Airport 6.0 configuration file options grayed out

The Airport Utility interface has been redesigned, but the application still has menu items, such as "restart".


The "File" "Export Configuration Options" and "Import Configuration Options" are grayed out. If I first select an Airport, it pops up the dialogue to the right in the interface, but these options are still grayed out. However, the "Restart" menu option goes black.


This behavior happens for all five of my airports of various capabilities. They are all supported and show in the interface. I have two Airport Extremes, one Time Capsule, and two Airport Express'.


Any ideas?

2.93 i7 iMac, 2.6 iMac, 2.6 MBP, Mac OS X (10.6.4)

Posted on Jan 30, 2012 3:51 PM

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16 replies

Jan 30, 2012 4:01 PM in response to Bob Timmons

Thanks for the response. The Airport 6.0 utility does not appear to have the "manual" option. It looks like the iOS utility. I select an airport in the GUI map, go up to the menu, choose "File", and the configuration I/O options are gray and the restart option under "Base Station" is black. If I select something other than an airport, the "Restart" menu option also goes black.

Jan 30, 2012 5:20 PM in response to apple_enthusiast

THE PROBLEMS WITH AIRPORT UTILITY 6.0 AND FIRMWARE 7.6.1:


(I can see myself having to type these over and over again here, so I am providing a general catch-all list).


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


--> 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.

Jan 30, 2012 8:18 PM in response to Derek Currie

Thanks.


1) I'm running Lion


The rest of the article in your first post does not apply. It does suggest I export my new settings, and that's exactly what I'm trying to do, but am prevented from doing.


Second post:

6g) I did clicking on the icon for the airport device. In fact, I clicked on all five of my airports (each a different model) to see if the option enabled. Perhaps it's a bug for those of us who have more than one Airport.


Clicking on the icon does enable the reset menu option, but not the import or export options.

Feb 1, 2012 10:19 AM in response to bikepower

Actually - it is and it isn't - control is still there as discussed, but previously one could discover all the connected machines on the LAN and their associated MAC addresses.


This was required, as if one wishes to implement MAC address filtering, one really needs to know what MAC address maps to what machine name. It seems there is no longer anyway to discover this from with the Airport Utility - unless I'm missing something?


I really think Apple made a big mistake with this release - I can see where they were going, with a simpler interface and unified with the iOS devices, but it really shoddy work from a UI persective (greyed out buttons, functionality removed from prior release with no warning).


The only reason I figured I'd install it was in the hope there would be some QoS support - but no.


Shame, as this product was really cool - now it's rendered 'poor' for me and will reluctantly be ditching it soon. Get it together Apple!


Chod

Feb 1, 2012 2:47 PM in response to apple_enthusiast

To all:

I am a bit disturbed to report that Apple has REMOVED Airport Utility v5.6 from its Downloads list. 😟


I am HOPING that they are going to rewrite their wrong information about v5.6, but checking its description page they so far have not changed it. 😟


Therefore, users who don't like v6.0 won't even know that v5.6 is available and superior. Why did this happen?


In the spirit of overcoming adversity, I am making sure the URL to the Airport Utility v5.6 page is at least available here. 😎


http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1482

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Airport 6.0 configuration file options grayed out

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