airport extreme connectivity issues

[rhuarc3]

I have an airport extreme (4th gen, firmware version 7.6.4) wired to a netgear wnr1000 (for xfinity home) that is wired to the xfinity cable modem.

Recently we have been experiencing extremely slow internet to no internet. All the routers were reset. With comcast also sending out a reset signal.

Now, I am unable to join the network from any device. After multiple times of trying to join, with password reentered each time, the device will finally connect, but will have slow or intermittent internet.

I also have an older express (1st gen) in basement, and a newer one (2nd gen) upstairs. Both running to extend the network.

Any thoughts? Thanks.

 

[campyguy]

A tip, having a few Comcast accounts in different locations and having to personally move from location to location - they're a few of my offices. I have a few Extremes (AC and 4th Gen) and Expresses (both Generations), and I tote an Express with me when I hit the road.

There's lots of threads that offer "my Comcast modem doesn't work well with my Airport", or, like you're relating, issues with connectivity and speed. We have Motorola (now Arris) modems - supposedly one of the most unfriendly cable modem brands to use with Apple Airports.

I learned, after more T3 and T4 timeouts, to change the Express/Extreme IPv4 DHCP range from the default Range of 192.168.x.x to 10.0.x.x - when the modem gets a renewed lease, and I'm not being technical here, it butts heads with the AE. Some of my staff moved into a temp location a couple of weeks ago and I heard about the internet being down several times - I went there, and made that simple change and the modem and network have been up since; you'd think six guys with engineering degrees would have figured that out?!

In each of our locations, I've changed the AE's DHCP range to a range that's different than the modem it's connected to (the Moto's IP address is 192.168.100.1). Check the AE's DHCP range has the same first six address numbers as the modem and, if they're the same make that change using Airport Utility, reboot the AE, reboot your Macs/PCs (maybe not necessary, but I do anyway), and keep your fingers crossed. Cheers!

 

[bruinsrme]

How recently and is it after upgrading a device to iOS?
If so reset your net work setting on the iPad.

Also net gear posted a few new router firmware updates,
.
My net gear router is running like there's a kink in the line

 

[scapegoat81]

A tip, having a few Comcast accounts in different locations and having to personally move from location to location - they're a few of my offices. I have a few Extremes (AC and 4th Gen) and Expresses (both Generations), and I tote an Express with me when I hit the road.

There's lots of threads that offer "my Comcast modem doesn't work well with my Airport", or, like you're relating, issues with connectivity and speed. We have Motorola (now Arris) modems - supposedly one of the most unfriendly cable modem brands to use with Apple Airports.

I learned, after more T3 and T4 timeouts, to change the Express/Extreme IPv4 DHCP range from the default Range of 192.168.x.x to 10.0.x.x - when the modem gets a renewed lease, and I'm not being technical here, it butts heads with the AE. Some of my staff moved into a temp location a couple of weeks ago and I heard about the internet being down several times - I went there, and made that simple change and the modem and network have been up since; you'd think six guys with engineering degrees would have figured that out?!

In each of our locations, I've changed the AE's DHCP range to a range that's different than the modem it's connected to (the Moto's IP address is 192.168.100.1). Check the AE's DHCP range has the same first six address numbers as the modem and, if they're the same make that change using Airport Utility, reboot the AE, reboot your Macs/PCs (maybe not necessary, but I do anyway), and keep your fingers crossed. Cheers!

I agree 100%. I had bought an AE along w/ a Motorola Sufrboard modem & constanly had problems with dropouts. Searching on Google led me to believe there were some major issues w/ this configuration. After trying everything under the sun w/ no luck, I figured to try out a different modem & see what happens. I bought a Zoom modem from my local MicroCenter & haven't had one dropout yet. Going on my 2nd year now
I am completely done w/ Motorola hardware. Done.

 

[rhuarc3]

A tip, having a few Comcast accounts in different locations and having to personally move from location to location - they're a few of my offices. I have a few Extremes (AC and 4th Gen) and Expresses (both Generations), and I tote an Express with me when I hit the road.

There's lots of threads that offer "my Comcast modem doesn't work well with my Airport", or, like you're relating, issues with connectivity and speed. We have Motorola (now Arris) modems - supposedly one of the most unfriendly cable modem brands to use with Apple Airports.

I learned, after more T3 and T4 timeouts, to change the Express/Extreme IPv4 DHCP range from the default Range of 192.168.x.x to 10.0.x.x - when the modem gets a renewed lease, and I'm not being technical here, it butts heads with the AE. Some of my staff moved into a temp location a couple of weeks ago and I heard about the internet being down several times - I went there, and made that simple change and the modem and network have been up since; you'd think six guys with engineering degrees would have figured that out?!

