Airport Extreme (Bridge Mode) won't connect with all devices

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Airport Extreme (Bridge Mode) won't connect with all devices

I just purchased a new Airport Extreme (2015) to offer a better quality wifi signal in our living room and to connect our Apple TV and PS3 with a network cable to the internet.

Internet comes through a modem/router and splits off to the Airport Extreme in the living room and a Time Capsule on the top floor.

I installed it as a new network, not extending, and copied the settings from the existing network in our home. In Airport Utility all lights are green. I can access the Time Capsule on the top floor from the living room. Apple TV is working fine and so are many of our devices.

However, my wife's iPhone 6 and a 2012 iPad 2 cannot connect even after updating the iOS to its latest version 8.4.1.

When I switch the router modes of the Airport Extreme and Time Capsule to "DHCP and NAT" mode, all the devices can connect but I cannot reach my the Time Capsule on the top floor when accessing the wifi through the Airport Extreme in the living room downstairs.

What is going wrong? Do I need to work with Static IP's for the devices or the Airport Extreme and Time Capsule?

Posted on Aug 31, 2015 9:39 AM

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Answer 1

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Bob Timmons

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Aug 31, 2015 11:10 AM in response to Matthew Niederberger

Internet comes through a modem/router and splits off to the Airport Extreme in the living room and a Time Capsule on the top floor.

Does this mean that the Time Capsule is connected to the AirPort Extreme? (it should be)....or....does this mean that the Time Capsule connects to the modem/router? (a setup that Apple will say that they do not support if you check with them).

When I switch the router modes of the Airport Extreme and Time Capsule to "DHCP and NAT" mode, all the devices can connect but I cannot reach my the Time Capsule on the top floor when accessing the wifi through the Airport Extreme in the living room downstairs.

There different ways to set up a network.....with advantages and disadvantages with each approach.....but you would not ever want to have both the AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule both set up to do DHCP and NAT.....unless for some reason you did not want them to be able to communicate with each other.

If you have the AirPort Extreme set up to do DHCP and NAT (which is likely producing a Double NAT error on the network, but more about that later).....then the Time Capsule, which should be connecting to one of the LAN <--> ports on the AirPort Extreme......should be configured to operate in Off (Bridge Mode).

Technically speaking, the traditional correct network setup would be to have both the AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule set up in Bridge Mode....since the modem/router is already doing DHCP and NAT....and you normally would not want two devices trying to do DHCP and NAT on the same network.

But Apple support does not seem to agree with this...and they will advise you to use DHCP and NAT on the AirPort Extreme and then use Bridge Mode on the Time Capsule. There are advantages and disadvantages to this approach, which we can discuss.

I can't help on the iOS connection issues at this time, since I have them myself. The last few iOS operating systems have not exactly been stellar as far as wireless. And at least to me, the latest "update" is more a downgrade.

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Answer 2

Sep 1, 2015 6:35 AM in response to Bob Timmons

Thanks for looking into this Bob. The culprit turned out to be the device IPs. After assigning the devices that could not connect unused and static IP addresses in the network they were able to connect without a hitch. Problem was not in the Apple network devices but in the Cisco router/modem that my ISP shipped to us upon signing up to their services.

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