New Airport Extreme (6th Gen) Dropping Connection from Time to Time.

Thank you for the update. I thought that might be the case. Not sure if I will be able to get them to give me credit for mine so I can buy an ASUS. Might be worth a try.

One last comment. I bit the bullet and updated my AE to 7.7.2 and it does indeed lessen the dropouts. Still getting some on my MBP from May 2013.

So my initial issues before my AE was replaced that were caused by 7.7.2 were eiter a bad AE or the fact that I updated the AE over wifi. Reading about the update it is recommended you connect to the AE with a wired connecion when updating. Luckily I still have one Mac with an ethernet port in the house. The rest are wifi only. Shouldn't make a difference when updating but thoguht I'd throw it out there for everyone. Good luck.

Some further thoughts on why I recommend ABA (Anyone But Apple) for networking gear...

I am looking for a wired to wireless adapter to supply better speeds to one area of my house. (I have a couple of pieces of gear that have really crappy wireless hardware.)

I have purchased (and returned) both a Netgear WNCE3001 and a Linksys WUMC710. In both cases, the hardware wireless client causes the AE to freak out and die. After looking into this, it turns out that most companies consider Apple incompatability as no big deal and not worth fixing firmware over.

tomgoosmann: Did you evaluate speeds for 2.4Ghz, 5Ghz, or both? Were there differences between the two frequencies? Thanks!

Get an airport express. They're dead reliable, and I've set up about 200 of them for customers.

Those 'wireless extenders' from other companies like Netgear don't work well.

Also, it's important to have a CAT-5 feed to the extender from the router to properly repeat a wireless signal.

If you're not using an airport express to extend a network, then set the third party extender to 'Create a New Network' and set the name and security exactly the same as your main network.

"Those 'wireless extenders' from other companies like Netgear don't work well with Apple."

Fixed that for you.

I am well aware that an Airport Express can extend a wired network. However, there are a couple of issues with using an Airport Express.

1. Airport Express is 802.11N. My goal is to limit 5Ghz to only 802.11ac... However that is not really a big issue...

2. Airport Express does not have enough ports for my needs. I need to connect 3 devices and I really don't want to junk up the area with another switch just to make it all work properly. (The area that I need this is in my living room.)

So what I have found is that if Apple doesn't make the networking device you need... You are out of luck. Either replace your entire network with something non-Apple, or just suffer.

No, they don't work well, at all Lol. You must have a feed to a WAP. Airport can be configured many ways. Just set it up in bridge mode, and there's your switch/AP in one.

AirPort Extreme ^

Tested 2.4Ghz devices (phones and ipads) and 5Ghz (iphone 5s and new iMac). Neglible difference in performance between each. I attribute slight variations (+ - 5mbps) to share cable service.

Hi All,

Not sure if this will help anyone else but I have a ADSL2+ internet connection through a Linksys modem/router and the Airport Extreme Base Station (6th Gen) as my primary router with an Airport Express (802.11n 2nd Gen) extending my existing network.

I originally setup the new AEBS using the iOS app wizard and all was working fine until the end of December when my connection to the internet begin dropping every 5 minutes or slowing down to the point that my ADSL2+ connection suddenly made me feel like going back to a dial-up modem was a more attractive option.

Had the line inspected etc with no issues so one by one begin isolating and finding that the issues were coming from the new AEBS. After a few weeks of reading every post I could find online, all I have found were other users experiencing the same issues. Finally I found a solution that worked for me so listing it here in case it benefits anyone else.

Original Setup

> ADSL2+
> Linksys Modem/Router (in PPPoE mode based on my ISP)
> AEBS (6thGen) setup to "Connect Using: Ethernet"

> Airport Express (802.11n 2nd gen) setup as "Connect Sharing: Bridge Mode"

New Setup

> ADSL 2+ Loged into the modem/routers portal and changed the device from PPPoE to "Bridge Mode Only"

> AEBS (6thGen) setup to "Connect Using: PPPoE". Then enter the details of my account with my ISP (that i originally had setup on my modem/router) and "Connect Sharing: Share a public IP address"

> Airport Express (802.11n 2nd gen) setup as "Connect Sharing: OFF(Bridge Mode)"

After all settings were entered, saved, and devices rebooted, I no longer have an issue with slow speeds or my wifi dropping.
Keep in mind this is based on an ADSL2+ internet connection through a modem/router and using the AEBS as the primary so recognise this might not work for others on different connections and hardware setups.

I have a Draytek Router and two Apple AE AC (the new ones) These are connected to the network via ethernet so both are set in bridge mode.

I have found the 5G side to be the main issue. My Draytek pumps out an unhidden, bandwidth limited GUEST Wifi for our alarm system and smoke detectors.

The two Apple AE provide the upstairs and downstairs with Wifi. Initially they were set up with both 2.4 & 5GHz, both on different channels, both hidden and secure.

With 5GHz on they are crap, pages will load then stop, for no reason. However if I switch off the 5G signal, everything works great.

So, its either the 5G side of things thats crap, or my late 2013 MPa has a wireless issue. Oddly enough, my partner has a 2011 MBa with Windows 8.1 on it and has no issues, so I'm assuming then that its the Wifi in my MBa. Any thoughts??

Turns out my issue was fixed by this post

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5483424

Seems Mavericks ARP is causing network dropouts.

depressing indeed!

FYI, after the BPDU correction update, my AE has been stable with no drops for over a month.

All problems in subsequent posts appear (I may be wrong though) to be unrelated to the original post.

Judging by tests completed by Tomgoosmann (Thanks!) my personal speed issues with 2.4 Ghz are probably due to RF issues locally. I will check into this further at a later date.

We have been setting up wireless networks in customer's homes for years using Airport Extremes. Recently however we have had issues at multiple job sites as described in this forum. Customer complains that they cannot connect to the wifi network. We arrive on site and precisely we see the network, enter the wep key and nothing. We move closer to another AE in the house and it connects fine. We move back to AE that was giving the problem and it continues connected just fine. We follow the mac address of the device and see that it hops from AE to AE just fine. We do a "forget this network" try to connect and it won't connect when near the problematic AE. I would say that we simply have a defective AE but this exact problem has repeated itself at our last three clients. Needless to say we are using other networking hardware now.

We've also noticed that Extending an Airport network Wirelessly is a big no no. Causes dropouts, slow performance, and major interference issues. Especially when there is a SONOS music system on the network, and one Express is trying to extend a network wirelessly.