Airport Utility v 6.3 Fails to See Airport Extreme or Express

As a data point in the 'for what it's worth department'...

I have a 4th gen Extreme and a 5th Gen Extreme both with the latest firmware in my home network. 6.3 on my late-2012 iMac sees both without a problem via Wi-Fi and ethernet. Same for Wi-Fi on my 2012 MBA.

I do notice one difference between 6.2 and 6.3, though. With 6.2 the Internet orange 'LED' immediately becomes green on startup. With 6.2 it can take 10 or more seconds before it becomes green. Don't know what this means other than 'something' is different in the initialization process in 6.3.

If I unplug my Ethernet cable, Airport Utility 6.3 does see both of my base stations. When I plug it back in I get the spinning cursor. Or I get the yellow triangles with the exclamation point.

Looks like 6.3 is using IPv6 to talk to Time Capsules/Airports. I know I had turned off IPv6 long ago since I didn't need it. Also looks like Apple has removed 'Off' as a valid choice for that setting.

To turn IPv6 back on:

Open System Preferences->Network

Click Advanced

Change Configure IPv6 from 'Off' to 'Link-local only'

Click Ok

Click Apply

AU 6.3 should now be able to communicate with your device.

Thanks Jeff, that got it working for me.

Hmm. But sadly not for me.

@Mitchump, you might try turning on ipV6 on in your Airport or TimeCapsule.

Thanks Jeff, that was the right solution. Now 6.3 works for me too..🙂

Worked for me too.

I set ipv6 to automatic both on the mac wifi and on airport extreme.

Can anyone explain settings for ipv6? What does "link local" or "automatic" do?

Thanks for the advice, but I'm not sure what I'm doing. If I use Airport Utility on my iPad, I can set the IPv6 to automatic (already on link local) but I can also set mode between native and tunnel and I can choose to share the IPv6 connection. Any suggestions? Thanks

Yup, this is what the problem was. Turning IPv6 back on fixed it for me as well. Thanks

Worked for me too. Thanks!!!!

My setings for IPV6 in both base stations was already set to link-local, so that isn't going to fix Airport Utility not working with an Ethernet connection.

Mitchump,

Link-local is probably the right setting. This means IPv6 will only be used on your local network, not out to the Internet.

If you set your Airport to Link-local and saved the setting (it might restart I'm not sure), then you have to ensure your desktop machine also has IPv6 enabled. Follow the directions I already posted.

Jerome,

If both base stations and your computer are set to link-local, it should work. Make sure you actually have an IPv6 address in the Network control panel. If everything is setup correctly and restarting doesn't change anything, you'll probably have to contact Apple. I am also hooked up via Ethernet and enabling IPv6 got AU 6.3 working again for me.

That was the issue! IPV6 was off in the Ethernet settings on my Macbookpro. Changed that to link-local and now Airport Utility works for Ethernet.

Here are more details on IPv6 settings, but be warned they're fairly technical:

http://superuser.com/questions/244395/what-are-the-differences-between-the-ipv6- options-in-airport-utility