Help Please; Airport Extreme

[Sephiroth]

Is there any kind person out there who has successfully connected their Airport Extreme (11N version) to a cable modem (in my case 50 meg)?

I've toiled all afternoon/evening without success. I've got the green light but no internet through the device. Google's been no help.

Anybody got some settings they can share with me to compare with what I've got? I've tried setting the DNS to VM's normal and to OPENDNS. I've forced the same DNS into the PC LAN Card.

The Extreme reports a "Router Address 192.168.100.1"; I assume that's the cable modem. Terminology.

What should I set the default host to?

Bag of bones at this stage.

Thanks in advance.

[pip08456]

http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/AirPortExtreme_802.11n_UserGuide.pdf

I know it most likely won't help but I couldn't resist!

Rubbing a bit of salt in as well. Shouldn't this be in the networking section??

Sorry Seph

[Sephiroth]

Is it 'cos I's English?

[pip08456]

Is it 'cos I's English?

So's I but at least you still have your sense of humour. :D:D:D:D

[Sephiroth]

A little bit more information on the Airport Extreme (AE) difficulty in case anyone is able to help me.

1/
To get fundamentals off the agenda, I changed ethernet cable (Cat 5e) from PC to AE. The cable from modem to AE is trusted as it works with the Draytek modem.

2/
I then wanted to go one step at a time. If I plugged the PC into the AE with the WAN port empty, the AE summary showed an IP address 169.254.139.81 (which I would expect). The AE DHCP address (which I specified) 192.168.1.1 was correctly displayed by Airport Utility (AU).

3/
I plugged in the cable modem to the AE and rebooted the modem. While the modem was negotiating with the CMTS, the IP address 192.168.100.10 was displayed on the AU. This was encouraging as it is (I believe) the Gateway address of the cable modem.

4/
When the modem READY light was steady, the IP address disappeared and the AE remained flashing amber; I had expected to see the CMTS served IP address 86.xx.

5/
So I went to the AE front screen & checked CONTINUE to resolve the INTERNET not connected problem. I was asked to supply DNS server addresses (presumably because the CMTS served IP address didn't exist). So I gave the OPENDNS numbers (208.67.222.222 & 220.220) and the AE then reported that the device doesn't have a valid IP adress (169.254.139.81).

6/
I took a flyer and applied 82.2.xx.yy, being the IP address previously served through the Draytek. After hitting UPDATE on the AE, the AE status light went GREEN. i.e. the connexion to the internet had been made so far as the AE was concerned.

7/
However, IE would not get to any site nor the cable modem. IE had the same settings as work with the Draytek, and with McAfee Internet protection functions disabled.


Clearly I can't guess the CMTS served IP address every time. So what's wrong?

[scrooge]

I don't have the 50meg modem but my AE works fine with VM.

The usual crucial thing to do is switch both the modem and AE off for a few minutes.
Turn the modem on (leave the AE off) and wait till all the normal lights are on and in sync.
Only then turn the AE on.

The main settings in the AE utility are...

connect using: Ethernet
ethernet WAN port: Automatic (sometimes it fails to connect if you manually set it to 100 full duplex etc)

configure IPv4: using DHCP

[Matty_]

Have you tried resetting the AE back to default, which by the look of it goes to DHCP then plugging the AE into the modem switched on. Power down the modem for a few minutes (also disconnect/unscrew the cable) then restart.
Now restart the AE which theoretically should now get it`s IP from the modem.

It sounds like a DHCP/MAC problem with the modem possibly thinking the IP it`s giving is tied to a different MAC address than the AE.

Good luck, sounds like a funny un :td:

[Boabyboy]

Just out of curiosity, I probably misread the thread but does the Airport Extreme router have a NIC cloning feature? I used to have a Belkin router which would not get an WAN IP address from the cable modem unless I clone my NIC physical address into the Belkin router which after that the Belkin router successfully obtained a WAN IP address.

Unless as some of the others have suggested works for you, I could not offer any other resolution to your problem as I dont have an Airport Extreme to test but I do have a Macintosh desktop and laptop which are all assigned to get an IP address dynamically from my wireless router.

Ta, Boaby.

[Sephiroth]

Have you tried resetting the AE back to default, which by the look of it goes to DHCP then plugging the AE into the modem switched on. Power down the modem for a few minutes (also disconnect/unscrew the cable) then restart.
Now restart the AE which theoretically should now get it`s IP from the modem.

It sounds like a DHCP/MAC problem with the modem possibly thinking the IP it`s giving is tied to a different MAC address than the AE.

Good luck, sounds like a funny un :td:

Thanks Matty. Yep - did that this evening (again). But it won't do better than report the 169.xx served by MS.

[swiftflo]

Sorry to rub more salt into the wounds, but I borrowed from a friend a Airport Extreme base station on a proving exercise and it connected with no problems at all. Should add that that was on a imac.

[mdrenwick]

Hi

I have this combination working fine... Only one issue I had was caused by leaving a second DHCP server running on the network on an old subnet. Confused the hell out of my Ubunutu desktop!

The root cause of the your AE issues sounds to me like it hasn't been configured to "share a public ip address" (AU->Manual Setup->Internet->Internet Connection->Connection Sharing->Share a publicIP Address).

Whilst you're manually configuring the AE, I'd double check:
AU
--\Manual Setup
----\Internet
------\TCP/IP
--------Configure IPv4 -> Using DHCP
--------IP Address -> Renew lease (should get set to your VM static ip-addr)
--------DNS Servers -> set to the OPENDNS values.
------\DHCP
--------DHCP Beginning Address -> 10.0 . 1 . 2 (just a suggestion)
--------DHCP Ending 10.0.1.200
------\NAT
--------Enable default host -> (untick and leave blank)
--------Enable NAT Port Mapping Protocol -> tick

Hope that helps

PS. When you've made the changes, switch off all PCs & networking equipment and switch back on (slowly) in order, starting with VM modem, and then AE, any other switches and finally PC/ laptop/ xbox etc.

PPS. Also, make sure the connection between AE and VM modem is from the AE "dotted O" WAN port, and the rest of your LAN side equipment is attached to the AE's three "<...>" LAN ports

[Sephiroth]

Well, folks, I got it going using mdrenwick's steps. Let me say that those steps are exactly what I've done before when it came out the box and a couple of times since - or so I thought and I still don't know what was different.

The fixed IP address I tried was anct of desperation. (it got a green light - useless!).

By the way, when I finished working top down from the above instructions, the green light came up and there was no need to turn anything off/on again.

Thanks again. SOLVED.

[Pbryanw]

Apple - it just works :)

(Also using an Airport Extreme here - glad to hear you've got it working - once it is, it's a very good, reliable piece of kit).

[mdrenwick]

Sounds like you may have got there sooner or later, but I'm glad I helped make it a little sooner (some how)!