Latest Airport Extreme Firmware

[thescort]

Broke my MBP (leopard) ability to connect wirelessly. Reverted to 7.4.1.

 

[yaroldb]

Have a TC and an express. After the update, I can not access the TC hard drive or see the external drive I have connected. Negative...

 

[Torq]

7.4.2 completely breaks my ability to access the Time Capsule's hard drive over the network (wired or wireless).

Under 7.4.1 it was just Windows machines that would not connect to the drive automatically, though you could manually re-map the connection and that would work until you next rebooted your PC.

Now NOTHING talks to the hard-drive, it does not even spin up and the device is NOT recognized as being present on the network.

This works without issue in 7.3.x, I do no understand how it can be so badly broken AND so varied in whether it works or not at this point.

Time to axe the Time Capsule, get a different router and use separate NAS devices, as this thing is clearly NOT going to be useable properly any time soon. Especially going by the time from 7.4.1 to 7.4.2 (and that only made my issues WORSE).

And yes, I have already tried both a simple update, and and update and reset to factory settings and then reconfiguring the device from scratch.

It does not work.

 

[alexbates]

- Fixes an issue when the base station is configured for PPPoE

YES!!!!! No more dropped internet connection when phone rings. I am sooo happy

 

[jmb667]

KB article is here, in case anyone needs it:
http://support.apple.com/downloads/Time_Capsule_and_AirPort_Base_Station_Firmware_Update_7_4_2

 

[Torq]

Downgraded back to 7.3.2 ... all magically working perfectly again ... minus the new features of course.

I do not know what is different in the various revisions of the Time Capsule hardware, but one thing is for sure ... mine is not useable as anything other than a router with any firmware other than that it shipped with.

Amazing that the latest update even stopped my Macs from accessing the hard disc.

 

[FJR1300]

I have the xtreme-N and had a similar issue. After updating TM couldn't connect. Tried to browse the HD from finder and nothing even though the AE showed as an option. What I did to fix was re-entered the HD password in the utility and rebooted the AE and all is right with the universe!!

HTH!!

7.4.2 completely breaks my ability to access the Time Capsule's hard drive over the network (wired or wireless).

Under 7.4.1 it was just Windows machines that would not connect to the drive automatically, though you could manually re-map the connection and that would work until you next rebooted your PC.

Now NOTHING talks to the hard-drive, it does not even spin up and the device is NOT recognized as being present on the network.

This works without issue in 7.3.x, I do no understand how it can be so badly broken AND so varied in whether it works or not at this point.

Time to axe the Time Capsule, get a different router and use separate NAS devices, as this thing is clearly NOT going to be useable properly any time soon. Especially going by the time from 7.4.1 to 7.4.2 (and that only made my issues WORSE).

And yes, I have already tried both a simple update, and and update and reset to factory settings and then reconfiguring the device from scratch.

It does not work.

 

[FJR1300]

Have you tried to unplug the power from your TC?

Downgraded back to 7.3.2 ... all magically working perfectly again ... minus the new features of course.

I do not know what is different in the various revisions of the Time Capsule hardware, but one thing is for sure ... mine is not useable as anything other than a router with any firmware other than that it shipped with.

Amazing that the latest update even stopped my Macs from accessing the hard disc.

 

[jmb667]

Interesting...no problems here with OS X or Windows 7 on my Macbook and the 7.4.2 upgrade on a Time Capsule and AEX.

 

[Torq]

Have you tried to unplug the power from your TC?

I have tried unplugging it and letting it sit for a minute or two to ensure no capacitors in the PSU (switch-mode though it is) kept the memory alive.

I have reset it up from factory defaults.

I have re-entered passwords (both on the device and in the BSA).

The device is simply not visible on the network as any kind of storage from either Windows or OS X at all.

Under 7.4.1 I could connect to it manually from both, but the Base Station Agent would not talk to it and continually report errors.

Under 7.4.2 none of the dozen or so machines I have will see it, and while it works fine as a router, it is hardly cream-of-the-crop there.

There are obviously multiple revisions of the thing out there, and the new firmwares do not work correctly on them. Apple is unresponsive to concerns about it.

I have seen the same sorts of things on the iPhone ... I had no real issues with OS 3.0 during the beta period, but it has been a nightmare for some people ... always the way.

If the next update does not resolve all of these issues, I will just ditch it for separate routers and NAS devices.

 

[Torq]

I have the xtreme-N and had a similar issue. After updating TM couldn't connect. Tried to browse the HD from finder and nothing even though the AE showed as an option. What I did to fix was re-entered the HD password in the utility and rebooted the AE and all is right with the universe!!

HTH!!

Thanks for the suggestion, but the device is simply not visible under 7.4.2.

There is literally nothing there for the BSA to talk to. Even looking at the network traffic directly and interacting at a transport level I cannot find the damn thing.

Under 7.4.1 it is at least responsive, just the BSA refuses to connect, and I have to manually re-define my drive mappings every time I boot Windows (a unmangable pain in the arse across almost this many machines).

7.3.2 works perfectly, always has, excepting that it lacks some of the new features.

 

[WilliamG]

Thanks Apple! Now I can have a closed network, and have my AE-n connect to it! Took long enough, but glad they fixed that issue.

