airport extreme wifi failure: help?

The Apple stores near me have no appointments so I thought I’d see if anyone out there might have suggestions before I camp out at the store for a few hours. My Airport Extreme was working quite fine until this morning. I see my network in the list of networks, but when I try to go to it, I’m told that there is an error joining it. I’m able to connect to the Extreme via a tethered Ethernet cord. I updated the firmware and I restarted it. The light is green and it’s in my list of networks but I can’t actually join that network (nor can my Airport Express). What on earth am I doing wrong?

Update: and the prize goes to DK for suggesting that I just needed to tell the router my lucky number and all would be well. (Tx to Dan and Joe and Jacob for taking the time to help me debug. Another techno doom averted!)

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6 thoughts on “airport extreme wifi failure: help?

  1. Jacob Haller

    When you’re connected via Ethernet, can you start up the Airport Admin Utility and get into the base station’s configuration screen? I’m wondering if the base station has somehow decided to restrict connections by MAC or something; if so, then you should be able to reset the settings from the Admin Utility.

    Good luck!

  2. joe

    yeah, you need to determine if it’s simply a software error or something specific to your notebook. I would do what Jacob says and then, using a paperclip, hold down the reset button on the base station (a small button) for about 5 seconds. That will completely reset the internal config. See if you can then set it up using the “airport setup assistant”. If none of this quite works, we’ll have to go from there.

  3. zephoria

    Jacob – no connections restricted (it even yells at me for ignoring password security for my network).

    Joe – restarted with the paperclip and reconfigured everything. Now the network doesn’t even appear in the list of networks (and I’m right next to it). I can still see it in the Airport Config and can use it via Ethernet, but can’t see it in the list of networks (and couldn’t get it it via a Closed Network either).

  4. DK

    Had similar issues and try changing the channels – if you can get back to it open up Airport Admin Utility and edit the channel tab – select any number other than the one it’s on…

    Good luck

    DK

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