Problems with an Apple Airport Extreme working with a Time Capsule

[cap2587]

I am having some problems at a clients house with a home network going down and am having trouble diagnosing it. Let me give you the layout and see if you can offer any suggestions.

There is a time capsule router connected to the Cablevision Modem. THere is an active ethernet port in the wall in the kitchen. I connected an ethernet cable from the wall jack to the WAN port of an Apple airport Extreme, and then from a LAN to the Imac computer. There is also an airport express that is joining the network. I have the Time capsule connecting via DHCP, and have the airport extreme on bridge setting. I have the SSID, password, encryption all the same, but channel different. The problem is the Imac is getting kicked off the network and it shows the strange WiFi signal with a straight line through it. At this point connection gets lost. Time Capsule still shows green light, but Extreme shows amber light. I did not open up Airport utility to see what it was saying. I am guessing it is either an incorrect set up or a faulty Apple Airport Extreme. I have now unplugged the extreme and am just using the Time capsule to see if that holds up for a few days. Any ideas would be appreciated.

 

[jenzjen]

So the Extreme is extending the TC network via a wired connection?

When exactly does the iMac get kicked off? Can you surf at all on the iMac and it gets kicked off when you trying to surf via another device connected wirelessly?

 

[cap2587]

The Extreme is connected via ethernet to the wall jack which feeds back to the Time capsule. Looks like the Imac gets disconnected off the network and will no longer connect to the internet. I am not sure if wireless clients can connect to this kitchen Airport Extreme when the problems start. I initially thought that this problem just occurred when there was a power outage, but it seems more frequent than that. When I set up this network everything seemed fine, green lights on all routers, but somewhere the Apple Airport Extreme or set up of this device is not working. Do you think hardware or set up problem. Thanks for the quick reply.

 

[jenzjen]

I assume you're not able to do troubleshooting? I would restart the iMac and check they network pane to see if the machine is pulling a working IP address.

Time Warner restricts the router to only give out one IP address if you use their router or pay more to enable more IPs. This is solved by using my extreme as the router but req a customer call to adjust some settings on their router so unsure if cable vision is similar.

If the iMac can surf, see what makes it go offline. I would turn off wireless for now to isolate the wired issue.

 

[cap2587]

I should have troubleshooted more this past time going to the clients house before taking the Airport Extreme out of the equation. I have a few questions for you:

1. How long a period after an Apple Airport router is set up before you know if it is working properly (3,4 days,1 week).

2. When an Apple Extreme/Time capsule router is going south and it's hardware is failing does it just completely stop working or work intermittently. If you used that same failing device on another network to see if it is still not working.

3. Was my set up right when adding the AE router into the set up. Both on Create a network, same SSID, password, diff ch, and AE in bridge mode.

4. Could the ethernet jack in the wall be dropping out signal or the cable bridging the AE and TC be faulty?

Appreciate the advice.

 

[jenzjen]

See BOLD

I should have troubleshooted more this past time going to the clients house before taking the Airport Extreme out of the equation. I have a few questions for you:

1. How long a period after an Apple Airport router is set up before you know if it is working properly (3,4 days,1 week).
FEW MINUTES MAX

2. When an Apple Extreme/Time capsule router is going south and it's hardware is failing does it just completely stop working or work intermittently. If you used that same failing device on another network to see if it is still not working.
HAVE SEEN BOTH DEPENDS ON ISSUE

3. Was my set up right when adding the AE router into the set up. Both on Create a network, same SSID, password, diff ch, and AE in bridge mode.
DEPENDS ON THE HOUSE/ROOM. THE NEW TOWER DESIGNS ARE MUCH MUCH BETTER SO MUCH SO THAT MY WIRED PRE TOWER EXTREME WAS ACTUALLY CAUSING SLOWER SPEEDS IN MY FAR CORNERS, TOO MANY ROUTERS FOR THE SPACE. YOUR SIT COULD BE SIMILAR. IF THE SPACE IS TIGHT, MAYBE LEAVE WIFI ON ONLY AT THE DEVICE WHERE YOU WILL NEED WIFI. BUT YES, THE EXT SHOULD BE SET TO EXTEND THE NETWORK VIA WIRED SINCE YOU HAVE A ETH JACK THERE.

4. Could the ethernet jack in the wall be dropping out signal or the cable bridging the AE and TC be faulty?
ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE THATS WHY I SAID TURN OFF ALL WIRELESS TO SEE IF YOU CAN SEE WHEN/WHY IMAC GETS KNOCKED OFF

Appreciate the advice.

 

[cap2587]

When this network was set up there was all green lights on Apple routers. I believe it took a few days for the trouble to start. There could be a problem with the Ethernet cable that is running from the Time Capsule to the wall jack in the kitchen an then to the AE. If this signal drops out than that in turn would lose the signal coming into the AE and then mess up the Imac hard line connection. Can we see if this is occurring without the AE connected. If we turn the WiFi off on the Imac and that is hard lined. Then if there is a problem with this hard line connection it should show up and bounce the Imac off the network. Before the WiFi was always on and the signal from the TC would take over if there was a problem with the hard line connection, but it still would create a problem with dropping internet connection off the Imac. Does this make sense and is this a good troubleshooting test. Thanks for the Help.

 

[jenzjen]

Yes I'd go more basic get 2 more/new ETH cords and remove the Exteme altogether. Just run from TC to wall jack to iMac. Issue is you said it took a few days so can your clients be without wireless for a few days? If not, you'll need to be more cp brute force about it.

 

[Altemose]

When this network was set up there was all green lights on Apple routers. I believe it took a few days for the trouble to start. There could be a problem with the Ethernet cable that is running from the Time Capsule to the wall jack in the kitchen an then to the AE. If this signal drops out than that in turn would lose the signal coming into the AE and then mess up the Imac hard line connection. Can we see if this is occurring without the AE connected. If we turn the WiFi off on the Imac and that is hard lined. Then if there is a problem with this hard line connection it should show up and bounce the Imac off the network. Before the WiFi was always on and the signal from the TC would take over if there was a problem with the hard line connection, but it still would create a problem with dropping internet connection off the Imac. Does this make sense and is this a good troubleshooting test. Thanks for the Help.

Some things I have found in my experience. The Time Capsule is functioning as the head of the network. You should never put a bridge behind a bridge. In this format the Time Capsule must be set to "DHCP and NAT" and the Extreme must be in "Bridge Mode". That was causing my Extreme to drop when in bridge mode. Now if the modem also handles routing, assign it a static address. You may want to change the lease time on the MODEM to a longer time period. Also ensure that all AirPorts are running 7.6.4. If they still have issues after testing this, try rolling back to 7.6.1.