Connection issues w/ Airport Extreme/modem

[rbf1138]

I recently bought the newest Airport Extreme to replace an older one. I have Comcast Internet with a modem from about a year ago. The last few months I’ve experienced issues with the router and/or the modem, primarily my ability to maintain an internet connect. I’d say things work great about 80% of the time, but the other 20% I’ll have internet intermittently every few minutes and then it’ll cut out. I’m up to date on my Airport Extreme firmware. I’m not using any security aside from network access being restricted to MAC addresses for my devices that I enter manually.

Basically, at random times I’ll be connected to my router but will then not have internet access. Sometimes I get the yield sign on the Extreme in Airport utility, other times the Extreme will be green but the Internet connection will be orange. I’ll restart the Extreme and/or the modem, and things will work for a minute and then I’ll again lose the internet connection. Eventually things will go back to normal and work fine for hours or days, until the problem occurs randomly again at some other time.

This had been happening on my 5 year old Extreme, and so I thought buying a brand new, current Extreme would solve the issue. It seems it hasn’t. I’m starting to think it must be the modem. Does this issue sound similar to anything anyone else has experienced? I would rule out the Extreme entirely, except sometimes I get that yield symbol on the Extreme and it makes me think that it’s a network issue and not a modem/Internet connection issue.

This issue affects my 2012 Air, my PC, my iPhone, my girlfriend’s PC…so it’s not a device issue.

 

[satcomer]

Yes it could be the modem. Plus check all the Ethernet cables going from the modem to the router.

 

[rbf1138]

At the moment things are working great on the PC but the air has "limited connectivity" where it's on my network but has no internet. Ugh, anymore ideas?

 

[satcomer]

On the Air go to System Preferences->Network pane and at the top of the pane is 'Location' Use that drop-down to add a new Custom named Location (like Home,Work, School, Roaming, etc.) and make sure you save all the way out in the pop-down page and the main Network pane. Then rejoin your wireless network.

Plus on the Air download the free beta application iStumbler beta and see if your wireless router is using the same channel as others around you. This way you can change your wireless router channel to be different to minimize cross interference.

 

[rbf1138]

Ok, I added a "Home" location. Using iStumblr it doesn't look like anyone else was on the same channel (1) but I changed mine to be 4, anyway. I also enabled the 5ghz band as an additional network to choose...would that make any difference? It appears all of the other nearby networks are on the common 2.4gh band, so maybe that's part of the issue?

 

[drsox]

I recently bought the newest Airport Extreme to replace an older one. I have Comcast Internet with a modem from about a year ago. The last few months I’ve experienced issues with the router and/or the modem, primarily my ability to maintain an internet connect. I’d say things work great about 80% of the time, but the other 20% I’ll have internet intermittently every few minutes and then it’ll cut out. I’m up to date on my Airport Extreme firmware. I’m not using any security aside from network access being restricted to MAC addresses for my devices that I enter manually.

Basically, at random times I’ll be connected to my router but will then not have internet access. Sometimes I get the yield sign on the Extreme in Airport utility, other times the Extreme will be green but the Internet connection will be orange. I’ll restart the Extreme and/or the modem, and things will work for a minute and then I’ll again lose the internet connection. Eventually things will go back to normal and work fine for hours or days, until the problem occurs randomly again at some other time.

This had been happening on my 5 year old Extreme, and so I thought buying a brand new, current Extreme would solve the issue. It seems it hasn’t. I’m starting to think it must be the modem. Does this issue sound similar to anything anyone else has experienced? I would rule out the Extreme entirely, except sometimes I get that yield symbol on the Extreme and it makes me think that it’s a network issue and not a modem/Internet connection issue.

This issue affects my 2012 Air, my PC, my iPhone, my girlfriend’s PC…so it’s not a device issue.

Have you checked whether it's a WiFi issue or a config issue ? Does the problem go away if you LAN connect the MBA and the PCs ?
Are you using the AE in Bridge mode ? Is there a LAN between the AE and the Router or are you trying to extend the Router's WiFi ?

 

[MaloCS]

I'm having the SAME EXACT issue with a Belkin router. Its my opinion that the issue is related to Comcast's service and not the hardware.

I've tried several routers from different manufacturers as well as two different modems from Comcast and the problem persists. I've have no choice but to believe that there is something sporadic with the signal coming from Comcast.