Why can't I configure my Airport Extreme in Mountain Lion?

This sounds like you have the older "round" version of the AirPort Extreme, which AirPort Utility 6.1 in Mountain Lion will not support.

See this article to learn how to download and install AirPort Utility 5.6 on your Mountain Lion Mac. AirPort Utility 5.6 should allow you to configure the older AirPort Extreme.

http://www.macworld.com/article/1167965/mountain_lion_and_the_ancient_airport_ba se_station.html

Another solution might be to use another Mac running an older operating system to configure the AirPort Extreme, or even a PC would likely work for this.

I seem to be having a similar problem but I have Airport Express. Just installed Mountain Lion on a new hard drive and everything seemed to be ok except for my printer. Today I tried to get the printer to talk wirelessly to the MacBook (I had deleted Bonjour not knowing its purpose), but finally got that working. And now I've lost contact with Airport and despite trying to reset everything and reinstall I get similar messages about not supporting it. "The version of Mac OS X on this volume is not supported." And all this because I wanted to try iCloud to share files from my iPhone as I'd lost everything on my hard drive!

Check the model number on the side of the AirPort Express. If you see A1084 or A1088, then AirPort Utility that is packed in with Mountain Lion cannot be used to configure the Express.

You can use an earlier 5.x version of AirPort Utility on another Mac or PC to configure the Express, or use the workaround above to install AirPort Utility 5.6 on Mountain Lion.

Apple does not officially support this, so consider carefully before you decide to proceed. It works fine for me, but I cannot say if it will work for you.

Thanks Bob. I don't see those numbers. Mine is Model A1264 - about 2 years old.

Is it Airport Utility 5.6 or 5.61 I should be using? I may get a used MacBook fust to run an earlier OS and avoid these breakdowns in communication!

You must use the older Airport Utility 5.6 for Lion and newer. Version 5.6.1 will only work on Snow Leopard and older.

AirPort Utility 6.1 in Mountain Lion works just fine for me when I test it with an A1264 version of the Express.

I see no reason to have to install additional software unless you are trying some sort of non-standard installation.

Tell us what you are trying to do and maybe we can figure out how to proceed. What will the Express do on your network? How will it connect? What will it connect to? Etc.

We can't see your network, and things that seem obvious to you are totally unknown to us, so we only know as much about your issue as you can tell us.

I've got a MacBook. My hard disk crashed and I had a new drive installed last week and a clean slate so I installed Mnt Lion so I could use iCloud and sync with my iPhone and regain email msgs and contacts -- but only part of them came through -- that's another story.

I'd been using Express to connect to my internet provider via cable for my MacBook and run my printer via USB connection. That's it. With the password, friends have been able to link to my Wi-Fi for their own laptops.

Since I only do these installations on an as-needed basis after a crash or a new system I'm out of practice. Not knowing what it was for and not wanting a lot of unnecessary programs, I deleted Bonjour and then wasn't able to set up my printer. At that point Mac Mail and Safari were working fine via Airport Express (after installing Mnt Lion) and my existing network (all set up about 2 years ago and working fine until now). Today I decided to get the printer working wirelessly. I had reinstalled versions of Bonjour (I hoped) and at some point got the printer printing. I may have had to enter the Airport password at some time, not sure why, but this may be what triggered the breakdown in internet access. At that point I realized my MacMail and Safari were offline. After several hours of trying various resets and returning Airport to factory settings, I checked out Apple online help discussions and realized many had had similar problems with Airport and Mnt Lion and thought I'd trying removing the installer utility as suggested using unpkg. I was able to do that and reinstall and actually connect for a spell - EVEN THOUGH THE INSTALLATION SAID IT DIDN'T WORK! But now the icon in the top bar showed a connection and minutes later it is greyed out even though my newly re-set up network is listed.

When I did network diagnostics I've been getting error messages:

This computer was unable to join the Wi-Fi Network you selected. blah blah blah wrong password or network name, wrong security, out of range…. Not so.

I get a green light for Wi-Fi, and failed for wi-fi settings, network settings, ISP, internet and server….

In my Network settings it says Wi-Fi is on (but yellow button). Network Name is greyed out and when I ask to join new networks and select mine it says a connection timeout occurred. And yet I was able to set it up and it shows in the available networks.

