Airport extreme crashing

[rayjay86]

Hey guys,

I've looked around and can't seem to find an answer and it's driving me crazy!

I recently bought a refurbished AEBS from Apple (AU) and have it connected to my ADSL modem and a 1TB HDD plugged into the USB port for filesharing on my network between my flatmates.

The problem is, it seems like any time there is a significant amount of traffic over the network (moving files, updating Plex, streaming files, torrenting...any of these simulatenously or in combinations) the AEBS crashes and I need to power cycle in order to bring the whole network back online.

The modem I got from my ISP is wireless but it's very basic and no option to plug in an HDD. I need to HDD for media sharing through the house and I'll eventually be investing an in apple tv which I'll jailbreak.

Help appreciated!

 

[hafr]

If you disconnect the USB drive, does that change anything? I'm thinking it might be only when there is a significant amount of traffic specifically to/from the shared disk that the AEBS crashes.

 

[rayjay86]

I'll give it a try, not sure how much I can load the network other than getting my flatmates to torrent at the same time while streaming from my computer to the ps3.

Is there any way around that if it is in fact the HDD? Maybe clear up the HDD a bit (it's about 750gb of 1TB at the moment).

I got the AEBS instead of just using the supplied wifi router so that I could put a hard drive over the network. Also wanted to add more drives in a few months with the use of USB hub which apple had as a recommended use of the USB port on the AEBS.

 

[hafr]

Is there any way around that if it is in fact the HDD? Maybe clear up the HDD a bit (it's about 750gb of 1TB at the moment).

Yeah, use a solution which will ease the pressure on the AEBS' components Such as a NAS or a computer functioning as a fileserver. You could get an old netbook to do the job for you, just make sure it has Gbit ethernet connectivity. Then connect the USB drives to it, and the netbook to the AEBS.

I mean, even if it isn't the hard drive's fault that the AEBS is crashing it might be worth looking into it either way since transfer speeds to/from a USB drive connected to the AEBS will max out at about 25 MBps.

 

[rayjay86]

Fair enough.

I just fail to understand why apple would advertise in the features section of the product page that it as able to support "multiple" hard drives with a powered USB hub, but when I actually try and use just ONE hdd on my network it crashes the AEBS.

So you're suggesting using a netbook that is hardwired via gigabit ethernet to the AEBS and have the HDD (or usb hub) plugged into the netbook and just have that netbook always on?

Does the "power" of the netbook come into play here? Ie. could I buy the cheapest one I can find (there is an Acer one with 1GB ram on craigslist for $100) and use that or will it need to have a certain amount of processor power and/or ram in order to do what I am attempting?

NAS seems like an option that's out of my price range at the moment. I had originally considered it though.

*Edit* I just saw the WD My Book Live (2TB for $150). I'm weary of WD as my brothers 1TB crashed on him and he lost all his media. Also, not sure if this would be what I'm looking for. Do I plug the WD into the AEBS via ethernet? Wouldn't that be doing the same thing as having it plugged in via my USB? I've been really happy with Seagate at the moment but their home line of NAS seem like they need to be viewed through a browser...

 

[hafr]

Fair enough.

I just fail to understand why apple would advertise in the features section of the product page that it as able to support "multiple" hard drives with a powered USB hub, but when I actually try and use just ONE hdd on my network it crashes the AEBS.

We're not even sure that it's actually what's happening here But it could very well be that most users don't punish their USB drives with heavy streaming and file copying that way, because those users tend to have more expensive and robust solutions and that it's mainly meant to be for pictures, documents, music and other, lighter, files.

So you're suggesting using a netbook that is hardwired via gigabit ethernet to the AEBS and have the HDD (or usb hub) plugged into the netbook and just have that netbook always on?

It's one of my suggestions, yes

Does the "power" of the netbook come into play here? Ie. could I buy the cheapest one I can find (there is an Acer one with 1GB ram on craigslist for $100) and use that or will it need to have a certain amount of processor power and/or ram in order to do what I am attempting?

An Acer Aspire One would have something like an Atom 1.6 GHz, which is more than enough to withstand a lot of punishment. But I think they only have 10/100 and not Gbit ethernet connectivity, so you would have to change that if I'm not mistaken. You could set it up with Windows, Ubuntu, FreeNAS, Nas***** (nas 4 free in one word) or any other OS you feel comfortable with and that's able to handle what you want to do.

NAS seems like an option that's out of my price range at the moment. I had originally considered it though.

Something like the Iomega Home Media Cloud Edition or the Seagate GoFlex might be something you could be interested in. It's a NAS for home use, with USB ports where you can add additional storage.

