New AirPort Extreme base station
Well, I just finished installing my new AirPort Extreme base station. This is the one shaped like a Mac mini. The new software is very nice. They added the client signal strength graph feature, something that used to be there, then wasn’t, and is now back again. They’ve also added link status lights to the ports on the back (although no indication of connection speed).
There were a couple of things that caused a fair amount of difficulty. One was that the new admin software has been renamed. The old one was called “AirPort Admin Utility.” Thew new one is “AirPort Utility.” I kept trying to upgrade my software before I realized the difference. When I was on the phone with Apple tech support, the agent told me this was a frequent source of confusion.
The other problem I had was that Comcast’s cable modem seems to not assign a DHCP address to a new MAC address without being rebooted (this is what initiated the aforementioned support call). The AEBS behaves as if it can’t get a DHCP address from Comcast, which is exactly what’s wrong. The fix (in my case) is to unplug the cable modem for 30 seconds or so, and plug it back in. (Note: the Apple support agent wanted me to unplug it for 5 minutes, but I told him I’d try 30 seconds first—it worked).
I have yet to hook up a drive, the whole reason for getting it in the first place. I want to find out if they’ve improved AFP enough to where applications like SuperDuper! can back up over the network without needing to create a disk image first.
Now, to get an MBP with 802.11n networking in it…
Tis is really timely for me. I just bought a MBP and wanted to use it wirelessly, so I just got the Airport Extreme. I have comcast for my iMac.
I also made the same mistake you did with the Admin function.
So far, I have not been able to get things working wirelessly. I tried rebooting the modem and the AE, but to no avail.
Guess I’ll try again tonight.
It seems like the CSR wasn’t kidding when he said this was a frequent source of frustration: in a more recent update, the old utility is now called “AirPort Admin Utility for Graphite and Snow.app.” Hopefully this will reduce the confusion.
I still can get connected with my own settings. I can access someone else’s wireless network, but not my own! I’m ready to return the AE.
I don’t think you need to return it. Make sure it’s got the latest firmware, and try resetting it to factory default and starting over. If you still can’t get it to work, I found the Apple support people to be very helpful (if you can get to the right group).
Good luck!
the power off tip saved my bacon! thanks