Airport extreme won't work without router/switch
Hi all,
I'm a bit dumbfounded here and am hoping you can give me some answers. I've been having connectivity issues, specifically with random pages not loading while on wifi (all devices). They work just fine on my iPhone through LTE so I decided to try and isolate the issue to what hardware was causing my issues.
Previous setup:
Cisco DPQ3212 VOIP modem -> wired to legrand 10/100 router/switch (wired only) -> wired to Airport Extreme -> Airport Express (set to extend range).
I decided to try and eliminate the router/switch and start from scratch using only the modem and Extreme since that's the simplest setup.
I reset the Extreme to factory settings and unplugged it. Then I turned off the Modem (pulled power, etc.). I let both sit for a while to forget anything they may have been remembering. I then connected the ethernet, plugged in the modem, waited for it to get situated, and then plugged in the Extreme. Setup went fine, but I got 'no internet' and 'no dns' errors. Those went away randomly but the ip address I got was 169.xxx... so something was obviously was amiss.
I decided to go even simpler. Connected iMac directly to modem, reset the modem and voila, I had working internet. Thinking I did something wrong, I reset everything again and tried the Extreme setup. Same issue with connectivity. No internet and a bad IP. Tried the same thing with the Express and got the same errors, etc. Tried switching DHCP & Nat, Bridge Mode, you name it, nothing seemed to work. Airport utility shows green for the Airport but amber for the internet.
So I gave up. I connected the wired router/switch back up, reset everything, and it works again without a hiccup.
Summary:
1. Internet works when modem is connected directly to iMac.
2. Internet works fine connected wirelessly through Extreme (or Express) wired to the router/switch wired to modem.
3. Internet will NOT work when modem connected directly to Extreme or Express, despite factory resets.
So help me out... how can this possibly be happening????