AirPort Extreme totally stumped and so is Apple Tech Support...

[HXGuyAZ]

Totally stumped here and so are the techs at Apple support...

Old Airport Extreme (about 2 years old)...iMac wouldn't see the Airport router connected via ethernet cable or over wifi. Vonage modem also stopped working. The Mac Pro though still worked over ethernet cable but not over wifi. I bypassed the Airport and plugged the iMac directly into the cable modem and it worked, as did the Vonage modem when I tried that.

So you figure it's a bad Airport, right?

Go out and buy a new Airport Extreme, come home, hook it up and . Now the iMac and Mac Pro both work over wifi, but neither works over ethernet cable...it says "Cable it connected but cannot get an IP address". Spent an hour on the phone with Apple tech support and they have no idea.

Going to exchange the new one for another new one. But seriously, how can two routers be bad with very similar symptoms but not exactly the same?
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[fhall1]

Tried different Ethernet cables? Different LAN ports on the AE? Is your DNS set up properly? Tried unplugging power from both the cable modem and the AE, then plug in the cable modem let it reach steady state, then plug power into the AE, let it get a green light, then try your Macs again (wired)?

 

[Altemose]

Totally stumped here and so are the techs at Apple support...

Old Airport Extreme (about 2 years old)...iMac wouldn't see the Airport router connected via ethernet cable or over wifi. Vonage modem also stopped working. The Mac Pro though still worked over ethernet cable but not over wifi. I bypassed the Airport and plugged the iMac directly into the cable modem and it worked, as did the Vonage modem when I tried that.

So you figure it's a bad Airport, right?

Go out and buy a new Airport Extreme, come home, hook it up and . Now the iMac and Mac Pro both work over wifi, but neither works over ethernet cable...it says "Cable it connected but cannot get an IP address". Spent an hour on the phone with Apple tech support and they have no idea.

Going to exchange the new one for another new one. But seriously, how can two routers be bad with very similar symptoms but not exactly the same?
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The chances of two bad routers is very slim but very possible as well. Did you try rebooting the older Extreme or factory resetting it? I would try a fresh set of cables to rule that out as well.

 

[HXGuyAZ]

I guess it was the Airport router (both of them?!) but I exchanged it at Best Buy and the new one seems to be working. Still was kind of odd to setup...in my past experience it would just work as soon as you plugged it in but now it seemed like they slowly came back online. The Apple TV wouldn't connect, kept resetting it, still nothing...finally it got an IP. Same with the Vonage modem and the pool equip stuff but other things like the DirecTV box and Sling worked right away. Really weird.

Old router fit a lot better than this new tower design they did, whats up with that? Door still closes since it's beveled so not a big deal I guess.

 

[Altemose]

I guess it was the Airport router (both of them?!) but I exchanged it at Best Buy and the new one seems to be working. Still was kind of odd to setup...in my past experience it would just work as soon as you plugged it in but now it seemed like they slowly came back online. The Apple TV wouldn't connect, kept resetting it, still nothing...finally it got an IP. Same with the Vonage modem and the pool equip stuff but other things like the DirecTV box and Sling worked right away. Really weird.



Old router fit a lot better than this new tower design they did, whats up with that? Door still closes since it's beveled so not a big deal I guess.



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Is the AirPort in DHCP and NAT mode? IP address requests are done nearly instantly here and at school. I like your networking cabinet!

 

[HXGuyAZ]

Seriously WTF...I just tried putting the old Airport Extreme back just to see if it would work since the new one for some reason didn't work right off the bat, it worked after resetting a few times. Guess what...the old one works just fine again.

 

[Altemose]

Seriously WTF...I just tried putting the old Airport Extreme back just to see if it would work since the new one for some reason didn't work right off the bat, it worked after resetting a few times. Guess what...the old one works just fine again.

I am thinking there is something else going on outside of the AirPort...

 

[HXGuyAZ]

I am thinking there is something else going on outside of the AirPort...

Guess it had to be but what the heck could it be? Very weird.

 

[Altemose]

Guess it had to be but what the heck could it be? Very weird.

Any sources of outside interference?

 

[HXGuyAZ]

Any sources of outside interference?

Not that I can think of, especially that would just appear for seemingly 24 hours and now is gone. Weirdest thing was that direct connection over ethernet from the cable model to either computer worked fine all along, but plug the Airport Extreme in between and it no longer worked with the old AirPort Extreme. The new one then worked over wifi only but not over ethernet...then the new new one worked like normal but took a while until it assigned IP addressed...and now the old one works again as if nothing every happened.

 

[Altemose]

Not that I can think of, especially that would just appear for seemingly 24 hours and now is gone. Weirdest thing was that direct connection over ethernet from the cable model to either computer worked fine all along, but plug the Airport Extreme in between and it no longer worked with the old AirPort Extreme. The new one then worked over wifi only but not over ethernet...then the new new one worked like normal but took a while until it assigned IP addressed...and now the old one works again as if nothing every happened.

Try resetting the old Extreme and downgrading the firmware to 7.6.1. In my experience at my school when working on the network, the 7.6.1 firmware is by far the most stable and robust.

 

[HXGuyAZ]

Try resetting the old Extreme and downgrading the firmware to 7.6.1. In my experience at my school when working on the network, the 7.6.1 firmware is by far the most stable and robust.

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind if it acts up again...don't want to mess with it right now since it seems to be working.

 

[Altemose]

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind if it acts up again...don't want to mess with it right now since it seems to be working.

Let me know if there are any more problems. You could be having a loopback causing the Ethernet ports to crash, but if this is a home network I would imagine you would know if that was happening.

 

[HXGuyAZ]

Let me know if there are any more problems. You could be having a loopback causing the Ethernet ports to crash, but if this is a home network I would imagine you would know if that was happening.

Whats a loopback?

 

[Altemose]

Whats a loopback?

Essentially if you have a loop of signal going back. For example, if you ran Ethernet into a drop in the wall and plugged a switch into it then someone plugged another ethernet cable from a wall port into that switch it will cause a signal loop and crash the switch or network.