AirPort Base Station hard reset failure?

[Rafa Lahuerta]

Dear all:

Could anyone help me with this? I start feeling kind of desperate.

I lost wireless connection to my AirPort base station. It just
disappeard 4 days ago while I was browsing the web (???). I tried to
reconnect by switching locations but my iBook showed no signal...
until now (the icon on the top bar says "No Aiport netwoks found").

I tested everything with this setup:

ABS <--- crossover cable ----> iBook (Mac OS 10.1.5)

I downloaded and run the upgrade 3.0.4 (firmware 4.0.8?) for Mac OS
10.1.5 via a crossover cable I seemed to work. Airport Configurator
said "There is new software available", etc).

I tried soft reset --> no luck (well, sort of, prompted for "new
password"). But STILL NO WIRELESS (tried different channels, WEP on,
WEP off,... ).

I tried hard reset as described in Apple Article 106602 and the ABS
starts blinking forever (all night long). Once in that state I can't
access the ABS in any way (LAN, WAN). It won't show up (crossover
cable).

What can I do? Am I supposed to be able to access the ABS while its
middle light keeps on blinking? It doesn't show up... I tried
switching locations, DHCP settings, static IP settings (the ones
mentioned in those articles), LAN, WAN ports... and the only way to
get it back is to switch the whole thing off and on again so I can
access it ONLY via LAN.

I have read I should switch it off for a day or so. But what then?

Any help would be really appreciated.
Thanks very much in advance.

Rafa.

[John Johnson]

In article <db578f38.0310010134.482a1e5a@posting.google.com >,
[email]uji00230@uji.infomail.es[/email] (Rafa Lahuerta) wrote:

> Dear all:
>
> Could anyone help me with this? I start feeling kind of desperate.
>
> I lost wireless connection to my AirPort base station. It just
> disappeard 4 days ago while I was browsing the web (???). I tried to
> reconnect by switching locations but my iBook showed no signal...
> until now (the icon on the top bar says "No Aiport netwoks found").
>
> I tested everything with this setup:
>
> ABS <--- crossover cable ----> iBook (Mac OS 10.1.5)
>
> I downloaded and run the upgrade 3.0.4 (firmware 4.0.8?) for Mac OS
> 10.1.5 via a crossover cable I seemed to work. Airport Configurator
> said "There is new software available", etc).
>

This sounds similar to problems that I had with my old Graphite BS. I
would come home and not be able to connect to anything, even though the
AP indicator in the toolbar claimed that I had signal. However,
MacStumbler would not find the network, and if I turned AP off and back
on, it wouldn't either.

In my case, I ended up replacing the BS under AppleCare. I've had to
reset the new BS once, but the problem is (mostly) gone.

[diagnostic snipped]

>
> I have read I should switch it off for a day or so. But what then?

turn it back on and try to connect with the crossover again, I guess.
For all the times that I had to reset the BS, power cycle it, attempt to
re-load the config file (which became corrupted with depressing
regularity), etc., I never could get a repeatable process established. I
would basically try some combination of:

power cycle
hard reset
wireless admin
crossover cable admin


Good luck with it.

[Rafa Lahuerta]

John Johnson <null@invalid.com> wrote in message

> I would basically try some combination of:
>
> power cycle
> hard reset
> wireless admin
> crossover cable admin
>

Thanks very much John. I'll stick to that for the moment.

I tried again with the same diagnostics. The only thing is that I get
on the iBook the address (LAN port again from the ABS) 169.254.118.194
with netmask 255.255.0.0. I wondered whether the ABS (BTW, snow model
2002) was assigning this IP while still blinking but Aiport config
utility cannot see it. According to Apple docs the address 169.254.x.x
is used in ABS WAN port (puzzled).

I wrote a shell script to ping all the addresses in the same net but
it takes ages. I believe I cannot "ping" the broadcast address
169.254.255.255, can I?

Any more ideas anyone?
Thanks again.

Rafa.

[Tom Stiller]

In article <db578f38.0310012328.20ef18be@posting.google.com >,
[email]uji00230@uji.infomail.es[/email] (Rafa Lahuerta) wrote:

> John Johnson <null@invalid.com> wrote in message
>

> > I would basically try some combination of:
> >
> > power cycle
> > hard reset
> > wireless admin
> > crossover cable admin
> >

> Thanks very much John. I'll stick to that for the moment.
>
> I tried again with the same diagnostics. The only thing is that I get
> on the iBook the address (LAN port again from the ABS) 169.254.118.194
> with netmask 255.255.0.0. I wondered whether the ABS (BTW, snow model
> 2002) was assigning this IP while still blinking but Aiport config
> utility cannot see it. According to Apple docs the address 169.254.x.x
> is used in ABS WAN port (puzzled).
>
> I wrote a shell script to ping all the addresses in the same net but
> it takes ages. I believe I cannot "ping" the broadcast address
> 169.254.255.255, can I?
>
> Any more ideas anyone?

That address, 169.254.118.194, is the address assigned by the OS when no
valid IP address can be determined. It would only be useful within a
LAN, if a valid link existed to other computers in the LAN. Apparently,
that's not the case with your failed AirPort.

--
Tom Stiller

PGP fingerprint = 5108 DDB2 9761 EDE5 E7E3
7BDA 71ED 6496 99C0 C7CF

[Rafa Lahuerta]

[email]uji00230@uji.infomail.es[/email] (Rafa Lahuerta) wrote in message news:<db578f38.0310010134.482a1e5a@posting.google. com>...

> I lost wireless connection to my AirPort base station. It just
> disappeard 4 days ago while I was browsing the web (???). I tried to
> reconnect by switching locations but my iBook showed no signal...
> until now (the icon on the top bar says "No Aiport netwoks found").
>
> I tested everything with this setup:
>

I fixed it up (or better: it got fixep up).

1. After Apple way's "hard reset" yesterday (2 secs after pluging in
the ABS) I switched the ABS off today.
I did this [url]http://www.vonwentzel.net/ABS/Reset/index.html[/url] . Once the
three blueish lights went on I pressed the reset button for more than
30 seconds.

2. I switched to my Airport location (AirPort card active) and wow!!!
There it was!!! High signal. No password question. Nothing strange
but...

3. I tried to use the configuration utility and couldn't see it (?). I
switched off, wait for a minute and switched on and everything was
back and OK and I could open the configuration.

Hope it helps someone on the same boat.
Cheers.

[James Dore]

In article <db578f38.0310020701.5a4e0e6a@posting.google.com >, uji00230
@uji.infomail.es says...

>
> I fixed it up (or better: it got fixep up).
>
> 1. After Apple way's "hard reset" yesterday (2 secs after pluging in
> the ABS) I switched the ABS off today.
> I did this [url]http://www.vonwentzel.net/ABS/Reset/index.html[/url] . Once the
> three blueish lights went on I pressed the reset button for more than
> 30 seconds.
>
> 2. I switched to my Airport location (AirPort card active) and wow!!!
> There it was!!! High signal. No password question. Nothing strange
> but...
>
> 3. I tried to use the configuration utility and couldn't see it (?). I
> switched off, wait for a minute and switched on and everything was
> back and OK and I could open the configuration.
>
> Hope it helps someone on the same boat.
> Cheers.

I am in the same boat (that's me at the back) - sounds very useful.

Cheers,
--
James Dore,
IT Officer,
New College
james.dore@new / it-support@new