I did a quick google search for australian stores, and I found this (just an example) that would probably fit your needs perfectly. Cheap, no need to muck about with a netbook, you have the extra storage you mentioned earlier you wanted to get, it'll take the load off of the router... http://www.computeronline.com.au/products.php?C_ID=3&S_ID=83&PROD=32530

 

[Weaselboy]

I would look at the Torrenting.

The AE only supports 128 simultaneous connections. Check the settings in everybody's Torrent app and lower max connections way down below 100 and see if that helps.

If somebody has a torrent app running with 200 or more max connections allowed and you start other network activity on top of that, the router is going to slow/crash.

 

[rayjay86]

It might be just AEBS itself...

Thanks. I think it might be the AEBS. I've disconnected the HDD (samsung) and it's still crashing.

I bought it refurbished from apple's website (2011 model). Now even with the hard drive disconnected (and we don't torrent except at night anymore), it has crashed three times in the last 2 hours. We've had to power cycle each time to get it back online.

It's starting to get really frustrating...I'm not sure what to do at this point. There are no apple stores in Adelaide either!

 

[Weaselboy]

Thanks. I think it might be the AEBS. I've disconnected the HDD (samsung) and it's still crashing.

I bought it refurbished from apple's website (2011 model). Now even with the hard drive disconnected (and we don't torrent except at night anymore), it has crashed three times in the last 2 hours. We've had to power cycle each time to get it back online.

It's starting to get really frustrating...I'm not sure what to do at this point. There are no apple stores in Adelaide either!

Hmm... that does sound like a bad AE. Only other thing I can think to try is a hard reset. I assume you have latest AE firmware.

 

[rayjay86]

I'll give it a try.
As far I know I have the latest firmware. How do I upgrade it/check for updates?
Something I thought of doing was: use my airport express as the primary wifi router, the add the airport extreme onto the network with the hdd connected. If the aebs goes down (due to hdd overloading it) at least the main network should still be active right?
The Adsl modem I got from my ISP is wifi capable; will I be able to connect the airport extreme to it without the express or do I need the first setup that I mention (AE as primary, AEBS connected with USB on network)

Edit **the firmware is 7.6.1, 802.11n, 5th gen**

 

[Weaselboy]

I'll give it a try.
As far I know I have the latest firmware. How do I upgrade it/check for updates?
Something I thought of doing was: use my airport express as the primary wifi router, the add the airport extreme onto the network with the hdd connected. If the aebs goes down (due to hdd overloading it) at least the main network should still be active right?
The Adsl modem I got from my ISP is wifi capable; will I be able to connect the airport extreme to it without the express or do I need the first setup that I mention (AE as primary, AEBS connected with USB on network)

Edit **the firmware is 7.6.1, 802.11n, 5th gen**

If the DSL router supports WDS that is required to extend the network, you could use it to attach other wireless devices directly like you said. My experience has been WDS is spotty and seems to work better between devices of the same brand, if at all. I would be surprised if your ADSL router supported WDS. You could Google search the model number and see if is does.

Otherwise, your plan B sounds workable. Just use the AE as the main and extend the network using it and the AEBS. Like you said, at least a crash if the AEBS would then leave the rest of the wireless network still up.

 

[rayjay86]

Thanks Weaselboy. Just trying to find a spare ethernet around before I attempt this.

Here's another question since you seem to know your stuff.

My AEBS is still crashing (while waiting to try out this AE option instead). I tried to see if I could return it to Apple but I'm past the 14day return period so I think the only option would be to contact them and tell them that everytime I try and move a file over the network it crashes the AEBS and hope that they consider that a fault or whatever. My questions are these:

1. Would the transfer speed have anything to do with my actual internet connection, ie. since I am on ADSL vs cable internet for example, would that make a difference? Or since it is local data it is dependent on the hardware I'm using

2. If I purchased one of those LaCie Network Space or WD MyBook Live NAS drives, could I in theory plug in two or three of them to the ethernet ports on the AEBS and have that as almost a wireless storage hub? Or would that crash the AEBS even faster?

Thanks again, I appreciate the help. I'm getting really frustrated with this whole thing! I just want to watch Arrested Development off of Plex on my PS3 without the internet dying all the time!!!

 

[mmomega]

I would suspect that specific router.

I have a 4th and 5th gen at my office wired to a switch with 15 computers sending traffic through it 14hrs a day and I haven't rebooted it since I bought it (or firmware updates). Also with a 3TB external doing Time Machine backups for 5 of those computers every hour.

Also at home I have a 5th gen and I've sometimes had 7-8 computers wired and WiFi downloading, playing game, streaming movies and doing Time Machine backups over an entire weekend with no problems.
I've had a mix of 3Mb/s crap DSL and now 100Mb/s cable and haven't had problems.

Sorry to hear that you can't get a replacement.

