# AirPort Utility on mac mini drives me mad



## meisterbrau (Mar 17, 2011)

Hello forum

I have a mac mini attached to my TV. Internet is available trough airport extreme and I stream music to my living room through airport express. The airport extreme shows up as wifi network and the mac mini is connected to the internet through this connection.

But the problem is, that neither the airport extreme nor the airport express show up in the airport utility application.

When I fire up the airport utility on my MacBook Pro, both airports show up and I restarted both of them.

The strange thing is, that sometimes either one of the devices shows up on the airport utility on the mac mini. But never both. When I restart search for airport devices suddenly no device can be found. But the mac mini is connected to the Internet through the airport extreme! How can the airport utility application not find the airport extreme, when the computer clearly has established a connection to it? I restarted the mac mini and one device showed up for some time and went lost again, when i restarted the search for airport devices.

That wouldn't be much of a problem, but unfortunately iTunes looses the connection to the airport express too! This can happen in the middle of streaming, which is very annoying!

The signal strength is perfect and there is no interference from other networks. Also the MacBook has no trouble finding the airport devices and doesn't loose connection to the airport express when streaming music with iTunes.

I am at the and of my wit. I can't tell when the mac mini finds the devices and when it doesn't. The problem appears to be random.

Any help is appreciated!

Cheers

Fritz


----------



## fryke (Mar 18, 2011)

Are all systems up-to-date on 10.6.6 or is one of the computers running an older version? Are all AirPort updates done to all computers and base stations?

If you simply won't find out what causes the problem, starting from scratch might help you find a configuration that works: I.e. re-setup the AirPort Extreme Base Station from the MacBook (as that's the computer that more thoroughly seems to work with both stations...), make it WPA2 and make sure that its network can be expanded. Choose a new network name and password, just to make sure. Then setup the AirPort Express as expanding the existing network. Finally, make sure that all (both) computers have internet access and that both can stream music from iTunes to the AirPort Express Base Station.


----------



## meisterbrau (Mar 24, 2011)

Thanks for the response!

Yes, all systems are up-to-date and also all AirPorts have the newest driver installed. I will try as you proposed to reset everything from scratch (shoud change my network pw anyways). First I will actually set up the mac mini too. As I do not have any relevant data on it, I will just clean it completly and reinstall the system on it. Than I will reconfigure the airports.

I just wonder, why I can't find any other post that discuss my problem. Last week I visited a friend, who has a Mac Mini too and he has the exact same problem as I have. Allthough he didn't notice jet, as he never used the AirPort Utility...

Thanks for the help

Cheers


----------



## Satcomer (Mar 24, 2011)

Well one thing I have to ask how is the setup? I ask because in ALL networking you have to follow a simple rule when using DHCP.  With a DHCP server the only "router" (wired or wireless) needs to be the Only DHCP server doing NAT (Network Address Translation). So the simple rule is the router (Airport Extremes are routers) is when a home user has multiple routers (wired & wireless routers) is to have the router closet to your ISP modem should be the ONLY router doing NAT (DHCP)!  

To see if you are experiencing simple NAT errors in your wireless network is in Airport Utility select your Airport device and then click the "Manual" setup. The go to the Airport Utility menu item 'Base Station' and select 'Status'. This will show you if you are experiencing the dreaded "Double NAT" error.

Now IF you have a main router, that is closet to your ISP modem doing DHCP (in the Airport Extreme select the Manual Setup again) and select the "internet" tab. Then in the "Connection Sharing" you can select the "Off (Bridged Mode)" to turn off the Extreme's DHCP server (because it is behind another router).  This way all devices in your house will be on the same  subnet (in an IPv4 IP address the first three octets are the same, with the same Gateway address., for easy home sharing.

So try to use this rules in setting up you multiple Airport devices in a single home network.


----------



## meisterbrau (Mar 28, 2011)

Thanks for the response

yes only my AirPort Extreme does the routing. The Express is in bridge mode. There doesn't seem to bee any problem with the network whatsoever, as my Mac Book Pro and a iMac connect to the internez as expected and can stream music over the AirPort Express. It's only that Mac Mini that keeps loosing the connection, and can't seem to find the AirPorts over the AirPort Utility, allthought also the Mac Mini has perfect connection to the internez, and I can ping both Airports over the terminal (Mac Mini).

cheers


----------



## Satcomer (Mar 28, 2011)

Are you running any thing like PeerGuardian or a firewall between the affected mac and the other Macs or a firewall?


----------