It always worked in 7.4.1, but it would take my Airport Express N's almost half an hour before they eventually connected! Now it's within 20 seconds, finally.

 

[Evangelion]

Is backing up to Time Capsule still slow as molasses?

 

[FJR1300]

One last thought for you.. I found on the apple forum someone having the same type of issue. Maybe try going in to your Key chain Access and deleting all TC entries. Maybe this is preventing it from showing? Here's a clip from the post..


"The Resolution:
I found that in "Keychain Access" there were multiple entries in "login" and "system" for my Time Capsule. I deleted all entries related to the Time Capsule, switched the "Connection Sharing" on the Time Capsule back to "Share a public IP address" (now its acting as a router), wired it directly back up to my modem and then saved the password into Keychain when prompted on the next connection. Now the problem is gone!"

Good Luck!!

Thanks for the suggestion, but the device is simply not visible under 7.4.2.

There is literally nothing there for the BSA to talk to. Even looking at the network traffic directly and interacting at a transport level I cannot find the damn thing.

Under 7.4.1 it is at least responsive, just the BSA refuses to connect, and I have to manually re-define my drive mappings every time I boot Windows (a unmangable pain in the arse across almost this many machines).

7.3.2 works perfectly, always has, excepting that it lacks some of the new features.

 

[mustang_dvs]

my airport express hasn't worked since 7.4.1. It's now working again with the new update. Happy days.

Yeah, 7.4.1 killed my Express-N, as well. I downgraded to 7.3.2 and have suffered through amber lights on it and the AXBS-n that it extends, as well as incessant requests from Airport Utility to update it.

 

[michael.lauden]

It always worked in 7.4.1, but it would take my Airport Express N's almost half an hour before they eventually connected! Now it's within 20 seconds, finally.

jeez that's weird. i've updated mine 3 or 4 times - and haven't had a problem EVER.

we have my iPhone, 2 blackberries, 2 PC's (one with internal, one withe external wifi card), and my Mac mini + MacBook in the house.

 

[dborja]

I had the issue of losing connectivity in an extended network with V7.4.1 so I had to roll back to the earlier version. I'll give this a try since it does identify my issue as being fixed...

Update: I flashed my AEBS and AExpress last night. So far so good this morning...

 

[MacHiavelli]

I couldn't connect to the hard drive on my Time Capsule (from OSX or XP connected machines) after the previous update (7.4.1) so I rolled back to 7.3.2.

Think I will wait to see how other people get on with 7.4.2.

Any comments on getting a first generation TC to work with 7.4.2 in a mixed Windows/OSX environment (using TC as an external drive for the machines to share files) would be very welcome.

TIA

 

[SkippyThorson]

Simple individual file transfers were starting to take forever, and I would sometimes see my iPhone and computers drop one WiFi bar every now and then. Hope this is all fixed.

 

[ltldrummerboy]

No problems here on my single-band Time Capsule.

 

[chrisandersen]

GREAT!
My dropped connections may be gone. Up for almost a hour now with no issues.

 

[Phil A.]

Wirelessly posted (iPod touch 32GB: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_0 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7A341 Safari/528.16)

Well that was a waste of time! Updated my AEBS with the net result it broke time machi e on the three computers that back up to it!
Each one does exactly the same thing: time machine reports that it can't connect and to reaelect the disk. I do that and it backs up flawlessly, only for exactly the same error to pop up the next time time machine tries to back up.
The first rule of a software update should always be "first do no harm". Well, this one does harm in a big way

 

[Torq]

One last thought for you.. I found on the apple forum someone having the same type of issue. Maybe try going in to your Key chain Access and deleting all TC entries. Maybe this is preventing it from showing? Here's a clip from the post..

Once again, my sincere thanks for the suggestion and the effort

But no, that did not help.

There is something odd with my (and some other people's it seems) Time Capsule that renders the disk either unreachable or inconsistently accessible with the 7.4.x firmwares.

7.3.2 works fine ... be nice to have the new features, but they are not critical. I just wish the bloody thing would stop flashing a yellow light (even with "Check for Firmware Updates" disabled) after a week of use.

I will say the situation makes me uncomfortable though. A backup device with questionable accessibility is not terribly useful, so at this stage either Apple will replace it with one that does work on current firmware (so future updates are less likely to bork it), or I'll swap it for separate router/NAS devices.

 

[srexy]

Update: I flashed my AEBS and AExpress last night. So far so good this morning...

I updated a pre Gigabit N AEBS and my Airport Express last night as well. All seemed well and an improvement on the 7.4.1 AEBS/7.3.2 AE situation I was using but just as I was revelling in iTunes not taking 30s to queue up the next song served up on the Mini downstairs - it crapped out.

I've downgraded the AE back to 7.3.2 and the stability is back but the damn connection (which I know is down to the AE cos it's the only one that picks up the Mini) is sketchy at best.

Might go back to the 7.3.2 revision throughout because I definitely didn't have as many problems with it as either of the last 2.

Why does Apple keep foisting crap firmware fixes on us when they clearly don't work!

EDIT: just downgraded the AEBS to 7.3.2 and it's bloody brilliant again!! - No more interminable iTunes waits...

 

[srexy]

Is there any way to turn off the software update notifier from the Airport Utility?