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AirPort Express is constantly cutting out and has connection problems

M

mattwrit

macrumors member
Original poster
Dec 8, 2008
53
0
All of a sudden my MacBook Pro (early 08) and my Airport Express (n) are having massive problems keeping connected. Over the last couple of weeks I've had a lot of:

MBP not finding my APE, even though it's in the drop down list. When I click it it says I need a password (which it has pre-input in the password box) and, when I click OK, it tries to connect but fails saying "Connection Timeout".

It connects but then, 15 secs later, disconnects, then reconnects, then disconnects etc. and this goes on with the wifi symbol in the toolbar switching between black and grey until I restart the MBP.

If it does all work, it will often just stop. The internet will hang and when I click to reload, Safari says I'm not connected - even though the wifi is connected.

Often, no amount of restarting the MBP or APE will put it right (I've managed to get on right now by completely reconfiguring the APE).

Does anyone else have these issues? Anyone know what the problems are? I thought Apple stuff 'just worked'?!
 
have you recently bought any other wireless gear? (cordless phone, baby monitors etc?)

i've seen what you described before with Wi-Fi due to interference from an external source. you could try changing the Wi-Fi channel the airport is operating on in the airport setup utility. i believe that channels 1, 6-7, and 11 are the most often used/busiest (by default on much wireless gear.)

it could even be that a neighbour has a new phone, wi-fi network that is interfering with yours.

change the wi-fi channel and see how it goes.

also i believe that 10.5.6 had some wi-fi specific improvements, maybe it's worth upgrading as well.
 
vandozza said:
have you recently bought any other wireless gear? (cordless phone, baby monitors etc?)

i've seen what you described before with Wi-Fi due to interference from an external source. you could try changing the Wi-Fi channel the airport is operating on in the airport setup utility. i believe that channels 1, 6-7, and 11 are the most often used/busiest (by default on much wireless gear.)

it could even be that a neighbour has a new phone, wi-fi network that is interfering with yours.

change the wi-fi channel and see how it goes.

also i believe that 10.5.6 had some wi-fi specific improvements, maybe it's worth upgrading as well.
Click to expand...

No new wireless gear and, sorry, got confused - I'm running 10.5.6.
 
maybe it was 10.5.6 that upset your set-ups?

i used to have this issue, but it seemed to fix itself along the way (either an apple update, or myself manually fiddling with the channel helped.)
 
SnowLeopard2008 said:
Reboot your computer? I sometimes have trouble connecting, but either toggling AirPort wireless on/off fixes it. A reboot also fixes.
Click to expand...

Thanks for all the ideas - I've tried rebooting my computer, rebooting the APE, power cycling everything (incl modem) and completely reconfiguring the APE (twice) but the problem remains.

My partner's MacBook is having the same issues so, personally, I think it's 10.5.6 - but I'm surprised there aren't thousands of disgruntled people on here chatting about it.

Furthermore, when it is working and I'm using the APE for AirTunes, it cuts out for a couple of seconds every couple of minutes or so making it very annoying.

I'm getting close to just taking it all to the Apple store and asking them to sort it.
 
try running software such as airradar to work out which channels are in use in your area.

then set your airport to use a different channel. ie, if you find that 1 and 6 are being used, try using 11. or if 6-7 are used, use 1 or 11.
 
I agree, my Airport Express became flaky after some recent Apple update. Didn't track it down, but it seems better after some reboots, resets, and checking Airport Utility => airport express => Airport tab => Wireless tab => Wireless Options button => Use Interface Robustness.
 
I'm having similar problem.

Based on Apple support discussions, seems to be an issue with iTunes 8 and AirTunes.

Some things to check that may or may not fix the issue:

Firewall
ip6 settings
network channel for interference

I'm waiting for iTunes 8.03
 
Airradar seems to have sorted my disconnection problems out just by locking the computer to my network and my network only. Excellent. Thank you. :)
 
Ditto here

It cut out for a while, stopped doing it for a month, started again, stopped working completely. Frustrating yo. I've done many of the fixes people posted and why would it be so random? Did anybody just replace the thing or have a genuine working results with a fix mentioned above (or something different)? MANY peeps are posting this issue on the web.
 
