Airport Extreme

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bigmikaele

Registered
I am new to this forum and apologize if this thread has already been run to ground, but I just bought an apple power book and an Airport Extreme base station. I tried plugging my cable modem into it but my laptop does not recognize it. I tried to hard wire the ethernet cable to the lap top and it does fine, but then switch same cable to the AE base and nothing.
Any ideas?
 
Hello,

You need to have the Airport Extreme connected to a base station computer.This is how the connection works: the modem is connected directly to the AE, which is plugged into an outlet. From the modem a secondary ethernet chord should be connected to the base station computer. You see, the modem identifies the base station IP address and distributes it to all computers running on that modem. Once AE is connected it will continue to broadcast that same IP address for the entire network to share. That's why when your PowerBook is hardwired it works fine, but fails to do so with the AE. It's really backwards, I know.

By the way, is your Airport connection turned on in your PowerBook?? There's a "wave" icon on your menu bar on the top right of the desktop. If it's black then Airport is receiving. Do you have Airport installed on your PowerBook?

Good luck.
 
I am not sure I am following you... I have a cable modem, currently it is plugged (by ethernet cable) to my iMac. Are you saying that I should plug the cable modem's ethernet cable into the AE base station? how do I plug the iMac into the base station? There is only one ethernet port on the base station. (actually 2 one is for the standard home ethernet connection and the other is for a LAN connection. Then there is a phone connection for dial-up modems and a USB connection for printers).
What if I only had the lap top? does that mean that I cannot use the AE, since there is no desk top computer to hook it to? If I can keep them both hooked up I would prefer it, just not seeing it yet....

I do have airport turned on. I have seen the wave and it is black. The powerbook does get a signal from the base station but the internet connection it says fails.

If you could let me know how I hook the iMac to the AE after I fill, what appears to be the only ethernet port to the modem I will give it a shot.

Thanks.
 
Cable Modem ---> WAN port on Airport Extreme via ethernet cable

After that, configure the Airport Extreme for the correct settings for the cable modem (DHCP, PPPoE, whatever your cable modem requires... usually DHCP).

Then:

Computer (iMac) ---> LAN port on Airport Extreme via ethernet cable

You can alternately connect a switch or hub to the LAN port on the Airport Extreme to serve more than one computer on the wired connection.
 
Jeff, will this then allow me to use my iMac and my Powerbook without having to switch the cable? How do I configure the AE? Do I use the powerbook to set it up and then hook it to the iMac?

I will have to get another cable and set it up as you say.

THANKS!
 
Jeff, I tried to hook it up like you said, but it still isn't communicating with the internet. I am sure I am missing a step. My imac is still communicating, but the power book can only see the AE not beyond it.
 
What cable modem do you have?

Have you ever had a connection to the Airport Extreme? Did you choose the upgrade to version 5.6?

I have a D-Link modem. Upgrading the AE to v 5.6 stopped everything. Downgraded to 5.5.1 . All is OK.

What set up have you done with the Airport Setup Utility/Airport Admin Utility?
 
I have a Terayon TJ 715X (Cox communications)

I have a connection to the Airport Extreme, I think (when I try to connect to the internet it tells me "You are not connected to the Internet" I then try the Network Diagnostics and when that comes up I have a green light for Airport and for Airport Settings, I have an amber light for Network Settings and Red for ISP, Internet, and Server. These are all on the Powerbook. I am currently connected via the LAN port on the AE base station (on my iMac) and communicating.

I have had the Powerbook for only 2 weeks so it has what it came with V5.6. I even tried to install using the software that came with the base station and it was the same version (V5.6)

When I open the Airport Admin Utility and select configure "Home" on the Airport tab I have the name as "Home". Under Base station options I have WAN Ethernet Port and 1,2,&4 are selected 3 & 5 are subdued. Under Logging/NTP nothing is selected. Under USB printer nothing is there. for the Airport Network the name is Apple Network a5c5e4 Wireles security is "Not enabled" Channel is 1 Mode is 802.11b/g Compatible. Under wireless options it has multicast rate: 2 and transmitter power is at 100%.
Under the Internet tab I have selected Connect using "Airport (WDS) under configure WDS host I have the mac address as 00:11:24:a5:c5:e4, also allow wireless cliet computers is selected and configure is set at "Using DHCP"
Network tab has nothing selected, Port Mapping has nothing, access contrrol has nothing, and WDS has both Enable base station as a WDS "remote base station" and allow wireless clients on this base station is also selected with the main airport ID as listed above (00:11:24:a5:c5:e4)
 
This is getting a bit beyond my knowledge. I am passing on what I have done and what I have working, after sorting out some troubles.

However, I think that under the "Internet" tab, you should choose to connect via "Ethernet" and not Airport (WDS). Remember it is the Airport Extreme Base Station you are setting up, and it is connected to the modem with an ethernet cable.

On the "Network" tab, I have chosen to allow the AE to distribute the DHCP addresses. BUT you only want one item on the network doing this. Make sure the modem isn't trying to do this too!!

Port mapping and Access Control are blank.

WDS is not enabled. This is only needed to link one wireless base station to a second one. I think that enabling this and setting the Internet to Airport WDS are your problem.

When mine is working I get numbers from my ISP in the boxes against "IP Address" and "Router" in the "Internet". When it wasn't working I was getting the distributed range from the AE Base Station (10.0.1.1 etc.)
 
I would like to thank everyone for all their help. Just knowing that there are people out here willing to help gives me great peace of mind. I finally broke down and called the Apple support line and they took me through a 2 minute drill (unplug everything, plug in the AE, hit the reset button on the base station, plug the power back into the modem, go into Airport Setup assistant and just go through the guided setup) voila everything is running great!

Thanks again

Mike
 
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