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dmw16

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 14, 2011
164
1
For the past year I've been using an Airport Extreme upstairs to extend my wireless network. It's never given me any problems until two weeks ago when I unplugged it briefly to plug it into a battery backup (it was directly into the wall).

Now it continually loses its connection to my Time Capsule downstairs that acts as the main router.

I can power cycle the Airport and it fixes it for a while then it drops the connection again.

What could be causing this?
 

Altemose

macrumors G3
Mar 26, 2013
9,189
487
Elkton, Maryland
For the past year I've been using an Airport Extreme upstairs to extend my wireless network. It's never given me any problems until two weeks ago when I unplugged it briefly to plug it into a battery backup (it was directly into the wall).

Now it continually loses its connection to my Time Capsule downstairs that acts as the main router.

I can power cycle the Airport and it fixes it for a while then it drops the connection again.

What could be causing this?
What firmware is it on?
 

eduardrw

macrumors 6502
May 20, 2013
252
3
Best solution is to connect apple routers both via ethernet.

If you can't, here are some debugging suggestions:
0. power cycle TC first wait 1 minute then power cycle the AE. make sure the channel selection on the TC and AE is on automatic. If that does not help you may factory reset both and set them up from scratch - not changing any of the default settings other than password, SSID etc.

If that does not help try this when the problem happens:
1. Check that your Time capsule is really the main router - (airport utility Network/Tab - DHCP+NAT).
2. Check your WIFI neighborhood (Laptop) with a tool to see if the channels are crowded - preferably in the evenings - you may have more noise on your spectrum and the AE looses connection. (Tools: WIFI Scanner http://wifiscanner.com/wifiscanner.html or iStumbler http://istumbler.net)
Your AE should be close enough to the TC to ensure that it gets a strong signal (signal to noise ratio S/N should be ~30db) If both apple devices barely can reach each other you may have a problem.

You can also connect both routers via power line ethernet adapters instead of ethernet cable - might solve your problem.
 
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