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Apple releases AirPort Base Station and Time Capsule Firmware Update 7.6.1

Monday, January 30, 2012 · 6:53 pm · 26 Comments

Apple today released AirPort Base Station and Time Capsule Firmware Update 7.6.1 which is intended for all 802.11n AirPort Express, 802.11n AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule models.

The update fixes an issue with wireless performance and provides support for remote access to an AirPort disk or a Time Capsule hard drive with an iCloud account.

Detailed information on AirPort base station and Time Capsule firmware updates, including instructions how to install the update, here

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "Deus Ex Technica" for the heads up.]

Categories: News

Tags: Airport, AirPort Base Station and Time Capsule Firmware Update 7.6.1, software update, Time Capsule

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Comment Feed

26 Comments

Tomas S.

Monday, January 30, 2012 - 7:08 pm · Reply

Did the update of the app, and firmware on TC. The process bricked my WDS. That option is now gone, since the g and n networks are now unified in setup. The Airport Express is a b/g model, so WDS is the only way. Seems I have to buy a new one. A bit silly, but I didn’t see this mentioned online…
- Zaphod
  
  Monday, January 30, 2012 - 8:31 pm · Reply
  
  Hold down the option key when clicking on the pull down menu to get the wds option on the new firmware…
XS

Monday, January 30, 2012 - 7:12 pm · Reply

Total crap.
- XSnightclub
  
  Monday, January 30, 2012 - 7:27 pm · Reply
  
  Had to restart and config Time Capsule-
  Then reinstall airport utility 5.6 to setup Airport Extreme (6.0 doesn’t support it)
  
  Got it all working again.
  Hassle big time!
Tflint

Monday, January 30, 2012 - 7:27 pm · Reply

Detailed information on AirPort base station and Time Capsule firmware updates, including instructions how to install the update, here
Nope. That page does not exist!
Are you sure this is legit? From the previous comment, I think I’ll avoid this.
Daniel Lysk

Monday, January 30, 2012 - 7:42 pm · Reply

Updated with no troubles works well for me.
praus

Monday, January 30, 2012 - 7:57 pm · Reply

Installed it and it went very smoothly. It could be my imagination but it seems like the network is faster.
- Robbll
  
  Tuesday, January 31, 2012 - 7:41 am · Reply
  
  I agree, the net seems wicked fast now. No problems on install.
jim

Monday, January 30, 2012 - 8:00 pm · Reply

snappy!!!
Todd Sellers

Monday, January 30, 2012 - 8:10 pm · Reply

The new update is visually appealing, but it loses a lot of capability (graphing, radio power, etc.)
- Jubei
  
  Monday, January 30, 2012 - 8:14 pm · Reply
  
  Why would Apple do that?
  - Todd Sellers
    
    Monday, January 30, 2012 - 8:25 pm · Reply
    
    Changes:
    - No Printer Configuration
    - No IPV6 Configuraiton
    - No Logs and Statistics
    - No Multicast Rate
    - No Transmit Power
    - No Wide Channels
    - No Interference Robustness
    
    I don’t know why.
    - davylow
      
      Monday, January 30, 2012 - 11:53 pm · Reply
      
      - No “Allow this network to be extended” checkbox. Extending networks is now always allowed.
      - D-Bog
        
        Tuesday, January 31, 2012 - 3:06 am · Reply
        
        I am so sick of this.
        Why is Apple removing useful information and options on everything!?!?!?!?!?
- Saldin
  
  Tuesday, January 31, 2012 - 9:14 am · Reply
  
  http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1482
  
  You can download the Airport Utility 5.6 to manage it with the old interface.
Ballmer's left nut

Monday, January 30, 2012 - 8:41 pm · Reply

Apple has a proclivity for removing useful information and dumbing down everything until only retards with an IQ of 40 will be the users of it.
- Arnold Ziffel
  
  Monday, January 30, 2012 - 9:47 pm · Reply
  
  Then, you should be happy, ‘Stockboy’.
Jubei

Monday, January 30, 2012 - 8:42 pm · Reply

I think Apple hired too many ex Windows Eng. some of these recent updates from Apple reek Windows sabotages.
- XSnightclub
  
  Monday, January 30, 2012 - 9:37 pm · Reply
  
  but then we’d have the options to meaninglessly change the color scheme of the utility and system sounds when opening and closing it
paul

Monday, January 30, 2012 - 9:19 pm · Reply

My b/g express that was getting used just for music is now unsupported? wtf? why on earth would you do that?

