Airport Extreme Needs Daily Reboot to re-enable Wifi

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Level 1

1 points

Airport Extreme Needs Daily Reboot to re-enable Wifi

All,

I bought an Airport Extreme in Nov 2014, firmware 7.7.3 in Bridge mode acting as an AP, my network consists of a 24port gig dell switch a Sonicwall TZ-210W (wireless off) and a windows 2008R2 file server also used for DHCP, DNS etc.

I have issues where my airport will stop letting certain devices on the network via wifi. I will get on my phone and it will be connected (iphone 6), get on the wifes macbook air, it will be working (sometimes), have my laptop from work that was connected fine 12hrs ago not get connected, my ipad (3rd gen) will not connect to the network, but my imac that is hardwired (connected directly to the airport (using as a switch for my imac) ) will connect just fine, but i can reboot any of the devices it seems like the ones that had a connection continue working but new ones will not or even if they were new in the past 12 hrs... All i have to do to get all of them online is to restart the base station (airport) I typically do that from my mac using the airport utility once it comes back up all of the devices previously working or not reconnect automatically and start working fine.

What I have tried...

1. Reset to defaults and re-setup Still fails

2. tried setting the channels static after using the wifi utility in my imac to see what channels would work best. still fails

3. i have tried moving it to different locations in my house - no luck still fails

4. i would try different firmware, but haven't seen any others avail.

5. searched forums saw posts of people a couple years ago with the previous version had similar issues and it was firmware related - No Luck

6. thought about sending home with a co-worker let them run it for a while, but number of devices etc. could be a cause. I probably have 40ish devices max on my network wired/wireless.

Do I have a lemmon? Can anyone give me other options? or do I need to have this replaced..

iPad 3G, iOS 8.2

Posted on Mar 26, 2015 10:07 AM

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Answer 1

John Galt

Level 10

141,126 points

Mar 26, 2015 3:29 PM in response to wheelerits

Do I have a lemmon?

That's what I think. A "hard reset" followed by reconfiguration is the only remedy a user should be expected to take. Once it is properly configured, you should never need to reboot it.

Contact AppleCare. Use the Contact Us link below. It's under warranty; insist that they either fix or replace it.

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Answer 2

wheelerits Author

Level 1

1 points

Apr 8, 2015 11:56 AM in response to wheelerits

So just an update to anyone with similar issues. After posting my initial issue here and seeing John's reply I contacted Apple, and here is what they had me do and I have not had to restart my AirPort in a week now.

So I called them explained what I had going on at first the tech was a bit puzzled at why I would be having these odd symptoms, but we walked through each page in the Airport Utility on from my iMac and the only setting that he thought looked a little odd was that I had WPA/WPA2 Personal enabled as my wireless preference. He asked why I responded and told him because I had some family members that had older devices that were not compatible with WPA2 so I enabled rev 1 as well. So seeing that this was the only setting that looked odd he had me do a full factory reset, now I thought I had done this via software, but it turns out there are a couple different ways and the software way doesn't do it completely.

Doing a Factory Reset.

1. Unplug and disable wireless on any Mac that had used the airport utility to connect to the airport. (we did this because we wanted to make sure nothing pushed old settings into the airport.)

2. unplug power from the device. ( i found it was much easier todo this at the wall as you will need two hands in the next step.)

3. Find a paperclip or a tack that you can push the little button on the back of the airport in.

4. Push the tack or paperclip into the reset hole in the back of the device. (right next to the power connector, it was easier to jack into the wall than plug power at the airport while holding the reset button next to the power connector.)

5. Continue to hold the button until the unit boots and starts flashing orange, let it flash orange for 5-10sec then let go, it should continue to flash orange for a bit then go solid.

6. Once the light stops blinking you should be able to see this in an iOS device, he recommended doing the setup via an iPad or iPhone as it is a very streamlined and simple setup.

7. I then set my password and my wireless name etc. let it do the security on its own and that was that.

Like I said after doing that I have had no issues. Seems a bit strange to me that it would be the WPA option as if the option is there in my mind it should work fine or it should be removed. Anyway if this helps you out please post it, kinda wonder how many others have a similar issue...

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