Airport Extreme Base Station Problem

[thunderbird]

Blast.

The problem has returned; my Macintosh doesn't "see" the wireless network... again.

Reset the PRAM three or four more times and the problem is now persisting.

So... I'm back to looking at the modem.

I might do a second clean re-installation of Snow Leopard.

This has just consumed hours and hours of my life; stuff like this is so frustrating.

I hope Apple does something to recognize those of us who experience this issue; it really makes you mad.

I would try the other router first, at least as a temporary setup for testing.

[Sadalmelik]

I took your advice, Thunderbird, and I chucked the aging Airport Extreme Base Station (wireless-n 1st generation) router and then setup my relatively new CISCO Linksys E2500. Setup CD made it fairly easy; configuration was mostly automatic.

So far, everything is working perfectly.

This CISCO router has dual band functionality and maybe that's the key. I don't know for sure. Some of my devices use G and others use N and maybe that mix was too much for the old Airport Extreme Base Station. Or maybe the Airport Extreme Base Station was simply defective. It's hard to say.

My Macintosh is auto-connected to the wireless network each and every time I power it up; so that's an amazing relief.

No need to reinstall the operating system! Yay!

Thanks for your help.

[r0k]

I took your advice, Thunderbird, and I chucked the aging Airport Extreme Base Station (wireless-n 1st generation) router and then setup my relatively new CISCO Linksys E2500. Setup CD made it fairly easy; configuration was mostly automatic.

So far, everything is working perfectly.

This CISCO router has dual band functionality and maybe that's the key. I don't know for sure. Some of my devices use G and others use N and maybe that mix was too much for the old Airport Extreme Base Station. Or maybe the Airport Extreme Base Station was simply defective. It's hard to say.

My Macintosh is auto-connected to the wireless network each and every time I power it up; so that's an amazing relief.

No need to reinstall the operating system! Yay!

Thanks for your help.

I just installed an ooma telo inside my recent but not latest gen AEBS and it is working fine. I connected the "internet" port to my LAN. I haven't touched the QOS settings despite the fact I know AEBS does not support QOS. We'll see how this goes. I'm not planning to port my number for at least 2 weeks.

For now my calls are forwarded to my ooma temp number and outgoing calls will show my temp number. One thing I'll miss with Att Unified Messaging is their virtual fax machine. It saved my butt one time when the fax phone line was down. And that brings me to the reason I bought an ooma box. My main phone line is down AGAIN and Att says they can't fix it until Tuesday. Meanwhile there has been a loud hum on the line for over a week now and I got so tired of At&t's long repair estimates I don't bother to complain but simply wait for the lines to dry out. If this ooma box keeps working I'll be rid of At&t by this time next month. What drew me to this thread was talk of issues between ooma and AEBS but I think I'm in the clear (for now).

Our AEBS is the version with simultaneous dual band and the guest network wifi feature. All our wired ethernet is gigabit. I suspect the newer AEBS would work fine but I think the cisco might work out better if it supports QOS and someday you decide you need QOS.

[thunderbird]

r0k:
There are a lot of people out there, that use Ooma devices connected behind Apple routers, and have no problems at all with Quality of Service. That's what I'd expect with your setup also.

The main reason that I am responding to your post is your mention of the problems that you are having with AT&T service. I remember waiting year after year for the old WWII telephone lines having to dry out. All of the service call issues, and always AT&T said that the problem was in our home, even when the whole house was disconnected, with only a corded telephone connected at the outside of the house phone service box for their testing. I can relate to your problems with AT&T. Then when AT&T put in new underground lines, there were still remained some of the same problems and issues. That was what "broke the camel's back" and forced us to go to another home phone provider.

I used to hate the AT&T home telephone system, using only the cell phone when needed. Now with Ooma, my wife and I almost always use the home phone system, and the cell phone minutes go wasted each month.

Good luck and welcome.

