AirPort Extreme Wireless Base Problems ... please help

Although I know you tried resets, but please give the following a go:

I would recommend that you do the following as a minimum:

1. Power-down the modem, AirPort base station, and computer(s).
2. Power-up the modem; wait at least 10-15 minutes to allow it adequate time to initialize.
3. Power-up the AirPort base station; wait at least 5-10 minutes. Note: The AirPort's status light may continue to flash amber after it has intialized. That is because, there may be some additional configuration items necessary, like setting up wireless security, before the overall setup is completed to get a green status.
4. Power-up your computer(s).

If the above steps do not solve the problem, start over with step 1 above, but then perform the next steps between steps 1 & 2. above.

1. Disconnect the AirPort base station from the Internet broadband modem.
2. While all of the devices are powered-down, perform a "factory default" reset on the base station. This will get it back to its "out-of-the-box" configuration and make setting it up much easier, especially if you use the "Assist me" process within the AirPort Utility. (ref:Resetting an AirPort Base Station or Time Capsule)
3. After the base station resets, go ahead and power it back down.
4. Reconnect the AirPort base station to the Internet broadband modem. For the Extreme and Time Capsule, be sure to connect the cable to the base station's WAN (circle-of-dots) port.
5. Continue with step 2 in the first set of steps.

In this basic configuration, the AirPort base station will broadcast an unsecured wireless network with a Network Name (SSID) of Apple Network NNNNNN. Network clients, connected to the base station either by wire or wireless, should now be able to access the Internet through the ISP's modem. Once Internet connectivity has been verified, you can use the AirPort Utility to configure the base station for wireless security and any other desired options. Please post back your results.

Sounds like your Airport Extreme is in Bridge Mode.

Open Airport Utility and click Manual Setup. Navigate to the Internet icon above, and change Connection Sharing to Share a Public IP Address.

If he has both iPods at once connected, then it shouldn't be a bridge issue...

Looks like we need more clarification.

I have had this problem as well. I have had absolutely no problems with my airport extreme for the past year. Updated my MAC to ML a day ago and all of a sudden none of my wifi connectables would connect to it. The wifi just didnt seem to work on the unit. Obviously this could be totally unconnected to my ML upgrade but a little suspicious.

Anyway I tried all the normal things, power down modem, then reboot; power down airport, then reboot; reset airport, factory reset airport. None of these worked.

Decided to connect rj45 between airport and MAC. This showed that the ethernet connectivity to the wider internet worked and all of a sudden the wifi statred to work for all my other connectables at home. Everything seemed okay using the airport utility.

Decided okay everything was now back to normal and disconnected the rj45 cable. Wifi to all my devices worked for about 1 minute tops before failing again.

Re connected the rj45 to my MAC and wifi came back on for eveything. I am not sure what is going on with this but my ethernet connection is working and somehow allowing the wifi to work so I don't think I have any type of hardware failure. Nothing has changed with my setup except I have upgraded to ML and I don't know if this has somehow influenced the airport extreme.

Strange but for now I have a work around.

I have 2 Aiport Extremes a few years old across the hall from one another. #1 is connected to the modem (comcast) by ethernet cord. In my office across the hall I have another AE on my desk. I have set them up I think correctly with #2 being set to extend a network. I tend to lose my connection often over here while across the hall they are usually fine although the whole office does go down too. It usually only lasts for a short time but its quite frustrating. Is this about Comcast? they say when they anylize the modem from their end (not here) that is shows as fine. I've done a re-set on both extremes. Is there a better option for the main modem other than the comcast provided one? We have 4-6 iMacs here and several iphones operating all the time. Thanks!!!

I too am having an issue where I have Comcast with 2 airports. Worked fine forever (2 years) with one as the base (plugged into the cable modem) and the other down stream hard wired in in bridge mode extending the wireless network.

Recently if the one downstream is plugged in and in bridge mode the WiFi network doesn't pair with ANY of the devices in my home. If I unplug the downstream APE and replace it with an ethernet switch all is right in the world.

Any thoughts?

Well it could also be a security issue, in that the type of encryption you have set up for WiFi, the non-apple computers don't understand.

Try turing OFF the encryptiong and password settings for WiFi, and see if all of your devices can connect.

if they can, then find an encryption setting that works for all of your devices.

Similar problem to Tigergirl95:

Everything was working great using my Express (fast and reliable) but I needed to entend the signal range so I added an Extreme (yesterday) to make a "Wireless Extended Network"

Now all three iphones are problematic -- slow, intermittent and/or no connection. But the iPad still has a fast reliable connection.

So this problem narrows down to "why is it only affecting certain devices?" or "Why is the Ipad the only device not adversely affected?"

I'm sitting here 2 feet from my Airport Extreme with an iPhone that will not stably connect via WiFi.

Tony

I have just "fixed" my Airport Extreme problem by changing the number of the channel (for 2.4Ghz).

( You do this using Airport Utility [6.1]. Highlight the Extreme device, click on edit, go to Wireless at the top and then "Wireless Options..." at the bottom. Then go to the 2.4Ghz Channel pull down and pick a different channel # (mine was on auto and changed it to 8).

Totally fixed the issue for my set up.

Tony

thank you so much. changing the channel to 8 fixed the problem. wireless was working fine for years and then yesterday none of my devices would detect/find the wireless network (ipad, iphone, blackberry) even though I didn't change any settings or install firmware upgrade, etc. I tried restarting the router and the modem, resetting the router to factory settings, etc. and nothing worked. but changing the channel instantly did the trick.

I had the same issue, tried all the reboot, reset, nothing worked.

Changed the channel as Tony808 suggested and BAM, everything working again. Thank you so much Tony808!!!

Anyone has any idea why changing the channel fixed the problem? Just want to know what happened and why it was fixed.

You are welcome Tetraodon (and mhp_1)

Regarding why this happened: I am not certain but there is a possibility it was due to other WiFi devices in the area on the same channel causing interference.

I picked channel 8 because, after using the free app called iStumbler, I could see that many of the other channels were being used in my immediate neighborhood.

Tony

Thank you soooo much Tony! I knew it was something simple. I imported my last Airports config file, so I knew it wasnt the configuration. I wish Apple would post your solution as a separate post so others could find it easier. Well I guess thats a reason for reading until you find the answer. Once again, thank you thank you thank you!

I had the same problem, (iPad2 / Airport Extreme) but noone in the neighbourhood is on the same channel (checked with iStumbler). What works for me is whenever the iPad drops the WiFi speed (the actual signal is there but there is no data traffic at all !) I switch to the respective other Radio Mode (I have either 802.11 a/n-802.11 b/g or 802.11 a - 802.11 b/g). That works. But after a couple weeks I have to do it again. No reasonable explanation for this ! However, the iPad is particularly bad in picking up a signal to start with compared to my MacBook Air AND my Kindle Touch (which is much smaller and less sophisticated). I am afraid to say that this is at least partly a problem of poor design which is very disappointing coming from Apple. . . .