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AirPort Extreme - Light is green, so why do I have no internet?

winninganthem

winninganthem

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 10, 2008
790
0
Hi guys,

I have a networking question.
So I bought an AirPort Extreme Wireless-N and hooked it up to my cable modem and used the AirPort Utility to set up the base station to use DHCP.

It asks for stuff like DNS information and IP addresses in the wizard but I leave them blank hoping that the process is just going to be plug and play.

However, at the end of the wizard I was left with an amber light and a message saying that my internet connection was not working.

So then I go and plug my MBP directly to the cable modem via ethernet to try find my IP information. The modem works, so this rules out any problem of the modem to have internet connectivity.

It also gives me a bunch of IP address information:
2873398865_3d7b3b38ea.jpg


So then I go back into the AirPort Utility and this time opt for a manual set up. I put in IP Address, Subnet Mask, Router, and DNS information into where it tells me to and let the wizard do its thing.

Afterward it says that the entire thing works perfectly. So I'm feelin' great about this except for the fact that I can't access the internet.. The light on the unit itself is SOLID GREEN, but there is no connectivity.

I am pretty much at a loss as to what to do.

Any suggestions on what I can do? Thanks very much for reading this. Any help is greatly appreciated :).

Just a little side info in case it matters:

My ISP is Road Runner/Time Warner Cable/whatever they call it.

I am using AirPort Extreme Firmware 7.3.1, and OS X 10.5.5.

Going into the AirPort Utility to look at the device tells me that it has an IP of 10.0.0.1. (I read somewhere that that means that it can't acquire an IP.. Is this true?)
 
unplug the modem,
let it sit a few seconds
plug the ethernet cable from the modem to the extreme
power up the modem.

modems don't like to have the device connected to them changed while they are on
 
Same problem with Airport Extreme and Time Warner cable

Hello

I've had the exact same problem as winninganthem getting my Airport Extreme to work with my Time Warner cable modem. The Airport Extreme worked fine with my Comcast cable modem back in Boston, but isn't working here in San Diego with Time Warner. Directly connecting to the cable modem with Ethernet works fine, and I've tried copying down the Network settings and re-inputting them with the Airport Utility for the Airport Extreme settings. And while this will cause the light on my Airport Extreme to turn green, I don't have a connection to the Internet.

I tried the suggestion from waw74, as well as many other combinations of turning things on and off, but no luck.

Any advice would be appreciated.

thanks!
 
I eventually got my setup to work the day after I originally posted the topic. :) Hope I can help others get some insight to setting up their networks.

Turns out that my issue was pretty elementary like waw74 said; I just needed to turn off my modem.

I disconnected the power from the modem and let it rest for about 3 minutes. After that, I connected the power back to the modem and let it configure itself, which takes about a minute or so.

After that, I connected the Airport Extreme to the modem and brought my MBP near so that it could detect the device. It took a couple tries to detect the device, but after it was detected, I configured the Airport Extreme to operate at 5 GHz so that cordless phones and whatnot didn't interfere with my network.

But yeah, after this wait, my MBP was able to detect the Airport Extreme and connect wirelessly to my network.

A couple of side notes:

As I learned, wireless interference from other sources definitely can mess up your internet.

2.4GHz has far greater range than 5GHz, but bandwidth is lower, and 2.4GHz happens to be an incredibly popular frequency for devices, which can screw with your connection and make your signal fluctuate. The Airport Extreme's range under 5GHz is not that great, so to extend it, you might want to buy an Airport Express to extend the signal of your network, but that's another story :p.

I used to think that my MBP's wireless sucked, but it turned out that it was just bad wireless interference from other devices in my house. I did a little cleaning and now I no longer have network dropouts anymore.

If you mess up at any point and find that you can't detect the base station no matter what, hard resetting using a paper clip is needed to clear bad settings.

Good luck, and if you need any more help, post back. :)
 
So you have both cable modem and AirPort Extreme DHCP enabled? For me, I disable DHCP on my DSL router and let AirPort Extreme base station handles it.
 
I tell the Airport Extreme that it will receive a DHCP connection from my cable modem.
 
I'm having the same problem. So you configure IPv4 manually entering the IP address, subnet mask, router and DNS server info you obtained from connected via built-in Ethernet? When I renewed DHCP lease under TCP/IP tab in Network, it shows completely different IPv4 address, subnet mask, and router. I'm not getting Internet and Server to light green. I've reset the modem as above.
 