In each of our locations, I've changed the AE's DHCP range to a range that's different than the modem it's connected to (the Moto's IP address is 192.168.100.1). Check the AE's DHCP range has the same first six address numbers as the modem and, if they're the same make that change using Airport Utility, reboot the AE, reboot your Macs/PCs (maybe not necessary, but I do anyway), and keep your fingers crossed. Cheers!

Ok, I can see where to change the IPv6(?). But not sure what the numbers are on the Motorola, as I don't have the password for it so can't get that info. Wonder if Comcast would be able to tell me that, or if I should just change it for the heck of it. If it's something simple like that my wife is gonna be pissed. Just ordered a new AE.

I need to learn more on networking, which is why I got the apple in the first place because it seemed to be easiest to setup.

Thanks. I'll look into this and hope it helps.

 

[campyguy]

Ok, I can see where to change the IPv6(?). But not sure what the numbers are on the Motorola, as I don't have the password for it so can't get that info. Wonder if Comcast would be able to tell me that, or if I should just change it for the heck of it. If it's something simple like that my wife is gonna be pissed. Just ordered a new AE.

I need to learn more on networking, which is why I got the apple in the first place because it seemed to be easiest to setup.

Thanks. I'll look into this and hope it helps.

It's a bit late, checking in. No need to concern yourself with IPv6 or the modem, the former isn't relevant and the latter is likely password-protected with custom firmware. What I was alluding to is in the Airport Utility application on your Mac, in the "Network" section of your Airport's settings, then selecting the "Network Options" at that bottom of that settings tab. There's a pull down menu with 3 options: "10.0", "172.16", and "192.168" - choose an option that doesn't match your modem's IP range; I chose "10.0" to oppose my modem's "192.168.100.1" fixed IP address.

Yeah, it's pretty simple... However, scapegoat81 is nutz on - some of Comcast's cable modems don't "get along" with Airport hardware. You didn't offer which modem you have, but I'm considering swapping out my Moto modems for a 3-star retail option that's shown on Comcast's approved device list (http://mydeviceinfo.comcast.net/). I know that Comcast's techs have pushed me to their 3-star devices, and I might just head over to Best Buy or on to Amazon to swap out my Moto. Besides, I'm going to the firing range next week, and I need to bring something to destroy...

 

[rhuarc3]

It's a bit late, checking in. No need to concern yourself with IPv6 or the modem, the former isn't relevant and the latter is likely password-protected with custom firmware. What I was alluding to is in the Airport Utility application on your Mac, in the "Network" section of your Airport's settings, then selecting the "Network Options" at that bottom of that settings tab. There's a pull down menu with 3 options: "10.0", "172.16", and "192.168" - choose an option that doesn't match your modem's IP range; I chose "10.0" to oppose my modem's "192.168.100.1" fixed IP address.

Yeah, it's pretty simple... However, scapegoat81 is nutz on - some of Comcast's cable modems don't "get along" with Airport hardware. You didn't offer which modem you have, but I'm considering swapping out my Moto modems for a 3-star retail option that's shown on Comcast's approved device list (http://mydeviceinfo.comcast.net/). I know that Comcast's techs have pushed me to their 3-star devices, and I might just head over to Best Buy or on to Amazon to swap out my Moto. Besides, I'm going to the firing range next week, and I need to bring something to destroy...

Cool. That's easy enough to do. And yeah it is a Motorola modem.

I wish my range would let me shoot cool things. I get tired of shooting paper. Have fun.

Thanks.

 

[Altemose]

Cool. That's easy enough to do. And yeah it is a Motorola modem.

I wish my range would let me shoot cool things. I get tired of shooting paper. Have fun.

Thanks.

The Motorola SB6141 is notorious for problems but the SB6121 is generally a good fit. Keep in mind that if your AirPort is sitting behind another router it can pose issues.

 

[nebo1ss]

The Motorola SB6141 is notorious for problems but the SB6121 is generally a good fit. Keep in mind that if your AirPort is sitting behind another router it can pose issues.

If your airport is sitting behind another router you set the airport as Bridge mode under network and let the primary router do all the DHCP address allocation.

 

[campyguy]

Cool. That's easy enough to do. And yeah it is a Motorola modem.

I wish my range would let me shoot cool things. I get tired of shooting paper. Have fun.

Thanks.

I was wondering which brand of modem you were using, suspecting a Moto modem. Suspicion confirmed! And, what Altemose wrote is true - the SB6141 we have in two of our locations are going to the range with us...

