Updating firmware on Airport Extreme

[MotionMan]

I just acquired three 2nd Gen. Airport Extremes. I was able to set up the first two without issue. The last one has me stumped.

When I try to access it through the Airport Utility (on Yosemite machine), it says:

"This version of AirPort Utility requires this AirPort Extreme use firmware version 7.3.1 or later"

It will go no further in the setup process and only offers "Cancel".

All of my machines are running Yosemite, so no older version of the utility are available.

How do I update the firmware when the utility won't help?

MotionMan

 

[Eug]

I agree, this is stupid, but can you boot an older version of OS X?

The other stupid thing is that the newer version of Airport Utility has less functionality.

 

[MotionMan]

I agree, this is stupid, but can you boot an older version of OS X?

The other stupid thing is that the newer version of Airport Utility has less functionality.

Oddly, I have an old Airport Express on my network that I administer through Airport Utility in Windows (running on Fusion)(because the new utility will see it, but cannot administer it), but the new Airport Extreme will not show up in that at all.

I was very unhappy when I learned that the changes in the new utility were now forced on us after updating to Mavericks. At least in Lion and ML, you could still run the older version along side the new version.

MotionMan

 

[dawks]

Not that I'm of any help, but back in January, I tried to update my latest gen Airport Express to the latest firmware, but it stopped my iPhone 4S from connecting. