Mac OS X, Airport Express Base Station, Windows, Internet and all that foxy shite

[spinnerlys]

Hello.

Today, Friday the 13th, seems to be a good day for hiccups on my computers.

The problems spans three Macs and one Airport Extreme Base Station (AEBS).

Two days ago, I bought a new (?) AEBS in order to have better wireless LAN connections at home and the ability to share HDDs via Air Disk.

Initially I discovered it already had a user installed on it, so I had to reset it. No problem, I also returned electronic products before just because I didn't like them.

I configured the AEBS with a WPA2 protected wireless LAN (W-LAN) and two HDDs connected to it.

I also could use Airport Utility (AU) on all three Macs to configure the AEBS.

The problem occurred first on my iMac (Alu 2007, 20", 2GHz, 4GB RAM, 10.5.8).
Since yesterday I wasn't able to connect to the AEBS via Airport Utility, despite being connected to the network and able to browse the world wild wet. Disconnecting and reconnecting didn't work, restarting the device brought no result either.

I'm also not able to connect to AU via my MacBook (white early 2008 model, 2.4GHz, 4GB RAM, 10.6.2) but can surf like a wild hog.

The third victim is the MacBook Pro (June 2009 17", 2.8GHz, 4GB RAM, 10.6.2), which has also Windows XP Professional SP 3 installed (fresh) in order for me to play some mindless Call Of Duty 6.

Sometimes Windows XP is able to connect to the W-LAN, but can't acquire an IP address, when I set the IP to static, it is able to connect to it. But still I can't access the www or even ping the AEBS.

When I connect the Windows XP MBP via LAN, it works like a charm, but AU is still unable to see the drive.

Might anyone have a clue how I could go about this?


PS: Since when does BootCamp (the Taskbar software) not start automatically when Windows logs me in? I have to start it manually to use the function keys (brightness, volume).
Also starting Windows Explorer takes over a minute the first time, as it has to "scan" the work place (the flash light icon waving like a hand, without the middle finger of course).


Thanks for reading this, I had to at least get it off my chest, as Windows starts to piss me off big time. How could anyone use that stupid software???
(I used it long enough, but I don't remember it being this frustrating. Windows 7 on the other hand was seven times worse than XP.)



Disclaimer: Sentences including emotional references to Microsoft's OS are meant as an opinion, not as a fact.