# Factory reset of Airport express doesn't work!



## haredunbar (May 21, 2005)

for reasons too complex to go into in detail, I have lost the connection to one of my Airport Express units.

It's a shaggy dog story involving changing my Base Stations range of IP numbers so that I could access a Linksys NSLU2. I lost connection to both AExs. I changed the base station back to 10.0.1.X range and am now reconnected to one AEx fine as remote base station.

HOWEVER, the other AEx will not reappear. I have tried a hard reset... which does not go as suggested from the Apple description (no green light flashing for a bit... and doesn't reappear on the network)

Factory reset seemed the best bet: start all over again, but even this doesn't work. The reset goes as described with 4 green flashes after a bit, but it never finds it's way back to wireless networking. I can connect with an ethernet cable: it shows a very different IP address to the one the iBook has been given by the base station, and I can open the station using the Airport admin utility. However, if I ask it to join the wireless network which is offered (my home network), or indeed change most settings, when I update it, it disappears!

Annoyingly I cannot find my original AEx disks and the AEx setup assistant WAS on the iBook.... but I reformatted the hard drive about 3 weeks ago and it aint there now. (will try to borrow my daughters disk tomorrow)

However, I am perplexed that a factory reset does not return it to a state where I can connect wirelessly to it.

Any suggestions?!


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## haredunbar (May 23, 2005)

Daughter's AEx  disks did help sort of:

I had to delete all evidence of airport from my iBook, reinstall Airport with the express setup assistant (wouldn't install otherwise). A factory reset was done and.....

despite this, the newly configured AEx wouldn't come onto the wireless network till I asked the Assistant to make its lights flash (I'm a bit like that myself) Hurrah! it worked; first time I had seen the wee green light stay on for more than a second for days.

Annoyingly, when I transferred the AEx back upstairs from my computer lab to the living room, it decided to fall off the network. Pah! Would the above "reset/assistant dance" sort it?

No.... 

but yes: on the fourth "reset and assistant fix" it went green.

All this is very un-Apple like, but sounds as if it is par for the course with AEx.

Clearly the Assistant can do things that other utilities don't (like flashing the lights and presumably deeper, darker networky things.

I pass all this on, though clearly, for now, I have solved the problem. However any shared wisdom would be appreciated.


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## michaelsanford (May 24, 2005)

Well it depends a bit on your IP ranges. If you're in a different network from your AP express then you won't see it on your network becaues after a factory reset it doens't know to join an existing network. You'd have to manually select it from the networks list as an "AirPort47235"-style bourne and then reconfigure it from there.


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## haredunbar (May 24, 2005)

There is only one network here! I had set my network to 10.0.1.x as I'm pretty sure that is what AEx and other airport gear defaults to.


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## michaelsanford (May 24, 2005)

Yes it does default to 10.0.0.1 but if you have one network with multiple AirPort expresses (which you said in your first post) your newly reset one won't connect to the existing base station.

Just becasue you use the same IP range as the main base station doesn't mean it will join the same network.

<pedantic>EDIT My mistake: the AirPort doesn't default to 10.0.0.1 it defaults to 10.0.0.0 (because .1 is a node address whereas ,0 is a network address).</pedantic>


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## haredunbar (May 25, 2005)

I suppose I'm puzzled why the setup using Airport Admin utility DIDN'T work when Airport Express Assistant did.

Factory reset allows both utilities to see the AEx. DHCP is set to share IP range as 10.0.1.x. WDS has both AEx's numbers, but the admin utility never succeeded in connecting after an update, whereas the Assistant did albeit after getting it to flash the lights!

Perhaps it doesn't matter.... it's working now, it's just that if I have problems again, it's nice to know the quickest way to fix rather than spendin several evenings cursing at a wee white box.


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