In desperate need of Airport Express set-up help (knew this would happen...)

Flashy

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The AirPort Express has arrived. Having read Azzin's thread, I should have known it wouldn't be plain sailing.

After failing to connect wirelessly (despite Airport Utility being able to see the AE...), I managed it with a wired connection, and can now play music from laptop to powered speakers, via AE, but also via an ethernet cable.

I want to be able to stream wirelessly, so have asked the AE to join my existing wireless network - is this right? The O2 Wireless router I use to connect to the net has a 64bit WEP key, yet the AirPort Utility will only let me select 40bit or 128bit. Went with the lower option and set everything up apparently fine.

Yet the second the ethernet cable is unplugged, all talk of AE disappears - no icon in iTunes, utility can't even see it. Obviously it's a wireless problem, so going to restore factory settings and start again.

In the meantime, if anyone can spot anything I've done wrong or missed....
 
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Right. I was (briefly) able to connect to the AE wirelessly. That's now stopped. As has the internet connection from my laptop.

I don't know what I've done. My wireless network won't show up in Vista, yet I can't connect manually as it says there's already a network with the same name. It gives me the option to join it, but then won't show it in the list of available networks. Can also connect the laptop fine if plugged in. I've tried manually deleting the wireless networks and starting again, but it still won't show up. Other networks (we live in a block of eight flats) are showing. Connection from iPhone, which I'm typing this on, is fine. Other half's PC is also working fine on a wireless connection, so something I've done in trying to set up AE must have buggered my laptop. What, I don't know.

Now got two problems: an Airport Express that I can't work and a laptop that won't connect to the internet wirelessly. Well, three problems, as the oven's chosen tonight to pack up. It's been a disastrous day. :(

Any ideas? (Not about the oven, the other two :))
 
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Another hour on, another development. Actually, three new developments, and all good.

While trying to sort out the laptop and connected via ethernet to the router, I happened to glance at the Airport Express and saw its light was green. Looked in iTunes and the Airplay icon was there. Then checked the iPhone, and the Airplay icon was present there, too. I don't even have the Airport Utility installed, as I uninstalled it earlier. Hopefully I won't need it again.

Now, after much plugging-in and unplugging of cables, re-running O2's broadband configurations and helper software, and a bit of adult language, I've got my wireless connection back on the laptop.

Can't believe what a faff it was to sort all this out from start to finish (hopefully), though at least it was only a few hours, as opposed to the days Azzin spent trying to sort it. Am I happy with it now? Yes. Would I buy another AE? Maybe, but it's not been the best of afternoons/evenings, and that would weigh heavily on my mind. Fingers crossed everything's sorted, and will stay sorted.

And to top it all off, the oven has fixed itself. The only thing that slightly concerns me with all of this is that I haven't really understood what I've been doing, have no idea what's gone wrong with anything, and no real understanding of how it was fixed. But, touch wood, hopefully this is all sorted forever.

The end.

(I hope.)
 
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Hello mate! :hiya:

I feel your pain and it sounds to me like you got off lightly! grin:

I'm glad it's all working for you, but like you, I didn't actually get to the root cause of my issue. :thumbsdow

Yes I got it working, but in the end it was more of a "sldegehammer to crack a walnut" approach that did it. :facepalm:

Anyway, I'm glad you're all working and pleased with the unit-I really love mine and now that I've been bitten I'm actually thinking about replacing the AE in the living room with an Apple TV, so that I can not only stream muisc there, but also photos! :eek:

I would of course find a home for somewhere else in the house for the AE.... :devil:
 
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Apple TV is looking more and more appealing - just fired it up to listen to some music while reading and it's stuck on the blinking amber light. I've given it quarter of an hour to sort itself out, tried unplugging, tried a reset.

Really can't face switching the laptop on to investigate after yesterday's fun and games, but I'll have to if it doesn't sort itself out and if I can't work it out. Nothing needs to be this complicated. I hate to consider admitting defeat, but it might just have to go back at this rate.

EDIT: Switched on laptop, ran Airport Utility, and confirmed settings were okay, and now it's working again, no problems. Tell me I'm not going to have to switch on the laptop and do this every time I want to stream music from my iPhone?
 
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Just switched AE off and on again to see if all's well, and it's back to flashing amber again.

Powered up the laptop to have another look at the Airport Utility, and my wireless connection's vanished and I can't get online. Having to go through the whole palaver yet again. This is rapidly becoming the most frustrating thing I've ever bought. Grrrrrrrrr.
 
And at 10pm last night I threw in the towel. I'd got myself back to worse off than when I started, as my laptop couldn't connect to the AE wirelessly or via ethernet. Tried resetting everything, all to no avail. Of course, I don't know whether I managed a full factory reset or not, seeing as the laptop won't connect to the AE......

