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Network disappears

Howard Brazee

Howard Brazee

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Oct 24, 2006
517
7
Lafayette CO
I live in a senior community that has its own Wi-Fi. But I pay for a faster Wi-Fi from the cable company which is connected through a NetGear wireless router about 5' and a wall behind me. My wife's computer is in the same room as the router.

Quite often, when the computer wants to do something connected, I get a pop-up menu which people who connect to the community Wi-Fi get every couple of months. So I click on the Wi-Fi icon at the top of my Mac, and see the visible networks, with my home network missing. I wait 10 seconds or so, and my home network shows up, and I connect to it.

Comparing my wife's network preferences with mine, I see my family network listed first - and then on my computer lots of other networks - apparently those that I have connected my phone or my pad to away from home. My wife doesn't do that with her phone. (We share the same iCloud account).

I do have an unused and unconnected Airport Express, but suspect that won't help.
 
Hi,

I would first try changing the wifi channel of the Netgear and see if that helps.

Depending on the computer/router/wall's material, some channels work better than other.

If this does not solve the problem, yes the Express might help.
(will explain later why)
 
Howard Brazee said:
I live in a senior community that has its own Wi-Fi. But I pay for a faster Wi-Fi from the cable company which is connected through a NetGear wireless router about 5' and a wall behind me. My wife's computer is in the same room as the router.

Quite often, when the computer wants to do something connected, I get a pop-up menu which people who connect to the community Wi-Fi get every couple of months. So I click on the Wi-Fi icon at the top of my Mac, and see the visible networks, with my home network missing. I wait 10 seconds or so, and my home network shows up, and I connect to it.

Comparing my wife's network preferences with mine, I see my family network listed first - and then on my computer lots of other networks - apparently those that I have connected my phone or my pad to away from home. My wife doesn't do that with her phone. (We share the same iCloud account).

I do have an unused and unconnected Airport Express, but suspect that won't help.
Click to expand...

The reason that your phone and Mac share Wi-Fi details with each other is because iCloud Keychain is enabled. Your wife must not have that enabled and that is fine. You could ultimately replace the Netgear with the Express as a test measure.
 
I suggest replacing the Netgear router with the Airport Express (assuming its this one and not the old plug style https://www.apple.com/airport-express/).
Can you log in to the net gear router and check if you need any login credentials for you network provider (cable).
Plug in your airport express and set it up - you will have much better compatibility with your Apple equipment.

Then - on your MAC - go into System Preferences - Network - WI-FI - Advanced int he WIFI tab reorder the Networks so that your Network is at the top. Then delete any unneeded Networks -- hit ok -- then Apply.
 
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I reset my Airport Express with a paperclip using instructions I found on the Web. Then I plugged it in and ran Airport Utility (from my computer, I probably should have tried my wife's which is in the same room, if farther away than mine is). Airport Utility could not find it. So I plugged my Netgear back in.
 
Bruno09 said:
Do you have connected the Express to the router via Ethernet ?
Click to expand...

Yes. I unplugged my other wireless router, and then took the cord that was connected between it and my Comcast modem and connected it to my Airport Express. I plugged the Airport Express into the power outlet replacing my Netgear router. The light on the Airport Express turned yellow, although when I went to set everything back, I noticed it was green.

When I plugged it in with the paperclip in it, I kept the paper clip in until the yellow light flashed.
 
I meant connect the Express (AE) to your Netgear router via Ethernet for the setup. This is not necessary but may help.

However, if you reseted the AE successfully, and if it has a green light when connected to your modem via Ethernet, it should work.

First thing to do is to check that your wife's computer can access the Internet via the AE.
 
I only futz with the Internet connections when my wife is at meetings, when I know I have time to get her computer connected by the time she wants to use her computer.

But I just decided to see what happens when I plug my Air Port Express into my Mac. Interesting, Air Port Utility still didn't see it, and even though my Mac thinks I'm connected to my Brazee network, the pop-up screen came up asking me to sign on to the building's Wi-Fi.
 
Howard Brazee said:
I only futz with the Internet connections when my wife is at meetings, when I know I have time to get her computer connected by the time she wants to use her computer.



But I just decided to see what happens when I plug my Air Port Express into my Mac. Interesting, Air Port Utility still didn't see it, and even though my Mac thinks I'm connected to my Brazee network, the pop-up screen came up asking me to sign on to the building's Wi-Fi.
Click to expand...


