AirPort Express (2012) drops network connection after ~1 hour...ideas?

So I now have my Airport Extreme connected to the router, the new AE in my bedroom hooked up to speakers, and two old AEs, also hooked up to speakers. Everything works great except the new AE.

It'll play a couple of songs and then drop. Always it drops at the end of a song, not in the middle. Weird. All the rest work great.

Too bad they have a 14 day return policy, not 30 days. I'd take it back. Piece of junk.

I've been having similar issues to what I've read about.

My setup is using the Airport Express 2012 as my main and only router. I have Suddenlink cable internet. So, the cable modem plugs into my airport express, and the airport express creates a wireless network, connecting using DHCP, router mode at DHCP and NAT.

I have a MacBook Pro, MacBook, iPad 2, iPad 3, iPad mini, 2 iPhone 5s, Apple TV 2, and Apple TV 3.

Every so often, internet just quits working, while the light stays green on the ax. I go to airport utility on one of the computers (which still shows full signal strength on wifi bars) and it says it can't find the ax. If I unplug the cable modem from the ax, and plug it back in, it works perfectly again. Also, it will occasionally lose connection with the computer on apple tv, and we have to restart the apple tv to regain the connection.

Any thoughts?

I Have experienced so many similar problems in 2 different setips I have with time capsule and AIrport xtreme linked to xpress... i hope it gets fixed soon, because its very annoyning!

My network is a Mac Air, PC, Apple TV. Airport Extreme, Airport Express (Stereos), Uverse modem. Airport express and Mac Mini connected to modem via ethernet.

Everything working fine, for months, untill today. All devices are working intermitently, but not all at once.

With airport utility running on Mac Air right now it sees no devices; as I am typing the airport extreme came up,

awhile ago it saw the express if I rescan it might see both.

iTunes is runing on one stereo but not the other, earlied today just the opposite

I'm thinking it must be outside interference. Same thing happened about a year ago, replaced extreme and express without changing the condition; tightened up my pass words etc. and it started working - did the interference go away or did I actually fix something?

Two days later and everything working well as ever. I made a point NOT to change any settings; so now I strongly suspect somesort of outside interference.

Is there anyway look for or "see" if an outside source is degrading my network?

I've got the same exact setup as Mike Whitt. Have had new AirPort Express working flawlessly since installing it two months ago. I have ATT Uverse Internet but have the wireless disabled on that box and have instead been using the Airport Express. For two months, absolutely perfect performance in my one-story house with 3 iPhones, 1 iPad, old MacBook, Wii, iMac, and several USB wireless adapters used on a PC desktop. All saw the network perfectly and worked without flaw using various 802.11g or n connections.

Then, last night, several things stopped connecting. My Windows 8 PC would see the network sometimes but not see it most of the time (even when in the same room). The most frustrating thing is that it does see the same 10 neighbors consistently, just not the AirPort Express that had been so consistent for two months. When my network did show up in the available networks list, it had 5 bars of signal and would connect but then immediately disconnect. By the way, plugging in the same PC using the AirPort Express Ethernet port works fine. Today I realized that my son's Nintendo Wii will no longer connect. It actually says it's connected, but then fails soon after.

I have be completely frustrated over the past two days. I'm quite experienced with network equipment and this seems to be a Wireless issue alone in my case. The network comes and goes from the available networks list even though it's in the same room as the connecting devices.

The really odd issue is that my new iMac, iPad, and iPhones are working fine and stable. Now that I think of it, it seems to be the 802.11g devices that are losing the connection. I'll need to look into that a bit as a possible channel issue with the numerous neighbors with wireless networks.

I'll keep reading this discussion in the hopes of finding a cause of such a strange change in reliability.

Update: switched the Airport Express to optical. No change.

First thing - dont change your settings! What I think happened in my situation, was that someone was comming on line with a router with a dedicated channel rather than one that searched for an open channel. The condition comes and goes. Check: Applications> Utilities> system information>network>wi-fi to see if any one is on youre channel; a restart on your AE should cause it to select an unused channel

When I first got my AirPort Express I was having nothing but dropouts, trying to find a solution through Apple and forums, I found nothing that worked for me.

So if nothing Apple says or reading forums doesn't seem to work, try something as simple as doing what I did. I went into my networking settings for my wireless router and changed the channel on the router.

Mine was set to 'auto' and I changed it to '8'. I've had nothing but seamless and perfect streaming of my music for about 9 hours straight. It's ridiculous how such a simple change to a setting can do.

I changed it at noon and wanted to test it to see if it worked, I'm still listening to music without any interruptions or dropouts as I type this response.

I hope my solution works to any and all who try it, best of luck to you.

Ok I'll give your theory a chance:

I've also changed it from the default "Auto" to channel 8 on my Airport Extreme (11 was automatically selected before). I didn't choose 8 randomly: I checked all other channels use by my neighboors and 8 wasn't listed - I used WiFi Explorer for that.

It's 2h30pm Jan 27th 2013.

We'll see in a few hours... days hopefully if the Airport Express holds

Cheers,

Jean

So, I discovered this thread after trying to get Airplay up and running at home. I have an airport express connected to a D'Link Router by cable, creating it's own new network. I run my Apple devices off this (iPhones, iPad, Apple TV, etc) without issue. I have also tried using Airplay to this Airport Express, and it runs fine as far as I can see.

I've recently bought an additional Airport Express (Express2) and have been trying to get it to run a set of speakers in a different room, and had no end of trouble. I joined the existing wifi from the other Airport Express, instead of trying to extend, and then tried to use the Airplay function from itunes via my iphone. After one or two tracks, usually shortly after starting a new track, a loud audio "crack" can be heard, and the audio cuts out. The audio continues to "play" in itunes, despite the sound not being audible. The green light stays on on the Express2, but when I check in the AirPort Utility, it appears to have dropped off the network.

Switching power on and off to reboot the Express2 is the only way to get it back online.

I have tried changing the wifi channels, and tried different positions, all with no luck.

It's extremely annoying.

Well it's now Jan 30th and no problemo what soever since Jan 27th.

The AE is setup manually to channel 8

And my AExpress is set to Join a network

Next step (in a few day) I'll try using it to extend my network instead and see how it goes

I'll let you know when...

Cheers

Exactly what happens to me. Doesn't matter if I use optical or analog output.

Hi all,

24 hours on channel 8 and set to "Extend the network" without any issues

Life is good!

Jean

The firmware update seems to have solved the issue I had with the new AEX "joining" a network. (It would drop out after a few hours.)