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Airport Utility 5.6 on Mavericks?

How can I manage older Airport hardware without Airport Utility 5.6 on Mavericks? I have an ORIGINAL Airport Express G wireless router that I use to boost the signal for a G Wifi network I run at home. I also have a a Airport Extreme N (3 gen) and Airport Express (N white puck) model running an N network as well.

MacBook Pro (15-inch Mid 2010), OS X Mavericks (10.9), 2.66ghz, 4gb ram

Posted on Oct 22, 2013 8:51 PM

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69 replies

Jan 23, 2014 11:14 AM in response to I love the mac! (jst nt probs)

I just got off the phone with Apple because I have the same issue. I have the latest generation of the Airport Extreme and the latest generation of the Airport Express base station and I have an older version of the Airport express base station with the rounded corners. I am not longer able to manage the older base station which I use exclusively to stream music to an older stereo in my office.


It's one thing, Apple, to not support a product. It's a whole other thing when you remove a consumer's ability to continue using a product that they paid for.

Jan 23, 2014 11:50 AM in response to I love the mac! (jst nt probs)

Everything link to the solution is removed cause "Your post titled, "Re: Airport Utility 5.6 on Mavericks?," has been removed from Apple Support Communities. Software licensed by Apple may only be distributed by sources approved by Apple."

So Apple removed the possibility to use a still working airport express + prevents customers to use a work arround solution to use watch they paid for. There might be a legal issue. I'm pretty sure that according to France's law this is illegal. I'll dig a bit further into that.

Jan 23, 2014 12:08 PM in response to I love the mac! (jst nt probs)

I have finaly had enough of this airport software problem.

So I made a life desision a couple of weeks ago. It was difficult but necessary.

I finaly said goodbuy to my trusty and sadly not so old Apple Airport. It was a sad day. Well it was a sad day just up until I came home with my brand new, administrable, understandable, cheap, stylish, working, Netgear Router. It just works and I hav'nt had any problems what so ever since making the brand switch.

Jan 23, 2014 7:01 PM in response to jneill

I used Win 7 today to run Airport Utility 5.6. Excellent info on this utility. I received a message that the issue was at the cable modem. Never saw that one before. TWC had an area wide outage I later learned.


I keep my old hardware around for mutual support. If you don't have access to an older Mac someone has an old Win machine. Ask around. XP works too for this.

Jan 27, 2014 9:46 AM in response to I love the mac! (jst nt probs)

Losing faith, feedback sent


"Hi

After upgrading to Mavericks i see that i can no longer administer my older Airport Express (i have 3) as it will not run v5.6 Airport Utility. I have newer Express hardware that i also use, will this also be made unmanageable and redundant in 10.10?!



It seems rather contradictory pushing the eco values of Mac whilst also making large of volumes of functional hardware into useless plastic landfill with one OS update.



Where are you heading Apple?"

Feb 1, 2014 4:14 AM in response to upload

Indeed, this works perfectly. One thing comes to mind though. Why isn't Apple capable of doing this? It's not rocket science. It seems like an intended marketing decision not to support the older base station anymore, not a technical limitation, and this upsets me a little bit. This is not my idea of progress or going forward, but look like a rather evil policy to have people continue to buy new products, even if they do not need them.

Feb 4, 2014 7:13 PM in response to John Galt

I found the best solution. Run the Windows version of Airport Utility directly in Mavericks! Install Winebottler, (winebottler.kronenberg.org), launch it, run the AirPortSetup.exe version 5.6.1 for Windows 7. Mark the checkbox to indicate Windows 7, and install. During setup I selected to not update Apple apps. When prompted to choose which file will launch, choose APUtil.exe. Winebottler will install Airport Utility in a self-contained mac .app right in your Applications folder. Name it something like Airport Utility Windows.app. When launching the app for the first time I went into preferences and unchecked all of the update preferences. It works great.

Feb 19, 2014 3:40 PM in response to david20141

david20141's suggestion of using WineBottler worked for me! WineBottler was simpler than any of the other methods (AppleScript, Terminal, etc.) for getting the OS X version of AirPort Utility 5.6 working under Mavericks.


-- In case it's not clear, you must set "Windows 7" mode in WineBottler by ticking the box next to "win7" in the list of "Winetricks" prior to installation of AirPortSetup.exe.


Thanks again david20141!

Airport Utility 5.6 on Mavericks?

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