 

[rayjay86]

Wow that's some serious usage!

That only strengthens my resolve to make sure Apple does something about it when I call them tomorrow!

Hopefully I can get that resolved, I was finding it hard to believe that the hardware wasn't capable of it, perhaps it is just a case of a faulty unit.

Here's to hoping...!

 

[rayjay86]

Also would putting my AEBS with two networks 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz make a difference?

I just tried to enable the 5Ghz network with a different SSID and I found no noticeable changes in speed. Should I keep that enabled and then do file transfers over that network or am I missing the point of that 5Ghz thing.

God I'm so confused now....I just want this to work!!!

 

[Weaselboy]

Thanks Weaselboy. Just trying to find a spare ethernet around before I attempt this.

Here's another question since you seem to know your stuff.

My AEBS is still crashing (while waiting to try out this AE option instead). I tried to see if I could return it to Apple but I'm past the 14day return period so I think the only option would be to contact them and tell them that everytime I try and move a file over the network it crashes the AEBS and hope that they consider that a fault or whatever. My questions are these:

1. Would the transfer speed have anything to do with my actual internet connection, ie. since I am on ADSL vs cable internet for example, would that make a difference? Or since it is local data it is dependent on the hardware I'm using

2. If I purchased one of those LaCie Network Space or WD MyBook Live NAS drives, could I in theory plug in two or three of them to the ethernet ports on the AEBS and have that as almost a wireless storage hub? Or would that crash the AEBS even faster?

Thanks again, I appreciate the help. I'm getting really frustrated with this whole thing! I just want to watch Arrested Development off of Plex on my PS3 without the internet dying all the time!!!

1. No... you could actually use the Airport Extreme to transfer files inside your network with no outside Internet connection at all and it would still work.

2. Yep... that would work. Juts be careful about Time Machine compatibility.

 

[davidoloan]

Hopefully I can get that resolved, I was finding it hard to believe that the hardware wasn't capable of it, perhaps it is just a case of a faulty unit.

Here's to hoping...!

Call Apple.

I bought a faulty Express from the Refurb Store. After 20 minutes on the phone at 4pm following instructions to reset and test it, she said we will replace it, give you a voucher for £20 and that someone would call me. Another employee bent over backwards to track me down as I had gone out, to ask if I would accept an Extreme as replacement; they didn't have an express in stock. It arrived the next morning.

There were then multiple calls from the same person to check it arrived and I was satisfied etc. They seem to treat faulty base stations as a matter of urgency. Probably because they are aware a whole house or office might be cut off from the internet.

Then they sent a box and courier for the faulty one.

 

[zen]

Just to add - I've been having the same problem, and it seems to be related to heavy throughput to the external USB drive connected to the Airport Extreme. It has become so unreliable I've disconnected the drive and am figuring out some other solution to my need for a network drive.

 

[rayjay86]

Call Apple.

I bought a faulty Express from the Refurb Store. After 20 minutes on the phone at 4pm following instructions to reset and test it, she said we will replace it, give you a voucher for £20 and that someone would call me. Another employee bent over backwards to track me down as I had gone out, to ask if I would accept an Extreme as replacement; they didn't have an express in stock. It arrived the next morning.

There were then multiple calls from the same person to check it arrived and I was satisfied etc. They seem to treat faulty base stations as a matter of urgency. Probably because they are aware a whole house or office might be cut off from the internet.

Then they sent a box and courier for the faulty one.

Thanks for that. I gave Apple a call yesterday. A little frustrating as I had done literally everything when the guy asked me "have you tried this" and I answered yes but because I was not at home, he said I needed to be on my network in order for them to try a few more things and test it out. He even admitted that it sounded like I had a dud but he couldn't do anything unless he had tested the same stuff on the home network. I probably should've just lied

Hopefully it gets sorted, it's extremely frustrating not having the ability to use the 3 HDDs I have waiting to get on the network. If one is crashing the whole thing, I'm not going to try adding to the load...

 

[davidoloan]

Thanks for that. I gave Apple a call yesterday. A little frustrating as I had done literally everything when the guy asked me "have you tried this" and I answered yes but because I was not at home, he said I needed to be on my network in order for them to try a few more things and test it out. He even admitted that it sounded like I had a dud but he couldn't do anything unless he had tested the same stuff on the home network. I probably should've just lied

Hopefully it gets sorted, it's extremely frustrating not having the ability to use the 3 HDDs I have waiting to get on the network. If one is crashing the whole thing, I'm not going to try adding to the load...

Call them when you are home. In my experience the tests were to reset it several times and see if it worked. After several attempts which she talked me through, she just stopped as if enough was enough, and said they would replace it.

They made it very simple and I am sure you will get the same result plus a small voucher / refund.