Airport Extreme - I've Met My Match!

[BurntWaffle88]

Hey guys,

I cannot for the life of me get it to work!

Where to begin? Yesterday I went to the Apple Genius Bar and they told me the hardware is fine, the AEBS was working perfectly and myself and the genius did a few tests (range tests etc.) All seemed well.

I got home and connected it all up and it didn't work. The genius at Apple told me it's probably something to do with my IPS so I called Virgin Media and they helped me change my MAC address from my D-Link router to my AEBS. The AEBS works fine, no problems whatsoever, I can connect to the network and the green light tells me it's fine (as well as logging into Airport Utility of course).

HOWEVER! My main problem now is it says "No IP Address" underneath my Airport on my iMac.

Should I have MAC Addresses enabled to RADIUS or Timed Access? Is that the problem? It doesn't seem to be, my AEBS reports no problems and seems ready to go.

It's now my Airport on my iMac which is the problem.

Virgin Media annoyed me, I was on the phone for 20 mins and they couldn't help me unless I go under contract and pay £10 a month for technical support. I've resulted in plugging in the D-Link router because at least I (and my housemates) get internet, even if it is slow and minimal.

Seriously each time there is a new problem "Network cannot be extended" "DNS Server Problem" "Internet Connection Problem" "Self Assigned IP Address" "No IP Address" Granted a couple or most of them were my mistakes as I've never used AEBS before or even set one up. I'm learning as I go.

So my question is: How do I get my AEBS to work? And what's this "No IP Address" mean on my iMac's Airport.

But really should it be this hard to set up?

Is there anyone out there who can help me? I'm almost giving up.

Thank you.

EDIT: I'm running 10.5.8 Leopard, 24inch iMac 2008. If that helps. Oh and I hate Virgin Media.

 

[psxguru]

I've used AEBS with VM for years with no problems.

You shouldn't have to worry about MAC addresses for a basic install.

I'm assuming you've plugged the cable modem into the right ethernet port on the AEBS i.e. the WAN port

In the Airport Utility under Internet you should have the following...

Connect using: Ethernet
Ethernet WAN port: Automatic
Connection Sharing: Share a public IP Address.

Under TCP/IP
Configure IPV4: Using DHCP (this is why you need to wait till the modem is synced before powering on the AEBS)

Under Airport > Wireless
Wireless Mode: Create a wireless network

First things first, power everything off and wait a few minutes.

Power on the cable modem and wait till it's lights show it's fully synced (depending which model you have).

Then switch on the AEBS and wait till the green light comes on.

Then power on your Mac or re-enable the Wifi.

It's best to plug in via ethernet (in case you've misconfigured the wifi settings) to check if the modem and AEBS have got the network settings via DHCP correctly i.e. you can get access to the internet.

 

[BurntWaffle88]

Thanks for your help.

I followed your steps and now everything seems to be fine...

...Well, almost everything.

I still can't connect to the internet!

I'm completely baffled.

My Virgin Media box doesn't send or receive information. There's two lights and I think it's send and receive both don't work. When I load Chrome, Safari - any internet and try google it's stuck on the (in my case I use Chrome so I have the Speed Dial feature, similar to top sites on Safari) it just stays on the speed dial page saying "Sending Request" and doesn't do anything.

AEBS = Fine.

iMac = Fine.

Modem = Not sending or receiving information.

When I plug my old D-Link router back in (which I have done now) as you can see there are no problems. It's just when I plug in the AEBS.

So not sending or receiving information on Virgin Media box. Any ideas?

Thanks for your help though! I'd really appreciate it if you and any other guys can help me out more. I just want my AEBS to work! And I know it does because I tried it and it worked 100% in the Apple store no problems!

 

[waw74]

have you unplugged and plugged in the modem?

they don't like to have what's plugged into them changed, if you do you need to give it power cycle.

 

[bruinsrme]

have you unplugged and plugged in the modem?

they don't like to have what's plugged into them changed, if you do you need to give it power cycle.

Along with that, if you haven't already, turn off every device/machine that uses the lan.
First power up the modem and let it completely boot up, then the AEBS, wait for the green light, then devices. if that doesn't work reset the AEBS to factory defaults and repeat.

 

[BurntWaffle88]

have you unplugged and plugged in the modem?

they don't like to have what's plugged into them changed, if you do you need to give it power cycle.

How do I do a power cycle? Will it mess anything up? I live with 4 other people who use the net so I'm restricted when I can do tests.

Thanks.

 

[bruinsrme]

How do I do a power cycle? Will it mess anything up? I live with 4 other people who use the net so I'm restricted when I can do tests.

Thanks.

just unplug it.
Well this brings up another question. How many routers are on your network?

 

[tbayrgs]

I had similar problems when I was trying to initially set up my Time Capsule. What ultimately corrected the problem was making sure my Time Capsule (or in your case, your AEBS is in Bridge mode. Open Airport Utility, select your AEBS, choose Manual setup in the bottom left corner, select Internet from the top level icons, choose the Internet Connection tab and under Connection Sharing, choose Off (Bridge Mode).

Again, this should work if your Virgin box is also a router (my Verizon FIOS box is not just a modern but also serves as the router). When I configured my mom's TC, she uses a straight cable modem and Connection Sharing had to be set as Sharing a public IP address.

Not sure is this will help you but hadn't seen it mentioned and thought it might solve your problem. Good luck.

 

[BurntWaffle88]

Hey guys,

Thank you for all of your help. I've finally got it working. And on my MacBook, my iMac and my housemates MacBook Pro it works fantastic!

But still I have a problem, my housemate who's running Windows XP on a desktop PC says she cannot connect to the network. It shows up but it doesn't even ask her for a password, it says the network could be out of range.

Now this is an AEBS, I tried it on my iMac upstairs (router and housemate downstairs) and I loaded a 1080p video on YouTube in no time.

So it says it's compatible with PC but doesn't show up. I told her to restart it but that didn't help.

I asked my other housemate who lives next door to her and he is also using a PC running the same set up, Windows XP and he can connect but the signal is lower than usual, it's usually 56, but now he says has gone down to 36.

Just tried to change it to 2.4GHz (because I heard the range is better) but neither of them can even connect. So I put it back to the first option.

So network shows up but she can't connect and my other housemate can connect but low signal, any ideas?

Thanks.