Never mind. Got it fixed. I configured using DHCP but did the following: Power off modem, AEBS and computer for 30 minutes, power on modem and waited 15 minutes, power on AEBS and waited 5 minutes, then power on computer. But that's not all, I had to leave it alone for a couple of hours for Internet to start working. Slow learner, I guess.
 
waw74 said:
unplug the modem,
let it sit a few seconds
plug the ethernet cable from the modem to the extreme
power up the modem.

modems don't like to have the device connected to them changed while they are on
Click to expand...

well that was easy :eek: after three years of trying off and on to use my Airport Express as a base router, it finally works. I even brought it to the Genius Bar, where of course it worked like a charm. Turning off the modem was the key. Thanks waw74.
 
Time Warner Airport Express Solution

The following solution worked for me when I switched from DSL to Time Warner for my internet connection. At first I could not connect to the internet through my Airport Extreme (AE). When the tech left, I had the Ethernet cable from the modem directly connected into my MacBook Pro (MBP) and the internet worked fine. I then moved the cable to the AE and got nothing. What was worse, when I then moved the cable back to the MBP, there was nothing there either.

I called tech support and learned that Time Warner uses a “dumb” modem, that is, it cannot handle changes in what it is connected to. (I have cable internet service on Long Island with Cablevision, and their modems seem able to handle changes.) The solution, the tech told me, was to reset the modem by disconnecting the power (I waited 60 seconds). When I did that, the internet reappeared when the Ethernet cable was directly plugged into the MBP.

My set up previous to changing to Time Warner was as follows: my MBP communicated with the AE wirelessly, and two PC’s connected by Ethernet cable. In addition I had my printer connected to AE and printed from all three computers via Bonjour.

The instructions that come with AE say to have everything plugged in when you start it, so with everything plugged in to its proper place, I reset the AE by sticking a paper clip in the reset hole for several seconds until the light started flashing. Then I reset the modem by disconnecting it for 60 seconds then reconnecting it. Then I reset the AE by unplugging it for 60 seconds and then reconnecting it. Then I opened up Airport Utility and clicked on “Continue” (not “Manual Setup”) and the utility configured everything perfectly with only a few inputs from me (for example, yes, I did want to set up a network, and it asked me to create passwords). Then everything worked just as before.

Note: When I had attached the Ethernet cable directly to the MBP, it only worked if I shut Airport off because the MBP will only try to connect via a wireless connection if AE is on. So if you have been fussing around, shutting things off and on trying to make this work, make sure Airport is turned on.

Second note: If you have PCs using your printers via Bonjour, you may have changed the name of your network and they won’t work. Just run Bonjour again and it will find the printer and the new network.
 
Wired connection from Extreme, but no wireless

I think I've tried everything suggested and I'm still stuck. My set up goes from my cable modem in to the Extreme. From there, I have a wired connection to an imac which is working without any problems. The light is green on the airport, however there is no wireless connection. There have been intermittent moments when my iphone or macbook did find the wireless connection, but was still unable to connect to any sites or retrieve email. Now, nothing is finding the wireless connection at all.

Thanks!
 
I'm having a similar problem. My airport express is blinking amber and refuses to connect to the internet. Connecting directly from the wall to my computer (I'm in a dorm) works fine. Yesterday (and all last year) it worked fine, so I have no idea why it has suddenly decided not to work. In network diagnostics I get green lights all the way up to "Internet," where it's amber. I've tried the hard reset and a factory reset, and Im going to try unplugging it and leave it alone for a few hours...
 
TCP/IP configuration

I got exactly the same problem as winninganthem. I'm in Switzerland with a Cablecom's box.

As winninganthem, "I go back into the AirPort Utility and this time opt for a manual set up. I put in IP Address, Subnet Mask, Router, and DNS information into where it tells me to and let the wizard do its thing". Everything was green but internet was not working. I went crazy. I tried to unplug and replug as stated above, wait, cool down, but it was useless.

What finally worked: after entering manually the IP address and so forth, you have to turn back the IPv4 configuration to "via DHCP" and not leave it to "manually". It immediately worked for me and internet is now working fine.

I hope this might help some other people...
 
