7.7.9 Firmware update reduced range of Airport Extreme

I just got off the phone with apple senior tech. I mentioned to them that the forum is actually more helpful right now on this issue as they are escalating my case to the engineer level. I did go back to the previous version 7.7.8 and it fixed my issue with the dropping out of wifi signal. Apple had me upload the log files so I believe that they are getting on this.

any updates for this issue?

I rolled back to 7.78 since then and got back to full speed.

But my airport extreme is constantly flashing that amber light prompting me to update.

It's far more likely that the update prompted a reboot, and as a result, the station had to find a new channel to broadcast under. It's also likely that whatever it found wasn't as ideal as the last. When you are in a crowded area, and a wifi router reboots, it often causes a number of wifi routers to reboot and shuffle their broadcast channels while they attempt to find a 'new' best channel.

It's often a good idea to simply unplug the router for 5 mins or so to allow the others to shuffle and latch on to their channels and then bring the airport back online. It will then have a good look at what's currently in use instead of seeing a lot of routers rebooting and picking a potentially bad channel.

Hello, same problem. Make a downgrade to firmware 7.7.8. This helps.

Probably you have fixed the issue by now, but since I didn't see it posted here, I would like to share a similar experience I had and fixed.

After an update, most of my devices stopped being able to see my 5GHz network, trial and error method helped me discover that those updates reset the channels to "Automatic" and that for some reason the channels in themiddle were invisible to my 2013 Macbook Pro and My Thinkpad, along my Chromecast. Moved to the lower-most channel (62 if I recall correctly, not in the mood to confirm) and the 5Ghz network was back in sight, working as usual. You can try this and let us know if it worked or if the issue persists.

Hi

I have the same problem and it's really boring. All my alarms and video cam were connected to this Airport, and I had a lot of notification of déconnexion. Now, I know where it's come from. Hope Apple will fix it. I had bough Orbi instead for my alarm and cam working fine.

I just downgraded to 7.7.8 to see if it's better.

Thanks for your response in this forum because there is no communication from Apple.

I found the following devices also can't detect 5GHz SSID after installed 7.7.9. And 2.4GHz sometimes lagging too.

Nintendo Switch

2015 iMac

Hopefully next patch candy fix this problem.

Yes you can try with IGMP snooping, it works for me but the CPU Airport is not enough strong for Multicast trafic, so i have some freeze each 3/4 minutes.

Yes, go to: Product Feedback - Apple

I recently updated two of my 802.11ac base stations with firmware v7.7.9 and did NOT have this same issue that you are experiencing with yours on the 5 GHz band, but of course, anything is possible.

A number of things come to mind:

• The firmware update did not completely take.
• The 5 GHz band radio is starting to fail.
• There is additional Wi-Fi interference on the 5 GHz band that wasn't there before.

The higher frequency Wi-Fi band does have more difficulty traversing through objects, like walls. For sufficient bandwidth for high definition streaming you would want the base station and wireless client to be in the same room.

Some things you can try:

1. Perform a "factory default" reset on the base station, and then, re-set it up.
2. Downgrade to an earlier version of firmware. If the issue goes away, you can either leave it at that version or try upgrading it again. (Note: The major change in the latest release was to address the Krack hacking issue.)

Hi,

I connect new 8 ports giga switch and disconnect all AirPort lan ports ( other connected directly to the giga lan switch ) and till now all fine and have no issues as before.

I wander if apple is going to fix this or need to enable the IGMP snooping mode and check if works ?

I do not want to have another box ...

David

any updates for this issue?

Not from Apple, if that is what you are asking.

But my airport extreme is constantly flashing that amber light prompting me to update.

This is normal. If you don't want to be pestered to update by the slow, blinking amber light......open up AirPort Utility, click on the AirPort Utility menu, select Preferences, and uncheck all of the boxes.

Open AirPort Utility

Click on the picture of the AirPort router

Hold down the option key on your Mac while you click on the actual version number

A drop down menu will appear to allow you choose earlier firmware versions

Hello all

Is there an option to send this issue to apple support?

They need to open a and fix this

Did you find a place to log this issue?, is really causing me many problems.

Apple needs to replay what are they doing to fix this

Cheers