Did manage to get internet back up on the laptop with less messing around than the first time, which was something.

I'm not going to have time to investigate further until Sunday, when I'll give it one last go. If I can't sort it within a couple of hours, or at least get to a point where I understand why it's not working, it's going back in the box and back to Apple.
 
And at 10pm last night I threw in the towel. I'd got myself back to worse off than when I started, as my laptop couldn't connect to the AE wirelessly or via ethernet. Tried resetting everything, all to no avail. Of course, I don't know whether I managed a full factory reset or not, seeing as the laptop won't connect to the AE......

Did manage to get internet back up on the laptop with less messing around than the first time, which was something.

I'm not going to have time to investigate further until Sunday, when I'll give it one last go. If I can't sort it within a couple of hours, or at least get to a point where I understand why it's not working, it's going back in the box and back to Apple.

Don't you get 90 days of phone support from Apple?
 
Yes, but not sure I can face it. I've reached a point where I'm sick to death of the whole thing. I'd always been taken by the "it just works" factor of Apple, which was definitely the case with the iPhone. Just a shame I've not had the same success with this.
 
Are you still running WEP on your network router that is horribly insecure plus might be a possible cause for wireless problems with AE.

Try switching over to WPA encryption on your wireless router, after doing that
* start the airport utility
* select manual setup
* on the airport section go to wireless tab and select wireless mode = join a wireless network
* from drop down box select your wireless network
* wireless security = WPA/WPA2 personal
* enter in your password for WPA
* on the internet section it should be set to "using DHCP"
* Music section double check airtunes is enabled
* hit update

That should set it to join your wireless WPA encrypted network.
 
I did consider switching to WPA, but I'm not too keen as it would mean having to change settings on my laptop and iPhone, the other half's desktop, and both of our work laptops. I'm reluctant to have to change everything on the off-chance it might help when it might not and could lead to more problems.

Besides, WEP should work. It did work, in fact, albeit briefly. The latest problems started after I switched the AE on after it was switched off at the mains overnight. If some kind of reset or fiddling with the Airport Utility is going to be necessary every time the unit is without power, then it's not going to be suitable for me. Everything I'd read suggested powering-down overnight wouldn't affect it, but if it does, then it's not practical.

The only other thing I can think of is that the "allow ethernet connection" box was ticked to start with, which led to the AE being unable to get an IP by the wired connection when I powered it back up, and then it could have been unticked in last night's round of fiddling, leading to the connection problem I then had.

Looks like I'll be getting away from work at a more reasonable time than expected tonight, so may have time to play again when I'm home. Whatever happens, though, being able to disconnect it from the mains and it work again when it's plugged in, without needing to do anything else, is a must as far as I'm concerned.
 
The laptop and iPhone would have no problem connecting to WPA network other than entering in a new password no changes should be required, WEP is so insecure I would not use it in any circumstances given a choice.

The AE does not require any maintenance with Airport utility the settings are stored in the firmware, whatever problems your having seem wireless network related. If you Google Apple WEP you will find lots of problems with AE's trying to connect to WEP networks so I would strongly consider ditching WEP not only for security but for possible compatibility reasons with the AE.
 
Perhaps it's the way to go after all, then. I'm just being a bit stubborn. :)

As I remember it, sorting out wireless connections over WEP was painless – type in network name, type in network key, away you go. Is it as simple and exactly the same process with WPA?
 
Perhaps it's the way to go after all, then. I'm just being a bit stubborn. :)

As I remember it, sorting out wireless connections over WEP was painless – type in network name, type in network key, away you go. Is it as simple and exactly the same process with WPA?

Exactly the same. :smashin:

Let's get this working, you will forget about the pain once it is, I swear! :devil:
 
If I could get it working, and have it stay working, even if power's disconnected for days at a time, I would be a very happy chappy indeed. Concious that if I can't, for whatever reason, then I've only got until a week on Saturday to arrange a return. Glass-half-empty view, perhaps, but I don't want to be left with a fifty quid paperweight.
 
If I could get it working, and have it stay working, even if power's disconnected for days at a time, I would be a very happy chappy indeed. Concious that if I can't, for whatever reason, then I've only got until a week on Saturday to arrange a return. Glass-half-empty view, perhaps, but I don't want to be left with a fifty quid paperweight.

You've seen my thread and you've seen my config, so you know it works. :smashin:

Stop whining and let's get it sorted! :devil:
 
Okay, you convinced me. :)

Switched to WPA (you were both right, it was painless, though not sure whether I picked the right one as there seemed to be several WPA options) and managed to get my laptop, other half's desktop and my iPhone all working fine.