I had the same problem. Internet connection would drop from Time Capsule but computer could still see and use Time Capsule to backup. Amber blinking light on TC. I would have to reset the modem a half dozen times a day and rescan from airport utility.

I went in to airport utility > setup assistant where I changed the "location" setting. (just let it do the default location it selects).

I have had the green light ever since. :)
 
Beware of other wireless devices (security cams)

I could also view my networks but could not connect. I tried 3 different Netgear routers, a Linksys and finally bought the Airport Extreme with the same results.
During dinner it occurred to me that there could be some interference going on. I tried everything, tech support with Comcast who blamed it on Netgear who blamed it on Comcast blah, blah blah. It turns out as an experiment, I unplugged 3 VHF wireless security cameras then tried to log on. BOOM I was connected! I logged off, plugged the cams back in and then could not log back in to my networks. So, I unplugged them, logged in and it worked like a charm again. I now have wired security cameras and would not recommend using a VHF wireless camera system, especially around 2.4 GHZ near your router. It's funny now, Comcast, Netgear and Linksys tech support had us plugging and unplugging, jumping through hoops and getting very frustrated. However, none of them mentioned anything about this.
 
thank you!

I followed what winninganthem had done, and went into Network Preferences and disabled the External Modem, deleting the set configuration there. and suddenly, Airport via Time Machine was all hunky dory!

After a month of trying to figure out whats up, this was a welcome relief. Thank you so much!!!
 
thank you to everyone. I just got my first Airport in the house (my now ex roommate took the old one with him) heck of a time getting it set up. Time Warner was a total waste.

You guys saved the day.
 
A friend of mine had similar difficulty setting up his Airport Express. He found this video solved his problems.
 
check DNS Servers

Experienced similar issue after Time Warner (sucks) internet crash and need to do hard reset on APE. The fix was to make sure your DNS Servers (both) are sequential. Do this by opening APU, Manual Setup, click Network, TCP/IP and configuring DNS Servers manually and updating.
To find the correct DNS Servers you have to connect to internet directly with a cable and search the Network SysPrefs.

Hope this helps future issues. We spent *all day* trying to resolve this before calling Mac Support.
 
Works4Me said:
Thanks for posting this info...
Click to expand...

Consider yourself lucky.

I made the royal F-up of finally upgrading to Lion and my network is now a giant pile of flaming dog turds. My wifi router (an Airport no less) is totally non responsive and whatever Lion did wasn't fixed by reverting back to Snow Leopard. I've tried erasing every system preference that even slightly had anything to do with wifi, I've restored my airport to factory defaults to set it up again. I've tried setting it up manually, renewing the lease. I did it with the cable modem unplugged, plugged in (it's from time warner). I've rebooted both the router and the modem about 200 times through all of this, rebooted my computer at least a dozen times. Time Warner is no help since I can get online with the modem connected to my computer so it's not their problem. Even when I pointed out that the modem is ancient and I'm overdue for a new one they wouldn't agree to send it to me because according to them that won't affect the problem. And Apple Care will only help me if I pay them like $100 for them to call me since I already used my one free call several months ago when I bought the computer (or hey you could buy Apple Care which would be a 'mere' $169 that I won't have until pay day next week)

I tried paying a visit to the local Apple Store to see if they had any tips but they just told me to restore the router in Airport utility and that should fix everything (even though I told them that I had already tried that with hard resets and purging all the system prefs like 4 times).
 
Last edited:
mac mini wont't connect to the internet

My mac mini won't pick up the internet from my airport express. My ipod and my tablet pick it up fine. After calling my computer guru and having him check my settings, he recommends buying a new airport express which has ethernet out and can be connected directly into the mini mac. Any other suggestions?
 
MikeFter said:
My mac mini won't pick up the internet from my airport express. My ipod and my tablet pick it up fine. After calling my computer guru and having him check my settings, he recommends buying a new airport express which has ethernet out and can be connected directly into the mini mac. Any other suggestions?
Click to expand...

Check the DNS address in network settings in your mac. It should be either your router IP address or your ISP DNS primary and secondary addresses (depending on your setup). If you have the wrong DNS your Mac can be looking for Internet pages through the wrong path.
 
opinio said:
Check the DNS address in network settings in your mac. It should be either your router IP address or your ISP DNS primary and secondary addresses (depending on your setup).
Click to expand...
It could also be Google's famous - 8.8.8.8 - if DNS is the problem.
 
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