Q: airport firmware 7.6.3

So that I can look up my speeds, can you indicate where this is found.  I have an iMac, iPad, and iPhone.

Thank you.

Try using fixed wireless channels. Also using a different name for the 5GHz network is recommended. Remove the 2.4GHz network from the preferred network list. Otherwise my Mac mini often falls back to 2.4GHz network for no reason. I think this might be fixed in OS X 10.8.3. At least it should together with the automatic channel association.

I'd like to know what the changed IPv6 default-setting is about. Now the default is "native". Why has the AirPort Extreme an IPv6 address in the range 2002:xxxx::1 associated by default? This is quite suspicious for me. It's useless too because there's no default gateway or network address specified. Looks like an quite unfinished update. Unless Apple will provide an tunneling solution that isn't finished yet.

Update.  Link speed from clients to router are significantly lower.  Something seemed to be not right about 7.6.3. Rebooted back to 7.6.1 since it is so stable and speeds are now back to normal.  Plus the router did not had the issue I had when 7.6.3 was loaded

The common thing i notice in all these posts appear to be that the only people experiencing problems are those with a bases station with one or more extenders?  The upgrade seems to work fine if you are only using one Airport base station without extenders.  I am using a base station with two extenders.  After upgrading the firmware to 7.6.3 the base station will only work without extenders.  I rolled the firmware on the base station back to 7.6.1 and then I could use my extenders again.  So now I have 7.6.3 firmware on my Airport Express extenders and 7.6.1 on the Airport Extreme Base Station.  This configuration works although the transfer rates on the extenders does appear to have dropped by 50%.

I'm running 7.5.2 on the base station. With extender running 7.6.3, I get normal transfer rate. With older firmware on the extender, I also see about half the throughput.

Michi.

You can use speedtest.net. Doing this will be useful only if you have an internet connection that's faster than your wireless speeds. Without that, you can transfer a large (say 100 MB) file and time how long it takes to get an idea of speed.

Michi.

... only if you have an internet connection that's faster than your wireless speeds. ..

 

Something I can only dream of out here in the boonies...

That is not quite consistent with the issues I had.  I have an Airport Extreme and 2 Airport Express routers.  With 7.6.3 installed the Airport Extreme was having all sorts of issues with disconnects and low bandwidth, even while both Airport Expresses were disconnected.  I tried upgrading the extenders, removing them altogether, etc.  The only solution to fix the issues in my case was to downgrade the firmware on all devices.

My setup is somewhat similar, but I'm also extending my network. Setup:

Cable modem -> Airport Extreme -> Time Capsule.

The Extreme runs in bridge mode; DHCP addresses are provided by the cable modem. The Time Capsule is connected to the Extreme with a 200 Mbit/sec wired connection (ethernet over power with Netgear Powerline adapters).

Both the Extreme and the Time Capsule provide wireless access on both 2.4 and 5 GHz bands. They each create a network with the same network ID.

Another Airport Express is configured to wirelessly connect to the Time Capsule and extend its 5 GHz network. With those three access points, I get good wireless coverage in all areas of my house.

Finally, there is another Airport Express that connects wirelessly on the 2.4 GHz network to the Airport Extreme. That Airport Express is passive (doesn't permit client connections). It's just to get audo from iTunes to my stereo system.

I'm running 7.5.2 on both the Extreme and the Time Capsule. That gives me full speed. With 7.6.3, I only got about 48 Mbit/sec between the modem and the Extreme, and between the Extreme and the Time Capsule.

When I installed 7.5.2 on the Express extender (previously 7.6.2), wireless speed to a laptop right beside the extender dropped by half but, with 7.6.3, it works well.

So, for me, it's 7.5.2 on the base stations and 7.6.3 on the two Extremes (one of which extends a 5 GHz network). That combination does the trick for me. I'm not going to futz around with other firmware versions for now because I found a setup that works.

Sad to see that this firmware update made it out the door though. The simple act of connecting a Mac via cable to an Extreme in bridge mode with 7.6.3 shows that the bandwidth is completely hopeless. You'd think that sort of thing would be caught during testing, but apparently not.

Michi.

After a evening and day of continuing troubles.  I have successfully REVERTED back to 7.6.1.  This required resets of both AE's and then naming the AE's with new names.  FYI,  the ability to use the Option key and hover over the version in AU, allowed me to see the old version, but when trying to request it, I got a firmware download error.  My savior was my iPad, which was able to do it.

Now I'll wait for 7.6.3.1    And after watching these discussions for a while I'll "consider" the upgrade.

Sweet Success at Last! OK, I'm one of those with Airport Extreme on Bridge who found out that 1) guest network doesn't work and 2) my streaming of music to two Airport Expresses was now hosed on 7.6.3. Bummer.

So, like many, I returned to 7.6.1 but to my surprise, streaming was still not working. Even though I'd downgraded to 7.6.1 it still showed the guest network I'd created. Upon turning the guest network (that never worked) off, streaming once again worked properly under 7.6.1. I'm not going to try 7.6.3 again!

Hopefully, Apple will soon come up with a firmware upgrade worthy of all the trouble. Hope this helps anyone with the same issue.

I having similar problems with 7.6.3.

I have an Extreme, 3 TCs and 4 current Airport Expresses amd 5 legacy Airport Expresses.

Prior to the update everything was rock solid and delightful. I'm now reduced to just the AE having downgraded to 7.6.1.

I'd really appreciate a link to the download for 7.6.1 for Airport Express. I can't find any link from the KB page.

Anyone?

Just look in the download area of mac updates: http://support.apple.com/downloads/.

You'll find all older versions of all kind of mac software there. For 7.6.1 firmware you get it here: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1481

If you have an iPad or iPhone you should be able to rollback to 7.6.1 through the airport utility from one of those. If you have airport utility on a Mac or PC then the previous ver 7.6.1 should be there as well but just a little more hidden and this may help you locate it:

http://support.apple.com/downloads/#airport

Older version of the airport utility can be found at the link above and may make it easier to find the pervious 7.6.1 on your Mac or PC

The ipad version is what I used to roll back.

Files are located here in most cases:

On Mac option clicking the current version number should show the older firmware releases.

~/Library/Application Support/Apple/AirPort/Firmware

On PC I this its upload firmware and you have to point it to the location.

I know it's in the users/username/appdata folder somewhere and the appdata folder is hidden and will have to be unhidden before you can see it.

Looks like the direct download links have been disabled by Apple. You can DL the utility but not the firmware.........if you want to fool back you will have to droit from airport utility.