Plugged in Airport Express and, for the first time, the computer saw it wirelessly instantly and without issue. Was able to amend settings and have it join my existing wireless network, and got Airplay working, streaming from iPhone. Great, I thought.

However, during set-up, the Airport Utility reported it was unable to reconnect to the AE after updating it. Despite the green light, I went in to have a look in the settings, went through everything and clicked OK. It went through its motions, and then gave me an error code (6753) and the blinking amber light again. It's also booted the laptop off the network again, meaning another five minutes gone while the O2 Broadband Assistant did its thing. Still blinking amber light on the AE, though.

Airport couldn't see it, but was able to connect using its IP over ethernet. It was reporting that the AE didn't have a valid IP address (I'm baffled by IPs, I'll admit, so no idea on this) and that it was trying to connect to a wireless network that didn't exist (it did exist). Now I can't connect to it at all, wireless or ethernet. Was going to unplug, but then noticed the light had gone green. Hang on, I thought, I've been in this exact situation before.........

So, at time of typing, I can use Airplay from iTunes and iPhone, and it's only taken an hour to get back to this point. Only downside is that I can't go into AE via the utility, which means if I do get a problem tomorrow, after powering off, I'm back to where I started this evening.

That's the real test, whether the AE remembers everything after it and the router are powered-off overnight. I've not got the will to test it now, as I'll only end up going to bed in a bad mood (or, worse, staying up trying to fix it). Keeping everything crossed, and will update when I'm home tomorrow. Thanks for all the help so far, hopefully this is nearly at an end. :)


PS: Only confirmed other problems are the iPhone Remote app is having trouble finding my library, and the oven's broken again. Oh well. As long as that LED is solid green tomorrow...
 
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I was using 4 wireless G AEXs (living room, bedroom, headphone amp and garden room). 2 of these were on power save strips, so were constantly powering down and back on again, with no problems. (I am 100% Mac and using an Airport Extreme router, so that may give me a bit of an advantage). I was using WPA2.

I've now got 4 ATV2s but the cost to upgrade was not huge and wireless N 5 Ghz and video and playlists etc all on screen was worth it to me. YMMV.
 
Did what I said I wouldn't do and turned off then on again, just to see. I had the dreaded Amber flash for some minutes, but now it's gone green. Hopefully this bit of serendipity will repeat itself tomorrow.
 
Did what I said I wouldn't do and turned off then on again, just to see. I had the dreaded Amber flash for some minutes, but now it's gone green. Hopefully this bit of serendipity will repeat itself tomorrow.

Have you narrowed down whether it's wired or wireless connections that are problematic and whether it's specific to one PC?
 
Have you narrowed down whether it's wired or wireless connections that are problematic and whether it's specific to one PC?

Hold on, it seems to be working at the moment! Flashy, it will flash amber for a minute or so while it locks on to the network. Cross fingers for the next time... :)
 
Fired router and AE up before leaving for work, just to see. Had the blinking amber light for some time again (10 minutes or so), and noticed the wireless light on the router wasn't flashing. Turned wifi on on the iPhone, which connected immediately. The wireless light started blinking on the router, and then the AE light went green and all was well.

Fingers crossed, it's all sorted now. Not sure whether I can connect to the AE using the Airport Utility or not now, but I don't really see any reason to try until something goes awry, which, hopefully, it won't. Not sure everything is behaving in a strictly by-the-book manner, but it is working.

Thanks so much for all the advice and help, and pep-talks when I was ready to throw in the towel. :)
 
Fired router and AE up before leaving for work, just to see. Had the blinking amber light for some time again (10 minutes or so), and noticed the wireless light on the router wasn't flashing. Turned wifi on on the iPhone, which connected immediately. The wireless light started blinking on the router, and then the AE light went green and all was well.

Fingers crossed, it's all sorted now. Not sure whether I can connect to the AE using the Airport Utility or not now, but I don't really see any reason to try until something goes awry, which, hopefully, it won't. Not sure everything is behaving in a strictly by-the-book manner, but it is working.

Thanks so much for all the advice and help, and pep-talks when I was ready to throw in the towel. :)

Do your wifi devices have reserved IP addresses in the router?

If not, it might be worth doing that, as they may potentially be fighting for the same address?

Even if it doesn't make a difference, you will have done a good thing and you will at least know that wasn't causing a problem! :D
 
Talk of IPs and routers has always baffled me, really not my strong point (beginning to wonder what is :)). When I was in the router's settings last night, I did notice a list list of IPs next to devices (my PC, Wii, iPhone, etc - all the things that connect). I'm 90 per cent sure they all had different IPs, with the last one or two digits being different. Assume that means they are fixed?

Puzzled by the wireless light on the router. As soon as the iPhone connected it flashed, and then the AE connected within seconds.
 

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