistant". Everything is now manual. This is not to say that there isn't a setup assistant that appears when you FIRST set up your Airport device. I don't know.

4) After installing Airport Utility v6.0, there is no indication of the accompanying firmware update until you decide to run the new version. Even then, you have to click on the big icon of your Airport device and notice an 'Update' button about halfway down the popup window. You then have to assume that this button is telling you to update your firmware.

5) After you update your Airport device's firmware, you may well discover an ERROR subwindow popping up inside Airport Utility that says:

"An error occurred while updating the firmware. -6721"

Don't panic! All you need to do is go into your Wi-Fi settings, either in your menubar or the Network preferences, and turn OFF Wi-Fi, then turn ON Wi-Fi again. This is part of a long standing bug in Lion's Wi-Fi with which I bet you are already familiar, certainly up through Lion version 10.7.2.

6) Miscellaneous changes in Airport Utility 6:

6a) The keyboard command to manually change your Airport devices settings is GONE. You have to click the little 'Edit' button after clicking on the big icon for your device.

6b) There is no longer any summary window for your Airport device. You have to instead click on the big "Internet" icon for related data, then click on the big icon for your Airport device for local settings data.

6c) There is no longer any HELP advising users to EXPORT their settings. (The Help only talks about Import of settings). BE SURE TO EXPORT YOUR NEW SETTINGS! I did this immediately after both updates.

6d) MAC address filtering for Airport devices is GONE.

6e) All references to IPV6 anywhere are GONE. I have to assume the IPV6 settings are now entirely working and entirely automatic. Let's hope so.

6f) Signal and Noise data and graphs are GONE. Use Apple's Wi-Fi Diagnostics app instead. Apple have hidden it here in Lion:

/System/Library/CoreServices/W-Fi Diagnostics

6g) In order to access the menu items in Airport Utility, you have to first click on the big icon for your Airport device.

--> No doubt there are other changes, oddities or bugs related to these changes. But this is what I came up with during a cursory strafing of the software.

Derek Currie wrote:

This is most likely because the technology behind guest networks, WPS, has been thoroughly CRACKED in the wild. Google "WPS cracked" for lots of documentation of the situation. It won't be resolved soon.

I think you are confusing WPS (Wifi Protected Setup) with WDS (Wireless Distribution System)? WPS is a means for configuring wireless networks, and it has been cracked. WDS is a wireless bridging system for expanding wifi networks.

re: 3a) The ability to create a guest network is still there - on the wireless tab. It won't appear if you have your time capsule or airport extreme in bridge mode.

re: 6c) Export is mentioned on the last line of the Import Help page.

re: 6d) Mac Address Filtering is not gone - it is on the network tab - under enable access control.

re: 6e) I don't see any ipv6 settings either - however - I always left them at the default of link-local. Maybe they took these out to avoid confusion - unless somebody specifically wants 6-4 tunneling.

re: 6g) If you hold down the option key while you "double" click the Airport Device in the map - it will open in edit mode.

In addition to what Derek has mentioned:

No longer any NTP Server settings - such as time server and timezone.

No longer any SNMP settings.

No longer any ability to set the status LED to flash or constant.

No longer any ability to specify Contact and Location.

No longer any ability to upload a specific firmware version.

No longer any support for using a RADIUS server for controlled access.

The archive feature (to copy time capsule data to external USB drive) is no longer available. (It was not a very useful feature in the first place).

The tab for USB Printers is also gone - but apparently isn't needed. You just attach a working USB printer to the USB port and it will show up on the printer list.

Although the graphical network diagram is nice - the loss of the other functionality seems disappointing.

~Scott

Using the USB Printer tab was never required.

After some additional experimentation I have discovered the following:

1) You can in-fact upload a prior version of the firmware. Click on the Airport device in the network diagram. Put the mouse pointer directly over the version number (in this case 7.6.1) - then press the option key - and a pull down menu will appear.

2) Click on an Airport device in the network diagram. Put the mouse pointer over the network name and hold for about 1 second. The details (security mode and channels) of the wireless network being created by the device will be shown.

3) Click on an Aiport device in the network diagram. Put the mouse pointer over any of the wireless clients shown and hold for 1 second - the details (signal strength, ip address, mac address, channel, RSSI, data rate and wireless mode will be displayed).

4) There does not currently appear to be a way to see the actual mac addresses of the Airport devices themselves in the diagram. For example - an Airport Express called AIRPORT01 - will reveal its IP address - but not it's mac address. If the Airport express is connecting wirelessly to a Time Capsule or Airport Extreme - the Airport device itself will not show up in the Time Capsule's wireless client list - only non-airport wireless clients show up here. The only way to find the mac address of an airport device (without having a pre-6.0 Airport Utility) would be to actually look at the mac addresses printed on the sepecific devices.

5) When setting up an Airport Express - to join the wireless network and provide ethernet connectivity to a non-wireless device which expects an ethernet cable connection - this functionality appears to work - but there is no longer an option to "allow ethernet clients". It appears that the ethernet port will be enabled by default when an Airport device is joining an exisitng network. Also there is no indication of an ethernet client being present on an airport device - like there is when the Airport device is wired, or extending a network - and wireless clients are shown.

I haven't tried resetting a device to factory defaults yet - but I will try that next to see if setting up an airport device that has been reset to factory defaults provides any additional setup options when initially setting up the device either from Airport Utility - or via the iPhone setup.

It seems to me that Apple has intentionally removed some of the complex functionality - maybe because them deemed those features to be "not very useful".

~Scott

After clicking on an Airport device in the diagram, hover over the name of the Airport device in the popup to reveal MAC address and wireless mode.

Thanks Jim - I have no idea why this wasn't working for me before - but it is working now.

~Scott

I have installed Airport Utility 5.6. It appears to work correctly. Both 6.0 and 5.6 now show up side-by-side in Utilities.

~Scott