As to my range, we call it "Central Oregon"! So many more options than where I'm from - NYC. Yes, paper is no fun at all! FWIW, we always pick up after ourselves. We're bringing a 4k videocam, and I'm looking forward to the slo-mo shot! Cheers!

 

[Altemose]

I was wondering which brand of modem you were using, suspecting a Moto modem. Suspicion confirmed! And, what Altemose wrote is true - the SB6141 we have in two of our locations are going to the range with us...

I have gotten the SB6141 working at a clients house with an AirPort by using Comcast's 6to4 relay settings.

 

[campyguy]

I have gotten the SB6141 working at a clients house with an AirPort by using Comcast's 6to4 relay settings.

Thanks for that, however, I've toggled that setting a few times with no real benefit. I believe it's Comcrap's "problem" to some degree. Bear me out.

One of our locations with Moto cable modems (hey, we paid $0 for them) have no issues, but it's the only location installed on that node. Two of our locations have periodic issues, almost at exactly the same time with our logs repeating "Unicast Maintenance Ranging attempted - No response - Retries exhausted", on shared nodes that are not fully occupied. The fourth location has the same log message - at exactly the same time as the former two "outages". Our 5th location, with a Zoom 5341J, never has issues.

The two field guys that come out - for our Comcast Business accounts - tell me the Moto modems have issues with their MoCA filters and hate, hate, hate the SB6141 like the plague (and the SB6183 isn't much better).

I'd rather watch football this evening, and I don't want to brand you a killjoy - a kill-modem, rather - so I'll push a change and see what happens.

EDIT: I did, and now I'm getting an "IPv6 Relay Error" error message from the two Airport Extremes (new, AC version). I had some success switching back to "Native" in that setting. So, grrrr. I'm calling Google on Monday to bribe them to get their fiber service here in Portland by the end of the week.

 

[Altemose]

@campyguy I figured I would share just to try and save you from having to get a new modem. The SB6121 we have works great but I agree that the SB6141 does throw a lot more problems in some configurations with Apple and Netgear routers.

 

[campyguy]

@campyguy I figured I would share just to try and save you from having to get a new modem. The SB6121 we have works great but I agree that the SB6141 does throw a lot more problems in some configurations with Apple and Netgear routers.

No worries, and thanks - I did surmise as much, given your loooooong track record of being very helpful here!

FWIW, I'm considering one of the Broadcom modems that use the same chipset as the SB6183 (an SMC or Netgear). I have an SB6163 installed in one of our locations and it's been flawless. Also, we get our modems at no cost from Comcast, my being a good (paying!) customer on their BC side.

I changed my mind on destroying my SB6141s, and opted to donate them to a not-for-profit for their use! They'll be boxed for a backup just in case they've got network issues or some of their hardware dies. Cheers!

 

[Altemose]

No worries, and thanks - I did surmise as much, given your loooooong track record of being very helpful here!

Thank you! My track record is not that long compared to most of the members here!

FWIW, I'm considering one of the Broadcom modems that use the same chipset as the SB6183 (an SMC or Netgear). I have an SB6163 installed in one of our locations and it's been flawless. Also, we get our modems at no cost from Comcast, my being a good (paying!) customer on their BC side.

We use a Netgear gateway, that Comcast supplied, with our AirPort at the school that is fantastic! We had an SMC that was nothing but trouble (same sort of dropouts as the SB6141). I can get you a model number of the Netgear in case you want to request one.

 

[campyguy]

Thank you! My track record is not that long compared to most of the members here!



We use a Netgear gateway, that Comcast supplied, with our AirPort at the school that is fantastic! We had an SMC that was nothing but trouble (same sort of dropouts as the SB6141). I can get you a model number of the Netgear in case you want to request one.

I snagged a Netgear CM500 (that's the modem model I was alluding in my latest post, and it's on their approved list) early this afternoon and it's up and running right now. The SB6141 went apesh..., er, nuts again this morning and no effort put it back on track. Fortunately, there's a choice between a Target/Staples/Best Buy here on the island - Staples filled the bill, and Comcast will be crediting my next bill. Nice, that.

Is that the modem model you're using? Do let me know. I did change the default login info, I hope that doesn't keep Comcast from pushing info to it! Cheers, and thanks!

 

[Altemose]

Is that the modem model you're using? Do let me know. I did change the default login info, I hope that doesn't keep Comcast from pushing info to it! Cheers, and thanks!

I will check in the morning when I get to school. Our gateway is supplied by Comcast though so I am not sure there is a retail sister product of it.