[r0k]

thunderbird: At&t fiber makes it to within half a mile of my house. Because we live in the middle of the sub we have poor service. We had buried wires when we moved in. Every time it rained we would have phone problems. Finally At&t ran overhead wires and things were better for a while. Recently they brought their Uverse fiber to our sub but stopped half a mile away and all the landlines in our sub once again suffer noise every time it rains. I think that we are really on some sort of hybrid service that goes digital once it hits the fiber cabinet but the problem is the "last half mile" and At&t can't figure out how to do it right.

It's ironic we just switched all our cell phones to At&t from Verizon but we have to take our land line to Ooma to get a reliable connection. Every time it rains, I hear 60 cycle hum on the phone that is so loud I can barely hear what the other party is saying. The other party hears nothing. I've tested at the network interface and the hum is still present until several days after the rains are gone. This is Michigan. If the phone lines are gonna screw up when it gets wet, they are gonna screw up 361 days a year!

I hate Comcast. I mean I really hate Comcast. So I called At&t and ordered Uverse. They were taking forever to install it and guess what? Our phone line quit working while we were waiting. So I called and cancelled the Uverse install. I had to talk to "retention" despite the fact I never actually got the service. I told them no thanks for all their offers and simply cancelled the install. A few days later when the tech showed up to fix our phone line, he explained that we were so far from the fiber cabinet we might need 2 pairs of copper for a reliable signal and he said he wouldn't be surprised if we had more problems with the internet than we were having with the phone. Well Comcast is bad but they aren't as bad as At&t so for now we live with Comcast and are trying Ooma. I just got back from OfficeDepot where I purchased a whopping 1000VA UPS for my ooma box, gigabit switch and network hard drives. I already have one for the cable modem and it lasts for almost 5 hours during a power failure.

For now all our land line calls are forwarded to our Ooma number and we are planning to strip our landline of all features but call forwarding until we have a consistent track record with Ooma. I bet At&t's retentions department will be trying to beat my door down when I finally port my landline number to Ooma. After all, I've been forking out an average $84 a month for 2 lines for close to 20 years now.

BTW, thanks for the welcome!

[EX Bell]

Hey I just wanted to say thanks to everyone in this string for keeping my thought processes going. I was dreading that trip back to Costco to return my Omma Telo, but now I don't have to!

The symptom, for anyone trying to trouble shoot the same issue, was a completely stalled internet connection on our wireless network anytime the Telo was being used. About 10 seconds after hanging up, everything would return to normal. If this is your issue, read on.

The problem was interference between my 1st Gen Time Capsule (essentially an Airport Extreme with a HDD) and my 5 GHz Uniden cordless phone. Had these phones been near my Time Capsule before, I might have found the issue years ago. We've always had these upstairs, but my old lath and plaster house is very good at blocking wireless signals. I brought the Uniden base station and handset down stairs to hook up to the Telo while I'm in the trial stages.

No setting on the Telo had anything to do with the issue. I tried all the suggestions. No order of modem to Telo or router to Telo had anything to do with the issue. The results, network speed and voice/sound quality are the same no matter what order the Telo is, in relation to the modem or router. It was simple interference from the cordless phone. The solution was to lower the frequency in the Time Capsule wireless settings from "802.11n only (5GHz)" to "802.11n only (2.4GHz)". As soon as the settings were saved and the wireless came back online, my issue was resolved. We can now make phone calls on the Telo and it does not affect internet performance or speed at all. I have my Telo connected after the router via a Belkin PowerPlug.

I like using the 5GHz band because it's supposed to be less susceptible to interference from Baby Monitors, Microwaves and 2.4GHz cordless phones, and it's not supposed to be susceptible to interference from other 5GHz devices. I guess cheap Uniden cordless phones don't count. I have Panasonic phones that operate in 5GHz too, but they have never been an issue. I think I'll just replace them all with a Panasonic 4 phone DECT 6.0 (1.9 GHz) set, so I can go back to using the 801.11n 5GHz frequency.