And as others have said, I’ve also now lost information about my signal strength.

Bad upgrade.
- jaundiced
  
  Monday, January 30, 2012 - 9:36 pm · Reply
  
  Based on a cursory test with my iPhone in my yard, it appears that signal strength has been reset to 100%. I was using 10% to minimize the possibly of “drive-bys” having even a chance to intercept the signal. I’m using the “hidden network” option, an a complex network name and password, so it’s probably not a big deal.
  
  But I agree: this one change alone could be a security issue for some people.
  - KisMAC
    
    Tuesday, January 31, 2012 - 10:07 am · Reply
    
    Having a hidden network (even one with a complex name) is irrelevant. All I have to do is open up KisMAC and send a deauthentication flood. You wouldn’t notice anything happening other than rather poor connectivity, but your wireless device would try to re-connect to the wireless network, sending the network name in clear-text. The network name is then plainly listed in KisMAC’s interface.
    
    What’s really important with wireless security is encryption method and password complexity. You want to use WPA2 Personal (using *only* AES, if you have the option between AES, TKIP, or both). You also want a long, complex password. Using a word or two is a poor choice because one can run a “dictionary attack” against the encryption. Sentences are better. Most dictionary attacks are also inclusive enough to work against common “1337 5p34k,” such as “4pp13,” “c0mput3r,” or “p4ssw0rd.”
    
    “I like my 5 GHz airport extreme,” “2.4 GHz MacBook Pro,” or even simply “My name is John and I like fast cars” would be cryptographically much stronger and easier to remember than, say, “5934dcb2e3.”
    
    Of course, if you have even modest security, as it sounds like you do, no one will have the patience to hack an encrypted residential wireless network when there are thousands of unencrypted networks. Not to mention that the folks who don’t know how to encrypt a wireless network would also make better targets anyway, I would imagine.
    
    Disclaimer: I’m not a security “expert,” and my understanding of wireless network security may be dated (or even just wrong).
TowerTone

Monday, January 30, 2012 - 10:05 pm · Reply

OK, I guess some don’t know you can have both.
As far as the ‘mixed’ networks (newer ‘n’ and older ‘g’ routers), I don’t know if you can use both, but I simply downloaded 5.6, which became a NEW app (I had ‘Airport Utility’ and ‘Airport Utility 5.6′ listed in Finder)

After opening both Airports at the same time and comparing, I then closed both, opened ‘Airport Utility’, and allowed it to update to 6.0.

Now I have 5.6 and 6.0 listen in finder, and can run both at the same time.

It’s like somebody said, you can have Quicktime 7 and Quicktime X.
Hank McGyver

Tuesday, January 31, 2012 - 6:20 am · Reply

You can download Airport Utility 5.6 from the Apple Support page and get all the functionality back that is lost in 6.0.

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1482
ken1w

Tuesday, January 31, 2012 - 4:18 pm · Reply

I have the original square 802.11n AirPort Extreme Base Station (from 2007 I think). It’s nice to still get firmware updates for it, after FIVE years.

Two firmware updates ago, Apple did something to make a particular external USB drive that I have work more reliably with it (as an “AirDisk”). Previously, I could not get it to work with decent transfer speed, although a different USB drive worked fine. After that update, it was working very nicely.
Dan

Tuesday, January 31, 2012 - 6:03 pm · Reply

Same problem here: using the new Utility bricked my Time Capsule. Messages that “update failed” lead to a dead end and the Apple store for a new router which set up in 2 minutes and seems hotter and faster. Probably needed it. I will do a factory reset on the old one, when the pressure of getting a network back up is over, and see if that would have worked. Strangely it helped to know that others had the same problem. Good group.