tarojohn

Q: AirPort base station doesn't appear in AirPort Utility but internet functions fine. the airport extreme is brand new; imac is brand new and the iphone/ipad within last 4 months. I have tried imac, iphone and ipad . What to do?

AirPort base station doesn't appear in AirPort Utility but internet functions fine. the airport extreme is brand new; imac is brand new and the iphone/ipad within last 4 months. I have tried imac, iphone and ipad . What to do?

iPhone 6 Plus, iOS 8.4, airport extreme bought in july 2015

Posted on Jul 23, 2015 11:30 PM

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Q: AirPort base station doesn't appear in AirPort Utility but internet functions fine. the airport extreme is brand new; imac is bran ... more

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  • by Tesserax,Helpful

    Tesserax Tesserax Jul 24, 2015 1:12 PM in response to tarojohn
    Level 9 (54,652 points)
    Wireless
    Jul 24, 2015 1:12 PM in response to tarojohn

    Temporarily connect your iMac directly to one of the available LAN ports on your 802.11ac AirPort Extreme base station using a known-good Ethernet cable. Open the AirPort Utility on the iMac. Can it see the base station now?

  • by tarojohn,

    tarojohn tarojohn Jul 24, 2015 1:19 PM in response to Tesserax
    Level 1 (2 points)
    Jul 24, 2015 1:19 PM in response to Tesserax

    HI Tesserax,

    thank you for taking the time to respond.

    i wish i could but the iMac is on a different floor and i have never seen such long cables. is there any way to connect via wifi?

  • by Tesserax,

    Tesserax Tesserax Jul 24, 2015 1:30 PM in response to tarojohn
    Level 9 (54,652 points)
    Wireless
    Jul 24, 2015 1:30 PM in response to tarojohn

    Is this issue recent? That is, were all of your network devices able to "see" the AirPort Extreme in the AirPort Utility before and now none of them can? ... or have they all never been able to access it? If the latter, how were you able to set it up in the first place?

     

    Per chance are you running OS X Yosemite on your iMac? If so, this may be the issue of why your AirPort base station is not showing up in the AirPort Utility.

     

    Is the Extreme the only router in your current network configuration? Regardless, what is the make & model of the networking device (modem, gateway, etc.) that it is connected to?

  • by tarojohn,

    tarojohn tarojohn Jul 24, 2015 1:57 PM in response to Tesserax
    Level 1 (2 points)
    Jul 24, 2015 1:57 PM in response to Tesserax

    this issue has been since the successful set up of the airport extreme, which i bought about 2 weeks ago. _when i did the setup, i used the ipad and was able to see the router but not in over a week. Imac was purchased three weeks ago so it is running the latest version (did the update and i just checked that it is OS X Yosemite. Ipad air was purchased 6 months ago and was the latest model, iphone 6plus five months ago. the only router i am using is the airport extreme. (i bought it because my buffalo router did not have ac configuration and could not reach the room where the computer is.)

     

    at least the internet is running well it is just bizarre that in airport utility all I see is the internet connection no airport station.

     

    cheers

  • by Tesserax,Solvedanswer

    Tesserax Tesserax Jul 24, 2015 2:14 PM in response to tarojohn
    Level 9 (54,652 points)
    Wireless
    Jul 24, 2015 2:14 PM in response to tarojohn

    Bizarre indeed!

     

    The following are a few things you can try. Please try them in order. Hopefully, one of them will resolve the issue you're having with the "missing" base station.

    • Start by performing a "factory default" reset on the AirPort Extreme base station (AEBS). Note: This type of reset will reconfigure the base station back to its factory defaults. That is, it will perform as an Internet router with an unsecured wireless network. That network will have a network name (or SSID) of something like: Apple Network NNNNNN. All of your wireless network clients should now not only see this network, but they should be able to connect to it. Similarly, with a client connected, its copy of the AirPort Utility should also now see the base station.
    • Be sure that your Mac is configured to use IPv6 in Link-Local Only mode. You can check this via System Preferences > Network > Wi-Fi or Ethernet > Advanced > TCP/IP > Configure IPv6: Link-local only
    • When setting up the AEBS, be sure to use short base station names that do not include spaces or special characters. For your initial wireless password, I suggest using the following string of 26 characters: 1234567890abcdef1234567890 Note: Be sure to change this to your desired password after verifying connectivity.
  • by tarojohn,

    tarojohn tarojohn Jul 25, 2015 12:01 AM in response to Tesserax
    Level 1 (2 points)
    Jul 25, 2015 12:01 AM in response to Tesserax

    excellent, thank you! problem solved.