Exactly the same

I am having EXACTLY the same issue as the OP.

I am wondering if the APE is the issue?

Interesting to see that this is not a new issue....

Anyone have any joy resolving it?
 
Agreed AP.E. feels like it was built by a monkey

Airport Express or AP.E for short is terrible
Connected it to my time capsule to use for airtunes - which I opted for over a sonos system - please no one reply just to tell me how stupid I am!!!!

Music is choppy at best...if any other devices are on - forget it - its AWFUL

Not happy with apple for this spent £350 on network kit that simply does not perform as well as my old BT home router/modem!!!
 
bcburrows said:
Airport Express or AP.E for short is terrible
Connected it to my time capsule to use for airtunes - which I opted for over a sonos system - please no one reply just to tell me how stupid I am!!!!

Music is choppy at best...if any other devices are on - forget it - its AWFUL

Not happy with apple for this spent £350 on network kit that simply does not perform as well as my old BT home router/modem!!!
Click to expand...

You might try to switch your wireless channel. You probably have a lot of interference unless you are using N. Another possibility is that wireless backups are slowing things down to a crawl for any network traffic.
 
vandozza said:
you could try changing the Wi-Fi channel the airport is operating on in the airport setup utility. i believe that channels 1, 6-7, and 11 are the most often used/busiest (by default on much wireless gear.)

change the wi-fi channel and see how it goes.
Click to expand...

My AE also would cut out after the same play time each time I used it, if left running it would pop back on & off again steadily. I changed channels as suggested, it was on 3 (I don't know why must have been the default, I never set it) and I set it to channel #1 to start with, it's still there. Works without cutting out now!! As simple as that & I almost returned it....:D
 
i'm having the exact same problems here. airport utility tells me that i am set to channel 6. can anyone tell me how exactly to CHANGE the channel setting?
 
Changing channel in APE

whopperjunior said:
i'm having the exact same problems here. airport utility tells me that i am set to channel 6. can anyone tell me how exactly to CHANGE the channel setting?
Click to expand...

Easy.

1. Go to the utilities folder and double click on Airport Utility
2. Double click on your AP base station. This will display all the settings for your base station.
3. Move your mouse so the arrow is hovering over the word "channel"
4.Click on channel and a drop down will appear with channels 1 through 11
5. Select the channel you want and click on update at the bottom
 
Hello,

Okay so I have the same problem. I have two AE's for use with stereos around my house. They worked great. Then one day no reason started cutting in and out. Now I tried everything. Including setting up my network from scratch again. I have 2 PCs and one Mac on my network. The problem happened with all 3 iTunes library. I think now I have it figured out. After reading what all you smart people said I simple went into my ISP router and changed the channel. It was on 4 so I put it to 11. This will automatically change the channels on your AE's. So far 2hrs later not one cut out. Now I didn't buy anything that might interfere but I do have a tenant living in my basement. I believe(could be terribly wrong) that something in his network or what have you, messed up my Network. So I suggest trying to change the channel in your router. I will let you know if it keeps working.

Thanks All.
 
I previously posted that changing channels fixed the problem, I just didn't have it on long enough. I've changed to every channel and sooner then later, it's back to the same old thing. I give up, rarely use it or do till it stops then just put the radio or home stereo at that point:(.
 
Found this a while ago, fixed mine and a couple more.

Change your IPv6 settings In order to change this setting, open System Preferences then the Network pane and click on your currently used interface (Ethernet, AirPort, etc.). Click on the TCP/IP settings for the interface -- at the bottom if you see a button which says 'Configure IPv6...' click it make the setting "Off." Press the Apply Now button.
 
ewen-mm said:
Change your IPv6 settings In order to change this setting, open System Preferences then the Network pane and click on your currently used interface (Ethernet, AirPort, etc.). Click on the TCP/IP settings for the interface -- at the bottom if you see a button which says 'Configure IPv6...' click it make the setting "Off." Press the Apply Now button.
Click to expand...

i'm using 10.7.2 and the Configure IPv6 drop down under the TCP/IP tab only gives me options of:

Automatically
Manually
Link-Local only
?
 
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