What model Express is this? It is possible that you have the old one that AirPort Utility doesn't support!
 
Bruno09 said:
Also when you reset the AE, wait for the light to blink quickly (it takes a few seconds).
Click to expand...

I think I had that before. Let me do it again... OK, got the fast yellow blink.

Then I plugged in the ethernet cable connected to my Mac, and got a slow yellow, but AirPort Utility did not find any configured AirPort base stations. Is the AE a base station?

----------
Altemose said:
If you try to reset again and then click in the menu bar for "Wi-Fi" you should see the AirPort Express appear. What OS are you on with your Mac?
Click to expand...

My wife is on her computer, so I won't try replacing the Netgear until tomorrow morning. Should I connect it via ethernet to my Mac and check that?

10.9.4
 
Howard Brazee said:
I think I had that before. Let me do it again... OK, got the fast yellow blink.

Then I plugged in the ethernet cable connected to my Mac, and got a slow yellow, but AirPort Utility did not find any configured AirPort base stations. Is the AE a base station?

----------



My wife is on her computer, so I won't try replacing the Netgear until tomorrow morning. Should I connect it via ethernet to my Mac and check that?

10.9.4
Click to expand...

If I recall correctly, you should be configuring the AirPort over Wi-Fi. You want the AirPort to be setup in the same way it will run.
 
You can configure the AE wirelessly, however I suggest you connect the AE to your Netgear router via Ethernet.

This will make the AE easier to discover by Airport Utility.

Of course your Mac must be connected to the Netgear's network.
 
This morning, I replaced my Netgear with my Airport Express again. The light momentarily turned yellow, then switched to green. Neither of our Macs' AirPort utilities found it, and neither connected to the network. I switched back, and discovered momentarily, my Mac could not connect because another device on the network was using my computer's IP address.

Then I found a spare Ethernet cable and connected the AirPort Express to the out port of the Netgear router. The light in the AE is yellow, and my Airport Utility sees it. But it's fields appear to be populated. It has my old Base station name (and apparently a password), "Join a wireless network", & apparently knows the setup to the Netscape.

My Mac doesn't appear to see a separate network for it. I'll leave the AE plugged in for now, but I don't see that it is doing anything.



----------

Ahh, when I tried closing the AirPort utility, it can't save changes - the device isn't found. Checking, I see the light on the AE is green. I closed the utility without clicking on forget, and reopened it. The utility now wants me to enter my AE's password, which I no longer have. More evidence that it wasn't reset properly.

Checking my keychain, I found the password, and opened AP utility. I selected which network I wanted it to use (my network), and it updated. I don't see looking for networks, even when I typed it into Network name in "Find and join a Wi-Fi network" The [join] button is greyed out. I think I have the correct WPA Personal password.
 
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When an AE is set to "join a wireless network", its Ethernet port is disabled.

And yes it wasn't reset properly, otherwise it would be set to "create a wireless network" and you would be able to see its network and connect your Mac to it.
 
Apparently, I only *thought* it wasn't reset correctly. I needed to tell my Mac to forget what it thought about it.

Then I decided to try it without disrupting the NetGear, and use it as I did at my old place - as an extender. It was plugged into the output cable of my Netgear, and my Mac saw it, and it appeared to be working - until I rebooted my Mac.

I decided to replace my NetGear with the Airport Express, and looked for it with my wife's Mac, which did not find it using its AirPort Utility. I put back the NetGear, and neither computer is finding it now. I suppose I need to reset it again, and try everything again. I only have one morning available before I go on vacation, but this isn't an urgent problem.
 
Bruno09 said:
When an AE is set to "join a wireless network", its Ethernet port is disabled.
Click to expand...

That's not correct. I have an n-first gen Express connected to the network as a client, i.e. "Join a wireless network", but I'm also using its Ethernet port to connect an additional network peripheral.
 
That is correct for the first gen. non-n Airport Express.

"Note: You cannot do this if your AirPort Express (802.11g) is in client mode as the Ethernet port will be disabled."
 
Bruno09 said:
That is correct for the first gen. non-n Airport Express.

"Note: You cannot do this if your AirPort Express (802.11g) is in client mode as the Ethernet port will be disabled."
Click to expand...

Yes but he already said the model number of his AE is A1264. That's the 802.11n version, which does enable the Ethernet port in client mode.
 
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