Filed under: Airport, Software Update
The inevitable return of AirPort Extreme Update 2008-004
Now you see it, now you don't -- and now it's back. The very brief tenure of AirPort Extreme Update 2008-003 (it was available on Tuesday for a while, but then withdrawn) has given way to the shining reign of update 004. The update is a 2.2 MB patch recommended for all Intel machines on 10.5.5, resolving "some issues with Airport connections when roaming in large WiFi networks."Some of the commenters who installed the earlier build didn't experience any obvious ill effects; others reported installation hangs, lockups on reboot or problems connecting to wireless LANs, so your mileage may vary -- with any luck the new build has a steadier grip on stability.
You can download the new update via Software Update or (shortly) from the Apple support downloads page.
Thanks to everyone who sent this in
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Jeff said 12:13AM on 10-25-2008
HELP!
I installed it, and now my iMac cannot connect to my Wi-Fi!?
Reply
Jeff said 12:16AM on 10-25-2008
after many restarts and router reboots I got it working again.
Reply
steven warner said 12:40AM on 10-25-2008
Works ok for me on an Air and new MB 13. Also on the MB, it now says a/b/g/n for the network adapter in the network utility.
Alex Robert said 12:50AM on 10-25-2008
I don't know if this is related to the update, but I seem to be having trouble with my Remote app on my iPod touch. It won't load any cover artwork on any album when connected to my iTunes library on my iMac. When Remote is connected to my Apple TV, cover artwork loads without any problems. Could the update be blocking the transfer of he cover artwork from my iMac to the Remote app?
Reply
reallycrazyguy said 1:41AM on 10-25-2008
Not available from Apple Software Download yet, and I prefer using that instead of Software Update (as I tend to reinstall fairly often for development reasons).
I did install the 2008-003 Airport updater before Apple pulled it and didn't notice any difference in operation on my 17" MBP C2D 2.33.
Reply
Andre said 2:15AM on 10-25-2008
Strange that I installed it the first time around, not i says it needs to install it again - but it says it is 1.0. Shouldn't that be 1.1? Or would that be somehow admitting that they goofed?
Reply
Fubar said 2:41AM on 10-25-2008
I had installed the first version and hadn't noticed any problems or improvements. Ran update and ran this new(?) one and see a huge improvement. I have an iMac and connect wirelessly to my Time Capsule. I get instantaneous response to opening my music sub folder, or any folder for that matter where, before this update, there was ALWAYS a significant delay in opening any folder on the TC. So far this has been great...for me anyway.
Reply
Jacksyi@gmail.com said 2:56AM on 10-25-2008
I installed this update 2 hours ago and now my unibody macbook pro suddenly drops wi-fi connection and the entire system locks down. Happened twice already and it seems like the update was the cause.
Reply
Cameron said 3:06AM on 10-25-2008
Hopefully this fixes the lagging i get between waking up and connecting to the wifi network. sometimes it's about 30 seconds but 10 seconds is more the norm. Ive installed the update and so far so good.
Reply
Corpmac said 7:07AM on 10-25-2008
This was one scary installation - my Macbook Pro went way for a *long* time installing this. At least four minutes before reboot and six afterward. However, leaving it alone (and nervously drinking coffee) and all was fine afterward.
I wonder if some problems are caused by people interrupting the install process?
Reply
deltaiscain said 11:11AM on 10-25-2008
Installed it, and didn't change anything as far as i know. Signal strength is still the same as before. Will have to wait till i go to school to see if anything changed.
Reply
Jeremy said 2:13PM on 10-25-2008
@ Corpmac
Reading the nine posts above you, I think you hit the nail on the head. It requires a complete reboot of the system, so it's fair to assume that the first step in troubleshooting any problems would be to reboot any device trying to connect to the network afterwards, but none of the people with problems mention doing that.
Having spent a few years in tech support myself, I know that pretty much half of all problems reported to me by users can be fixed by the words... "restart the computer and tell me if that worked."
Reply
michas_pi said 3:04PM on 10-25-2008
I installed this update on my Late 2007 MacBook and haven't noticed any changes with my Wi-Fi connection. Signal strength is the same for the access point I usually connect to. I did not have the chance to install the update before this one since it was pulled.
Reply
Bob Entwistle said 4:01PM on 10-25-2008
I have an early Macbook and my son has a similar intel imac, both keep dropping wifi connections, in a random manner. My daughter has a newer macbookX2 which never drops its connection. I also have a Toshiba laptop running XP that never drops it's connection, a friend at work gave up in the end and bought a new macbook pro that now does not drop it's connection. There is a definite issue here that Apple needs to solve before it loses too many friends!
Reply
solarpos said 5:32PM on 10-25-2008
no change, still works great on mb, mbp and aebs
Reply
grull27 said 6:12PM on 10-25-2008
No problem on my new iMac.
Reply
Dan said 6:22PM on 10-25-2008
Over five years of utterly problem-free software updates and installs.
This one fried my system. Installed it, restarted, nothing. Safe-boot didn't even work. Going into single user and multiple fscks also didn't restore. None of the advanced troubleshooting stuff helped. I don't know wtf happened, and of course I can't for sure prove cause and effect - but I did absolutely nothing between the update and the restart.
Halfway through the Time Machine restore now. My first time trying one of those, as well. Sheesh. I'm going to spend my Sunday messing around by restoring the drive to five minutes before the upgrade and reinstalling the upgrade. We'll see what happens. If it doesn't work, I'll do another restore to 24 hours earlier...
Reply
gheller said 8:41PM on 10-25-2008
After I installed Update-003 I was getting 2 bars or less, and I thought it was my router. So, I went into the router several times, and changed wireless channels. That worked for a few minutes, but then it went back to two bars. I installed Airport Extreme Update 2008-004 and it seems to have solved my issues. Also, something worth mentioning is that I raised the transmit power on the router from 70 to 100 mW. The router is only about 45-50 feet away from where I use my laptop too...
Am I guessing right when I say that this update targets people with Broadcom chipsets? My brother has the MacBook from mid-2007 (2.16 GHz Core 2 Duo white), whereas mine is from late 2007 (2.2 GHz "Santa Rosa" White) and he's never had these problems. I believe those machines use the Atheros chipset.
(To double-check my assumption I just went to check my brother's System Profiler, but it doesn't seem to be labeled as to what chipset he's got. Then again, he's not fully updated (he's running on 10.5.2, and who knows what other stuff needs updating.).
With all that said, I seem to be running fine now, but if anything messes up I'll be sure to report back here to everyone.
Reply
GH said 10:37PM on 10-25-2008
I downloaded the one that they deleted, and my internet was faster and didn't lag.
i download this, and it freezes, kicks me off iChat and now it is so slow,
now even though i am sitting 2 feet away from my wireless (that i have reset etc.) i have a dot for bars.
this is really bad
Reply
iGO said 10:59PM on 10-25-2008
WOW !, WOW! WOW! and WOW!
My iMac has always connected wirelessly to my Airport Extreme Gigabit. I have run speed tests, via
http://www.pcpitstop.com/internet/bw.asp
and
http://speakeasy.net/speedtest/
I have always had excellent download speeds, from New Jersey to Los Angeles (chosen connect-to server), in the range of 16,000kbs to 30,000kbs. My upload speeds have never, ever, exceeded 1500kbs.
After this update, in the last 30 minutes, I have been getting over 3000kbs upload speed consistently. Twice the speed as before. WOW ! WOW ! WOW!
My provider is Comcast.
Reply