Q: airport firmware 7.6.3

Should have been roll back, not fool back......more coffee needed........

Archive file locations for Mac and Pc

AirPort Utility keeps an archive of all Wi-Fi Base Station firmware updates  you install, and stores them in the location below.

OS X:  ~/Library/Application Support/Apple/AirPort/Firmware

Windows: ~/AppData/Local/Apple/AirPort/Firmware

Can be read here:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1218

Thanks!

it seems that my Airport Expresses are only downgradeable to 7.6.2.

When added to extend the network they stop any wireless device from being able to connnect now.

Once removed, all is well again.

This 7.6.3 upgrade has cost me a whole weekend. Thanks Apple.

I'm still at it.

Yes, it cost a lot of us most of the weekend........Maybe Apple will  learn to test everything "completely" before releasing updates on apparent theory alone next time.

Happy you got yours back up again.

Press the reset button and then power on the TC until the led light starts flashing, release the reset button.  That should put the TC into the default settings.

Interesting.  On 7.6.3 for the current generation Airport Express, join a network would report "no internet connection" but "extend a network" work fine.  Downgrade to 7.6.2 both "join" or "extend" works fine.

I'm now almost back to pre-update status.

The one thing I have left and can't resolve is using a 2nd gen express (the hockey puck model) to extend the network wirelessley.

Extending the network when it's connected via Ethernet is fine if I let Airport Utility configure it. This results in it using the "Create Wireless Network" option, and only works with Ethernet connection.

Changing this setting to "Join" or "Extend" causes my cable modem to appear disconnected and no wireless clients can then connect to the network.

I already have three other Airport Expresses connected via Ethernet and before the update had the fourth one filling a coverage gap wirelessley.

That no longer seems achievable. I'm using Airport Utility 6.2. AU 5.6.1 crashes when attempting to update the Expresses.

I have 7.6.1 running on Extreme and 3 TCs and 7.6.2 running on the Airport Expresses. Updating any on the Expressses to 7.6.3 causes the same modem issue and they're not supported by 7.6.1..

Now into my 3rd day of fixing this following the 7.6.3 débâcle.

Any suggestions?

Added image

Have you tried a hardware reset on the one Express giving you trouble?

Yes, several times, and also on other Expresses. Same result.

It's not that the network can't be extended, it's that it can't be extended wirelessly.

Rolling back by clicking (or option-clicking) on the version number in the Airport Utility.

I also noticed that the older firmware versions are stored in ~/Library/"Application Support"/Apple/Airport

There you find numbered folders with the firmware files. The number corresponds with productID of your airport type.

There is even a file called "Version.xml" When you open that one with the plist editor (or a text editor) you find a big list with download urls for all older firmware for each hardware type. (e.g. my 5th gen airport had productID 117 and my 4th gen airport had productID 114). Make sure that you know what you do, or stay away from it. Normally there should be no reason to get them there and the older firmware should already be on your disk.

I never had seen the firmware 7.6.2 but several do mention it here. In the list I see that it is only used with productID 115 . So probably only needed on one of the hardware versions.

I finally downgraded my AirPort Extreme (5th gen.) to 7.6.1. Even using fixed wireless channels the performance is slightly better with firmware 7.6.1 than with firmware 7.6.3. My recommodation is not to update to 7.6.3.

I thought I would add my experience here. 

My setup:  ISP router (NAT only) ----ethernet---> AEBS (DHCP only) ----wireless---> Airport Express

using fixed channels 2 and 40-1 since I am in a busy city environment, and there are very few clean channels to choose from.  The Express, when put into extender mode, does not let me choose the channels and bases its choice off of the AEBS... it usually chooses 40-1 and a 2.4Ghz channel between 1 and 6.

Last night, I was able to flash both an airport extreme and an airport express with 7.6.3 with no initial problems.   My computers still could connect to either AP at 300mbit... so no network speed issues.  The AEBS and Express both set to 40-1 for 5Ghz and are using channel 2 and channel 1 for 2.4 Ghz, respectively.  Although the channels are fixed on the AEBS, the Express chose good channels that are not overcrowded.... often the old firmware would put the Express on 6 or 7 for 2.4Ghz, but there are approximately 8 other routers already broadcasting near me that are in this range.

However, when I woke up this morning, I tried to access the internet, which loaded the first web page I browsed to, but then stopped working.  I diagnosed this problem to a DHCP issue, since multiple computers had lost their IP addresses and only worked if set to a static IP on the network.

I power-cycled the AEBS and everything was fixed.

This is the first time I have had such an issue since creating this network.  The power-cycle may have permanently fixed it, but, if it happens again, I might think about rolling back to previous firmware.

UPDATE:  Had the DHCP issue again this morning, so I rolled back to 7.6.1, which was easy to do with airport utility on my mac... Everything is working great now.

"I never had seen the firmware 7.6.2 but several do mention it here. In the list I see that it is only used with productID 115 . So probably only needed on one of the hardware versions."

7.6.2 is the firmware for current generation of Airport Express out of the box.

Till now, I had not noticed badd effects, but today my Airport connected HD was mounted to the desktop the whole day. When I look in the log, it seems loosing connection every few minutes during the whole day.

With the Console look at "/private/var/log/kernel.log". This was full of lost connections. After down grading to 7.6.1 there was only the connection message. And that HD stayed connected till now. So there must be bugs in multiple areas of the 7.6.3 firmware.

Is there realy nobodty who noticed an improvement with 7.6.3 ?