My Airport Intranet is working ok, but I cannot connect Airport to Westell 7500. The Westell seems to be working ok with Ethernet cable to internet. All of this system had been working ok for a couple of years until a few days ago. I am running the latest MacOS on my MacBook Pro, and the latest iOS on all my iPads, iTVs, and iPhones.
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Need help connecting AirportExtreme to Westell 7500
- Thread starter smcelyea
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Before you do anything else, power down everything (including the Westell), and let it all come back online.
The Westell 7500 appears to be a "residential gateway".
That is to say, it's both a combined modem/router in one unit.
I don't have one, but I also have a residential gateway type unit with Frontier. It doesn't have fast wifi, and I wanted to use it with an (older) Airport Extreme.
The setup I chose was fast and easy.
I setup the Airport Extreme in "bridge mode", and left the residential gateway in charge of routing functions such as NAT.
Once the AE was up-and-running with wifi, I turned off the wifi on the residential gateway.
It's run fine like this for years now, nary a hiccup.
Might be worth a try in your case.
The Westell 7500 appears to be a "residential gateway".
That is to say, it's both a combined modem/router in one unit.
I don't have one, but I also have a residential gateway type unit with Frontier. It doesn't have fast wifi, and I wanted to use it with an (older) Airport Extreme.
The setup I chose was fast and easy.
I setup the Airport Extreme in "bridge mode", and left the residential gateway in charge of routing functions such as NAT.
Once the AE was up-and-running with wifi, I turned off the wifi on the residential gateway.
It's run fine like this for years now, nary a hiccup.
Might be worth a try in your case.
Brian, that IS the way I have been running it for a couple of years so I could use the 5GHz. Now it seems that the AE does not have a data flow with the Westell via Ethernet. I can't figure out what could have changed between them. The AE works ok in house, the Westell works ok with the Net, but they quit talking to each other. The only thing I have changed is I did a firmware update on the AE. I updated my Mac to the latest MacOS. I guess the firmware update could have been where it started getting weird even though it still was working. It did the firmware update because the system had been dropping the connection between the AE and the Westell a lot for about a year. I would restart the AE and it would be ok for a day or so, then I'd have to restart again. I thought the firmware update might help, but obliviously it didn't. I am about ready to scrap the whole system. CenturyLink is absolutely NO help, but they are very dependable at getting my monthly bill to me. (Sorry that was frustration speaking)
Try putting your airport into bridge mode to trouble shoot. In a lot of situations running a router behind a ISP router will cause issues. Ideally you need to have one setup as a router, and the other as a bridge. When both are setup for DHCP (assigning ips) you will often run into issues.
It is time for a new modem.from Verizon as well. That thing is ancient, and doesn't fully support any of the modern mpls, or Dsl 2+ standards.
Google "airport extreme bridge mode" and westell 7500 "bridge mode".
I had that modem years ago and I believe the user name and password is
Admin
Password
It is time for a new modem.from Verizon as well. That thing is ancient, and doesn't fully support any of the modern mpls, or Dsl 2+ standards.
Google "airport extreme bridge mode" and westell 7500 "bridge mode".
I had that modem years ago and I believe the user name and password is
Admin
Password
I agree you should research this. In the case of Comcast Business, I've been told by support that their modem/router must be put in bridge mode by someone on their end and that the customer just flipping the switch in the web configuration doesn't suffice...and I have found this to be the case. However, I've talked to at least one support person who didn't seem to understand this. The point is: Gotta do the research.
OP wrote:
"that IS the way I have been running it for a couple of years so I could use the 5GHz. Now it seems that the AE does not have a data flow with the Westell via Ethernet. I can't figure out what could have changed between them. The AE works ok in house, the Westell works ok with the Net, but they quit talking to each other. The only thing I have changed is I did a firmware update on the AE."
Have you tried changing out the ethernet cable between the Westell and the AE?
Did you try a complete "power down, then reboot" -- Westell, AE, everything?
"that IS the way I have been running it for a couple of years so I could use the 5GHz. Now it seems that the AE does not have a data flow with the Westell via Ethernet. I can't figure out what could have changed between them. The AE works ok in house, the Westell works ok with the Net, but they quit talking to each other. The only thing I have changed is I did a firmware update on the AE."
Have you tried changing out the ethernet cable between the Westell and the AE?
Did you try a complete "power down, then reboot" -- Westell, AE, everything?
In all honesty the problem must have been with CenturyLink. I woke up this morning, having given up with messing with it (knowing all was correct on my end) and it not working when I went to bed. Then this morning it was working. It really aggrevates me when CenturyLink will not take ownership in the problem being on their end. They ALWAYS DO THAT. VERY rarely is it my equipment. I check all of that out before I call them. Oh well. Thanks to all who offered way more help than I got from CenturyLink. Blessings to all. 
