Apple has released Airport Software 3.4 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. Airport Software 3.4 is available via Software Update (8 MB).
New AirPort Extreme Features
– Improved antenna output control
– Enhanced logging from your base station which is compatible with syslog
– Performance improvements for WPA security implementations
System Requirements:
This version of the AirPort software requires:
– Mac OS X v10.3 or later
– An AirPort Extreme-ready computer with an internal AirPort Extreme Card or
– An AirPort-ready computer with an internal AirPort Card
More information and download link for Airport Software 3.4 are also available from Apple’s website here.
At the risk of having to use cables again, I’ll install and let you know.
No worries. Working with my Cisco Aironet AP using WEP, and my NetGear AP using WPA.
why the hell did i update? 17″ 1.33 pb goes from 4 bars to 2. im only 15 feet away from the router
Dave H…
I have a netgear mr814 AP router and for the life of me I couldn’t get WEP to work via an airport card on the old software. Did your netgear AP just start working with WEP?
Installed went find on Airport Ex Base Station and Airport Ex cards. Running 10.3.3 Powermac G4 and Powerbook 12″.
I meant the installation went fine, not find… (DOH)
Never tried it Jeff. Mine is a DG834G, which comes with WPA-PSK (Personal WPA in Apple terms), so I just set it up with that out the box. If you can get your mr814 to support that with a firmware update, I would recommend it for security reasons. WEP is a bit easy to crack.
install ok. No loss of signal. Bathroom (best room to read email
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”wink” style=”border:0;” /> ) went from 2 to 3 bars. Might mean body functions will have to speed up as well…
Dave H,
I see you’re still free! I thought that some douchebag was supposed to send the CIA and FBI for one of your comments?
Peace.
Boeing777:
I agree–what’s up with that? There goes Ashcroft, falling down on the job again. We’ll have to remind him (again) about Dave H.
Boeing777
LOL. I’d forgotten about that. I wouldn’t be surprised if the FBI banged him up for wasting their time. I spent most of the two days following that thread laughing at the thought of me following Dick Cheney around with a PowerBook and a firewire cable, desperately trying to attach it to his iPod
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Dave H-
Netgear upgrade the firmware on a 802.11b router to support WPA? Bwahahaha. I wish. There was apparently a decision made to not get WPA working on the older routers in order to drive transitions to new g products.
So I’m stuck with my b router and WEP. My security settings include:
1. MAC Address control
2. WEP 64bit (128 is overkill and can be broken just as easily)
3. Disable SSID
3. VPN into my office.
The MAC address and WEP can each be broken, but I turn off my AP functionality when I don’t need it and keep logs of when I use my computer to access it… if someone else is piggybacking, I’ll know it.
Disabling SSID just keeps Joe User from spending his day guessing passwords. Any savvy user with a sniffer program can find an access point with a disabled SSID.
The VPN is what I rely upon to protect my data in transit. As far as I know, the VPN protocol is pretty stable. I’ve got the latest versions on both ends from cisco, so hopefully my neighbors won’t be sniffing my pr0n.
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Looks good jeff, except the fact you use your office connection for pr0n. Unless you own the company, or you’re the sysadmin who looks after the proxies, not a good idea
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Installed this morning on my G4 PowerMac at work – which I rarely use for Airport, but I do, so I thought what the heck.
It doesn’t like DAVE. We have a Windows 2000 Server network, and use Dave to browse network and stuff (using 10.3.3). It bunged up volume names on Ethernet, not Airport! Now instead of a volume name of WORK it’s WORK-1. Messed up pathnames in Extensis Portfolio – which already requires an Applescript to fix path names in records so Windows clients can see the previews for photos.
How could AIRPORT screw up my wired Lan connection? (Gigabit.) No real damage, but I had to rewrite an Applescript and re-set-up DAVE so that it logs into the volumes correctly now.
Installed on Powerbook17 and saw an IMMEDIATE NEGATIVE impact that has significantly weakened the signal of my home wireless network, and this has persisted. This is annoying–if it doesn’t go away, I’ll have to waste time figuring out how to UNinstall this! BTW, does anyone know an easy way to uninstall this type of upgrade a go back to the previous version??
P.S. I’m worried about what eric noted re DAVE; I have to use it as well to see shared files on Windows 2003 server at the office, and was thinking about setting up wireless.
My signal returned to normal levels after installing the new Airport firmware–it seems they go together.
No problems noticed here at all. If anything performance and reliability have improved slightly. I used a D-Link router and have installed the Airport client software on 2 Macs with the same results.
New update soon from Apple. In some cases the update makes connection strenght drop by as high as 30%. The issue has been reproduced at Apple labs.
So if you did not update you may want to hold few days: you might be lucky if you update now and have better results but may end up on the wrong side of the distribution and actually degrade you wireless experience.
Definitely caused problems with my Linksys WRT56G with WAP enabled. I haven’t spend any time becoming familiar with my router since I set it up (since it was effortless with the web interface), but it wouldn’t allow me to communicate with the router (even with security disabled). My airport signal was 3-4 bars, but no communication?
Momoe
15″ 1.25GHz PB w/ AP-Extreme
P.S. Anyone know of a wired/wireless print router that will allow me to set up my HP DJ5150 with this setup? Linksys’ didn’t work due to lack of Mac set-up.