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Should I take my AEBS to Apple?

alexbates

alexbates

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Nov 24, 2008
1,082
0
Georgia, USA
Hi everyone,

I have been having lots of trouble with my Airport Extreme Base Station the past few months. Here are a few problems:

1) Every time the phone rings, the internet immediately shuts out. The green light on the AEBS flashes orange for a minute or so. Then it comes back up normally.
2) Also, at random times, the internet will just shut out for a minute or so (with the orange light flashing on the Airport.
3) Daily, the internet will just completely shut out with the light staying green on the AEBS. I have to reboot the AEBS and it will start working again. The internet will not work again at all until I restart the AEBS.
4) It gets hot, but I think thats normal. I saw another thread on that: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/480846/

Attempted solutions:
1) I have called AT&T (my service provider) and they got me to change both my modem and AEBS to PPPoe from DHCP. That did not seem to do anything at all.
2) I have replaced every Modem, DSL filter, Ethernet cable, and phone cable in my house. Still, no luck.

Any ideas? Should I take my Airport Extreme to Apple? Right now, thats what I'm thinking about doing because I haven't tried anything else.

Thanks Guys!
 
flopticalcube said:
Do you have cordless phones in the house? Maybe change the channel used for wireless access.
Click to expand...

Yes, I have all cordless phones. Where in Airport Utility do I change the channel? I don't see an option for that in Manuel setup....thanks for the reply :)

UPD: Wait, I found the setting. I have it set on Automatic. There are also the options 1-11. Which should I change it to?
 

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Errrm maybe I'm missing something, but what have cordless phones got to do with the Internet disconnecting?!

Have you tried different equipment? Or take it to a friends house and test there. This would rule out or confirm a hardware fault
 
Chris.L said:
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Errrm maybe I'm missing something, but what have cordless phones got to do with the Internet disconnecting?!
Click to expand...
A wireless modem operating at 2.4 GHz and a cordless phone (or child monitor, or microwave, or...) operating at that same frequency can interfere with each other (same at 5GHz, but less of an issue usually). If the phones are activated by an incoming call, they can overpower the wireless signal from the modem.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5H11 Safari/525.20)

jsw said:
Chris.L said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5H11 Safari/525.20)

Errrm maybe I'm missing something, but what have cordless phones got to do with the Internet disconnecting?!
Click to expand...
A wireless modem operating at 2.4 GHz and a cordless phone (or child monitor, or microwave, or...) operating at that same frequency can interfere with each other (same at 5GHz, but less of an issue usually). If the phones are activated by an incoming call, they can overpower the wireless signal from the modem.
Click to expand...

Yeah I know that. However with my understanding of the airport product it is normally a wired connection to the DSL router therefore providing a wireless capability. Assuming that this is the case here, as the OP hasn't provided information about the network topology, I just assumed that the connection the Internet was cabled, therefore cordless phoneswouldn't be the issue
 
Chris.L said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5H11 Safari/525.20)



Yeah I know that. However with my understanding of the airport product it is normally a wired connection to the DSL router therefore providing a wireless capability. Assuming that this is the case here, as the OP hasn't provided information about the network topology, I just assumed that the connection the Internet was cabled, therefore cordless phoneswouldn't be the issue
Click to expand...

I have now tried all 11 channels (and Automatic, which I have always been on). I called my house when I had it at each of those channels, and of the internet still goes out. I also tried unplugging all of the phones in the house, then calling, and the same problem occurred.

And yes, I have cable DSL and phone service with the same provider, so that could be a problem.

Another thing to add on top of that is the internet goes out when there are storms. I had light rain today and noticed that my AEBS was flashing orange every other minute. And the times it was green, the internet worked fine. Its really weird what goes on.

What Chris.L said to do earlier is another good thing to try. I will try that ASAP unless I can figure out the problem another way.

Any more ideas? Thanks so much to the people that have helped already :)
 
Sorry, at first I thought you meant that there was an issue connecting to the AEBS during a call or that the AEBS wirelessly extended a network. My bad. :eek:

It sounds like your AEBS is connected by ethernet to your modem, which means the wireless signal, even if there's interference, wouldn't affect the AEBS connection to the router, so the light would stay green even if a laptop couldn't connect due to interference (i.e., the blinking light means a broken connection between the AEBS and the modem).
alexbates said:
And yes, I have cable DSL and phone service with the same provider, so that could be a problem.
Click to expand...
If I'm reading correctly and you have DSL service, then a bad or missing filter - or faulty phone wiring - is likely the problem.

If the wiring allows bleed-through, or if the proper filters aren't installed, then phone calls on the phone line mess up the DSL connection on the other line. Your service provider should have verified the connection at installation time, and you should tell them that you're having issues with the modem during calls. It seems to me to be irrelevant that you have an AEBS (vs a Linksys or whatnot) because it would seem that the AEBS fails during any call, which would be very coincidental if it were just the router being flaky.
 
I have question that hasn't been asked yet. Did you switch to an AEBS from another router and the original router worked before. Because it I really think it's your ISP. My GF used to have Bell DSL for her Internet services and the same thing happened to her. Whenever I was playing an online game and the phone rings, my connection gets cut off. She has since switched to broadband.
 
I know you mentioned the microfilter but have you got one on both lines? As in the line that your phone uses and the one that your AEBS uses?

I had the same problem and it was putting a filter on the phone's line as well that solved it for me!
 
jsw said:
Sorry, at first I thought you meant that there was an issue connecting to the AEBS during a call or that the AEBS wirelessly extended a network. My bad. :eek:

It sounds like your AEBS is connected by ethernet to your modem, which means the wireless signal, even if there's interference, wouldn't affect the AEBS connection to the router, so the light would stay green even if a laptop couldn't connect due to interference (i.e., the blinking light means a broken connection between the AEBS and the modem).

