demonreader

Q: updated airport extreme firmware, now airport express not supported

I was prompted to update the firmware for my airport extreme base station.  Update went without problems, restarted, now both airport express stations indicate that they are not supported by the current version of airport utility.  They show on the airport utility screen, but indicate that they require airport utility 5.6, which is supposed available at airport service and support.  Can I have 2 airport utilities at once?  Can I have the old one back?  We use these to extend our network around the house...

Posted on Jul 3, 2013 12:40 AM

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Q: updated airport extreme firmware, now airport express not supported

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  • by LaPastenague,Solvedanswer

    LaPastenague LaPastenague Jul 3, 2013 2:58 AM in response to demonreader
    Level 9 (52,541 points)
    Wireless
    Jul 3, 2013 2:58 AM in response to demonreader

    Can I have 2 airport utilities at once? 

    Yes.. just load in 5.6 but into Mountain Lion it is tricky.

     

    How to load 5.6 into ML.

     

    1. Download 5.6 for Lion.

    http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1482

    Click to open the dmg but do not attempt to install the pkg.. it won't work anyway.

     

     

    2. Download and install unpkg.

    http://www.timdoug.com/unpkg/

     

     

    Run unpkg on the desktop.. it is very simple.. if you get a message that the application is not able to run just change the security setting in preferences to allow non apple store downloads to work.

    Drag the AirPortUtility56.pkg file over to unpkg.. and it will create a new directory of the same name on the desktop.. drill down.. applications utilities .. there lo and behold is Airport utility 5.6 .. drag it to your main utilities directory or just run it from current location.

     

     

    You cannot uninstall version 6 (now 6.3 if you updated) so don't try.. and you cannot or should not run them both at the same time.. but i am doing so without issues.. if you have issues open one or the other but not both.

     

    For screen shots see this post.

    https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4668746?tstart=0

     

    You can also use Pacificist which does the same thing..

     

    See the post by Tesserax.

     

    https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4899704?start=0&tstart=0

     

     

    Can I have the old one back?  We use these to extend our network around the house...

    No, upgrades are a one way street.

     

    It might work though if you turn on ipv6 which apple belatedly realised was a requirement.

     

    http://support.apple.com/kb/TS4597

  • by demonreader,

    demonreader demonreader Jul 3, 2013 6:29 AM in response to LaPastenague
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 3, 2013 6:29 AM in response to LaPastenague

    Thank you so much...I had a restless night, thinking that I was going to have to do drastic things to maintain my dad's network.  If you don't mind another question:  Will both utilities continue to check for updates? If so, do I just not update the 5.6 one?