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AirPort Software Updated to v3.4

Posted by pudge on from the my-ware-is-firm dept.

iumacboy writes "Available now in your Software Update, Apple AirPort Software v3.4, which 'provides improved AirPort wireless networking software, and is recommended for all users with an AirPort Extreme and AirPort enabled computer or an AirPort Extreme base station.' New features include: 'improved antenna output control, enhanced logging from your base station which is compatible with syslog, and performance improvements for WPA security implementations.'" Apple also put up some AirPort Management Tools (a management utility for viewing logs and configurations, and a client monitor) but they quickly disappeared.

17 of 78 comments (clear)

  1. Airport update by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Maybe I am just crazy, but ever since I did this update last night, my signal strenth on my Airport extreme card (in my 15in PB) seems to have dropped. I am getting 3/4 bars on an access point that is about 4 feet away

  2. Warning! by awtbfb · · Score: 5, Informative

    You may not want to install this one just yet. Airport 3.4 has cut range considerably for some people. It's all over the Apple Discussion boards and Apple news sites.

    1. Re:Warning! by squiggleslash · · Score: 5, Informative

      Should you have already downloaded the update, this thread will help.

      --
      You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
  3. It lowered my signal by aclarke · · Score: 3, Informative

    I seem to get 0-2 bars less of signal strength on average than I did before the update. For instance, now I don't get any signal out on the patio when I easily did before. I'd think this was likely coincidence except others on this MacRumors thread have noticed the same thing.

    --

    www.clarke.ca
  4. Link supplied in body is dead by tm2b · · Score: 4, Informative

    The link for Airport Management Tools doesn't work for me - I get Apple's version of 404.

    Right now the Airport Management Tools can be downloaded from the Airport Support Page. Look down the right column until you get to the section, Resources.

    --
    "It is our blasphemy which has made us great, and will sustain us, and which the gods secretly admire in us." - Zelazny
  5. Reportedly killing range and disables MLDonkey by Fuzzle · · Score: 4, Informative
    Over at the Ars Mac Achaia, there's a thread about the downsides, they include:
    • Airport 3.4 is incompatible with MLdonkey filesharing. If you run MlMac or MlDonkey, the airport will drop the DHCP lease and refuse to renew. Your mac will assign itself a worthless IP.
    • PowerPage is reporting that this morning's update is cutting airport range on Extreme clients by up to 60% (!! !!).
    1. Re:Reportedly killing range and disables MLDonkey by MrAndrews · · Score: 4, Informative

      I can confirm that it does indeed kill your signal in places it used to work. Right now sitting one room away from the base station (where I used to get 3+ bars), I now get one, sometimes two. My connection keeps dropping out and I have to restart to get it back most of the time.

      Still, could be worse.

      --
      The world's only surviving livewriter.
  6. Kills the range by aclarke · · Score: 4, Informative

    See my other comment here on this thread. I used to have service out on the balcony and now I don't. It's quite a dramatic difference, really.

    --

    www.clarke.ca
    1. Re:Kills the range by your_mother_sews_soc · · Score: 4, Informative

      I agree, it kills the range. I updated this morning and spent 30 minutes cycling through all 11 channel selections trying to regain my signal strength. My connection now vanishes 15 feet away on a number of channels where before it didn't. Not bars, but connection.

      I wish I could say I should have read this first, but that was 8 hours ago. If my Airport signal weren't borderline in the first place, I wouldn't have applied the "fix". Live and learn.

      --
      My user name was a mistake. Input wasn't restricted, my bad.
  7. Agreed on the range issue by azav · · Score: 2, Informative

    My Ti is 10 feet from the Extreme base station and I'm getting 60% on the bars after running the update.

    Test early, test often, test on all supported platforms.

    --
    - Zav - Imagine a Beowulf cluster of insensitive clods...
  8. Re:Airport Extreme Base Firmware Update by pudge · · Score: 4, Informative

    The plain AirPort update gives you the firmware update for the base station. You can upload it from the Airport Admin Utility. Maybe I am odd, but I always run the Admin util after upgrading AirPort, to see if there is a firmware update.

  9. Another Report by theanonymousbrit · · Score: 3, Informative

    I have a PowerBook G4 and an Airport Extreme base station w/ a Dr. Bott Direct Antenna. Before I installed the update I was getting 3-4 bars of signal just one room away from it. Post-update, I'm getting one to two bars, if I'm lucky (though I've yet to totally lose network connectivity). I haven't tried the tutorial to uninstall the offending software (again, available here), though it looks like it would do the trick. Hopefully Apple will remedy the problem before I'm forced to take such drastic measures, since it's obviously quite a widespread issue.

  10. Re:Problems in 802.11g only? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Linksys 8702.11b router at home, netgear 802.11b at work. No problems. No signal strength difference.

  11. Quick Summary by raga · · Score: 4, Informative

    If you are having problems with the 3.4 update, revert back to 3.3.1. Here's a tutorial on how to do it.

    As best as I can determine, a combination of (one or more) of the following causes the problem:
    1) Airport Extreme network
    2) ABS extreme not updated to 3.4 (only the mac updated to 3.4)
    3) Using a network app such as Retrospect/LimeWare/MLdonkey etc.
    4) Apple has changed the algorithm to the signal strength display.

    It may be a good idea to hold off the upgrade till 3.4.x is released.

    Having said that, I should add that I did upgrade without any problems (couldn't wait to play with the new apps :). My setup does not have the issues listed above. YMMV.

    The new Airport Client Monitor is cool. It plots the signal and noise strengths, as well as the transmit rate (which I could also see on MenuMeter, but not as a plot over the last 60 seconds.) The Airport Management Utility seems to be a superset of the old Airport Admin Utility and would probably be most useful if you have more than one ABS to handing off roving clients to one another. It can also "see" all Rendezvous enabled devices.

    cheers- raga

  12. File Mirror by theanonymousbrit · · Score: 4, Informative
    Unfortunately, I didn't keep the original .dmg file, which included (if I recall correctly) a readme file. As there was no specialized installer for the two programs, though (just the ol' drag-and-drop method), I've .dmged the tools again and stuck them up on my site. They are available here. I still want to know why they pulled them in the first place, but oh well, enjoy!

    Goodbye, sweet bandwidth, and flocks of /.ers speed thee to thy doom.

  13. For what it's worth by bXTr · · Score: 2, Informative

    After installing the update, my Ti800 rebooted and was fine. I closed the lid until the next day and had no connectivity. I ended up having to hard reset the ABS (dual-ethernet, not Extreme) and upload firmware via the LAN port. ABS settings had to be redone, but I got it back up. Docs for doing the above are here.

    --
    It's a very dark ride.
  14. Re:Possibly a false negative. by DAldredge · · Score: 2, Informative

    There are 3, count them 3 (1, 2, 3) posts made before yours about people not being able to connect after the update in ares they could connect befre the update.

    You must be one of the mods that mod bombs every apple post I make.