Status is: ON Wi-Fi is turned on but is not connected to a network.

Very frustrating.

I understand that things are frustrating, and I've read your information multiple times to try to understand....but I'm lost.

I think that I can help with Mountain Lion, AirPort Utility 6.1 and your AirPort Express.

If you are having problems with printing, you really should start another post on that subject to improve your chances of the printer experts here seeing it. Once you have the Expess set up and providing a wireless network, there are really no printer settings in Mountain Lion / AirPort Utility for the Express.

Provide the make and model number of the printer, and how you are trying to connect.....One of your posts says it connects using USB...and another via wireless.

I can't follow the Bonjour stuff at all. Maybe the printer experts can. Bonjour is normally an application that is installed on a PC to help the PC find a printer on the network.

Post back if you are having difficulty setting up the Express to provide a wireless signal to computers, and I'll try to help.

Sorry for the confusion. The printer is secondary. It connects to Airport via USB to provide wireless printing which it was doing prior to the re-install on the hard drive -- but I will post elsewhere for that resolution. It just seems to have started the problems.

If I can get a decent access and speed for Safari and mail I will be where I started this morning. 🙂

At your suggestion, I have installed Airport Utility 6.1. I do get a connection but it is verrrrrry slooooow for pages to materialize. Network diagnostics does recognize my network so that's a plus. How do I uninstall the previous Airport Utlities 5.6 and 5.61 - could these be causing the slowness? Do I just drag them to the trash from the Applications folder? Thanks so much.

I would recommend that you keep AirPort Utility 5.6 because it is a better utility than 6.1 in terms of features....unless things are really tight for space. It will not cause a conlfict if you leave it on your Mac. I have kept both 5.6 and 6.1 on my Mac since they became available.

There is no reason to keep 5.6.1 as well, since that version is for Leopard and Snow Leopard Macs. Just drag the 5.6.1 application to the trash and click OK if the Mac asks about whether you want to delete.

We can use 5.6 if you prefer.

Slowness on a wireless connection is caused by any number of factors

Distance from the AirPort Express

Obstructions like walls, ceilings, heavy furniture in the signal path

Interference from other wireless networks in the area, cordless phones, and any number of other things

It's now 3+ weeks later and I'm no further ahead. (new hard drive, Mountain Lion, Airport 802.11n and no wireless after having wireless for 2 years with same laptop and airport equipment.)

I have taken my MacBook AND Airport to the "Apple Genius Counter" THREE times. Each time, everything logs on and I can access the AppleStore internet. I can go down the mall and access wifi at Starbucks, but I take it home and I have spotty access at best. When I do Diagnostics from the Systems Preferences it goes from showing all Wifi icons green to all yellow to some yellow and green. It will say I'm connected and yet it takes decades for a webpage to appear. At other times, it sems to be up to speed but that doesn't last.

It was even suggested by an Apple Genius to remove the battery in the router and let it restart. That worked for a bit, and then back to same old, same old. I've lost count how many times I've returned Airport to factory settings. Today I plugged in a used Mac I picked up and was able to access everything quite well, did some surfing, and even watched a 3-hour movie on Netflix. Later when trying to send this message, it lost internet access -- and I haven't touched anything! Now I'm back to using ethernet after actually having wireless for a day.

Yesterday when I was in Airport Utility and the basestation appeared it asked if I wanted to "forget it" and since that's the only command I have followed I did. And it worked quite well for a spell and then stopped! I've been restarting both systems thinking that might shake things up. Sometimes it helps, sometimes not.

Someone suggesting changing channels -- I forget which menu I saw that in but anything is worth a try.

I have no idea why it works at the apple store and other wifi but not at home. Most times I've just been connected by umbilical cord and remember the good old days of wireless. 😟

joanne from hamilton

Unfortunately, this sounds like you have a serious problem with wireless interference in your home.....since the same Apple devices work fine at the Apple Store.

Ask the Apple Store to recommend an IT specialist who can come out to take some measurements and do some tests at your home to try to identify the things that are causing havoc on your wireless network...and then try to figure out a way to work around them.