Apple have updated the AirPort Extreme Base Station and Time Capsule, which are now offering simultaneous 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz dual-band networking “for optimal performance, range and compatibility.” The new models also offer the ability to set up a secondary Internet-only Wi-Fi network to allow family and friends to access the Internet without giving them the password to the primary network or allowing them access to networked drives and other peripherals. Finally, Time Capsule offers MobileMe members the ability to access files on their device’s hard drive over the Internet from anywhere.
Airport differences updated
I have updates the Airport differences page on my website.
It now includes the new 802.11n Airport Express and the two Time Capsule variants.
I now expect Apple to release new versions on Tuesday!
MacBook Pro issue resolved totally now I hope
In a previous blog posting I mentioned the problems here and here, I was having with my 802.11n WPA2 encrypted network and a MacBook Pro.
In the end what seemed to help was ensuring that Airport was at the top of the network configurations.
However even with that it still took the MacBook Pro some time after sleep to re-connect to my 802.11n Airport wireless network. Even then sometimes it failed to re-connect so I had to turn the Airport on the MacBook Pro off and back on again.
The MacBook Pro has now been upgraded to Leopard 10.5.2 and this does seem to have resolved the issue fully, with the MacBook Pro re-connecting to the wireless network immediately rather than after a minute or so.
Hopefully it will remain resolved and not happen again.
802.11n Airport Extreme update allows Time Machine backups
The latest Apple update for the 802.11n Airport Extreme now allows attached USB drives to be used as Time Machine backups.
This was always a disappointing non-feature of the 802.11n Airport Extreme that though you could share a USB drive wirelessly, you couldn’t use that same drive for your Time Machine backups.
It was especially disappointing as it had been mentioned in a lot of the build-up to Leopard.
Apple’s new Time Capsule did allow that functionality, and a lot of people were disappointed that still the 802.11n Airport Extreme did not.
This update fixes that and now you can.
New 802.11n Airport Express
As predicted, Apple announced their new 802.11n Airport Express.
Now featuring support for the faster 802.11n Wi-Fi specification, the new AirPort Express Base Station delivers up to five times the performance and twice the range of the previous model. The world’s smallest 802.11n-based mobile base station, the new AirPort Express offers a great option for anyone who wants to set up a high-speed wireless network, share a printer wirelessly, or stream iTunes music wirelessly from a Mac or PC with AirTunes. And because its so compact, you can take AirPort Express with you and set up an ad hoc wireless network in your hotel room.
So the main difference is the 802.11n speeds which is welcome.
Interestingly at the time of writing the 802.11n Airport Express was not available in the UK online Apple store, but that might be just because today is the day of release.
New 802.11n Airport Express “on Tuesday”
If the rumour sites are to be believed there will be a new 802.11n capable Airport Express from Apple released on Tuesday.
We had heard reliable reports that Apple will be launching a new version of their Airport Express next week, likely on Tuesday. Apple Retail stores should have stock of the new Airport Express by mid week. The new model will be priced at the same price as the current model ($99). Though details have not been confirmed, it appears the upgrade will most likely include support for 802.11n wireless networking.
One of the downsides of the 802.11n Airport Extreme was that if you wanted to stream iTunes through AirTunes you had to downgrade your network to 802.11g compatability as the current Airport Express is 802.11g only.
A new 802.11n Airport Extreme would allow you to have a pure 802.11n wireless network and stream AirTunes as well.
I suspect it won’t support video, well that’s what the Apple TV is for.
According to the rumour images the form factor hasn’t changed, so it still looks like a MacBook power brick.
Not long till Tuesday now.
Ouch, it’s hot!
After not using it for a while, I decided that I would move my Mac mini from under the TV and move it to another room and use it as a web server.
I never really got round to using it as a TV computer, or media centre or anything really. An old CRT television is never much cop for showing a computer screen so was always using VNC to control it and if I am doing that I might as well use the laptop I am using to control the mini to do my computer stuff.
As a media centre it failed, as the Mac mini could not cope with the streams that the USB EyeTV device provided. The EyeTV relied on the mini for encoding and could it do it, no, not very well.
I also found that I rarely watched TV which I wanted to pause if I got interrupted, for things I did care about I had already recorded it already on the iMac and was watching it through the EyeHome.
However after I moved it I realised I must have turned the Airport off, so I connected it back to the 802.11n Airport Extreme by ethernet and VNC’d back in.
Now here’s my advice, if you leave a Mac mini on top of an 802.11n Airport Extreme, be aware that both will get too hot to handle! The Mac mini’s fans were going like they were going to take off.
It’s incredible how hot the 802.11n Airport Extreme gets, what does it do which means it get’s so hot?
Well the Mac mini is now in a cooler place acting as a temporary web server.
MacBook Pro Airport issue resolved, possibly…
I think I may have resolved my MacBook Pro Airport re-connection issues.
I ensured that Airport is at the top of the network configurations and this seems to have solved my re-connection issue when running a pure 802.11n wireless network.
I find it strange that something as simple as moving a network configuration to the top should solve this issue with an 802.11n network. However it is not an issue when running in b/g compatible mode!
Well it’s working for me now.
MacBook Pro Airport Issues Continue…
Since I upgraded my Airport Extreme network to a pure WPA2 802.11n 5GHz wireless network, my MacBook Pro has consistently failed to re-connect to the network after waking from sleep.
It does this in both 10.4.10 and 11.5.1 and when connected to an Airport Express running 802.11g WPA/WPA2 no problems, will re-connect every time.
My iMac which is connected to the 802.11n network does not have this issue.
If I move back to 802.11n/b/g on the 2.4GHz radio mode the problem disppears.
I have followed the advice given by Apple here and another piece of advice which said ensure the Airport is at the top of the network configurations, but alas no luck.
Once or twice the MacBook Pro has reconnected, but 99% of the time no re-connection and the only solution is to either join the 802.11g network or re-boot.
Annoying.
MacBook Pro Airport Sleep Issues
My MacBook Pro has stopped re-connecting to my Airport network after sleep. I am sure this is down to the fact that I have started to use it on a WPA2 802.11n wireless network.
Checked my settings, but nothing there that seemed out of order.
A quick Google search and up comes through this site the following Apple KB article which has a solution, will try it and see what happens.