If I'm reading correctly and you have DSL service, then a bad or missing filter - or faulty phone wiring - is likely the problem.

If the wiring allows bleed-through, or if the proper filters aren't installed, then phone calls on the phone line mess up the DSL connection on the other line. Your service provider should have verified the connection at installation time, and you should tell them that you're having issues with the modem during calls. It seems to me to be irrelevant that you have an AEBS (vs a Linksys or whatnot) because it would seem that the AEBS fails during any call, which would be very coincidental if it were just the router being flaky.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the good info. Yes, the AEBS is connected to my DSL modem. I tried replacing the ethernet cable again (that goes from the the DSL modem to the AEBS), but that doesn't seem to do anything. I have also made sure that I have filters on every phone line and the DSL modem. (filters just like pic below, which is going to my DSL modem). Sorry if this is confusing to understand.

One thing I do not know much about is the kind of filter on our security system. It is not with the same ISP, but it goes through the phone line. A while back, I heard the security system chirp once when the phone rang. AT&T, internet & phone ISP, said that I needed a new filter on my security system to stop it from chirping. So my security system company came out and replaced the filter on it. I have not heard any chirping since then. I'm not sure if this has anything to do with the internet or not though.

scan said:
I have question that hasn't been asked yet. Did you switch to an AEBS from another router and the original router worked before. Because it I really think it's your ISP. My GF used to have Bell DSL for her Internet services and the same thing happened to her. Whenever I was playing an online game and the phone rings, my connection gets cut off. She has since switched to broadband.
Click to expand...

I have had the same ISP for years but just switched to an AEBS. The other router that I had worked fine, and so did the AEBS for the first few months. I have no idea why it started acting this way.

hamchapman said:
I know you mentioned the microfilter but have you got one on both lines? As in the line that your phone uses and the one that your AEBS uses?

I had the same problem and it was putting a filter on the phone's line as well that solved it for me!
Click to expand...

I have the kind of filter (picture below, I don't know what its called) on every phone in the house & on my modem. I have checked to make sure the phone line is connected to the correct side of the filter. (This is the modem filter)

surflordca said:
Well since you have DSL you need a DSL filter on every phone in the house. try that...
Click to expand...

I do have a filter everywhere in the house. I have replaced all of them after this problem started occurring.

Thanks for your help guys :) Any more ideas? Maybe I should just call AT&T again and see what they can do.
 

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I don't know if you have tried this yet but if you haven't, hook up one machine directly to the modem (instead of the AEBS) via ethernet and see if your connection drops if you make a call. Then you can be sure to eliminate (or confirm) the AEBS as the source of the problem.
 
flopticalcube said:
I don't know if you have tried this yet but if you haven't, hook up one machine directly to the modem (instead of the AEBS) via ethernet and see if your connection drops if you make a call. Then you can be sure to eliminate (or confirm) the AEBS as the source of the problem.
Click to expand...

I have tried doing that but I get no internet at all. At school, all I have to do is plug in the ethernet and turn off WiFi and the internet works. But for some reason it doesn't work when I do it at home.
 
Did you reset your DSL modem after disconnecting your router and connecting your computer directly to it? If not, reset the modem after you attach your computer to it.
 
alexbates said:
I have tried doing that but I get no internet at all. At school, all I have to do is plug in the ethernet and turn off WiFi and the internet works. But for some reason it doesn't work when I do it at home.
Click to expand...

When you connected ensure you got a valid IP address.

If you got 169.x.x.x then you got an APIPA address. If you do get a valid address try some ping tests. Start by pinging your router (which is normally your default gateway) and then work out.
 
aquajet said:
Did you reset your DSL modem after disconnecting your router and connecting your computer directly to it? If not, reset the modem after you attach your computer to it.
Click to expand...

I just now tried that. No internet.

alphaod said:
Try 1, then 11, then 6.
Click to expand...

I'll try that, thanks.

Chris.L said:
When you connected ensure you got a valid IP address.

If you got 169.x.x.x then you got an APIPA address. If you do get a valid address try some ping tests. Start by pinging your router (which is normally your default gateway) and then work out.
Click to expand...

Ok this is what comes up when I connect using Ethernet (picture below). It doesn't assign me an IP address at all. For one second, I noticed it said something like "Ethernet cable disconnected" under status without even doing anything. I only happened once and I wasn't quick enough to get a screenshot. Maybe I should try switching back to DHCP (even though the phone still cut out when the phone rang)
 

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Well, that screenshot shows that the interface is down. Try changing it to DHCP. Also look at the link status light on the router for that port on the switch.

What DSL router have you got?
 
Chris.L said:
Well, that screenshot shows that the interface is down. Try changing it to DHCP. Also look at the link status light on the router for that port on the switch.

What DSL router have you got?
Click to expand...

The router is the AEBS and the modem is a Motorola. (sorry its backwards, photo booth)
 

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Ok, so the motorola guids say set your Mac to use DHCP, so do that.

Now when you plug in your Mac to the Motorola device, if the link doesn't go active in Network Settings, and the link light doesn't light up on the Motorola devce, then something is broken.

Try a different cable. Try a different computer with the Motorola port, try the Mac with a different piece if networking equipment i.e. plug it directly into the AEBS.

That should hopefully help you identify the dodgy piece of equipment. It would make sense if it was the Ethernet port on the Motorola device, as that would explain the AEBS showing a dropped connection
 
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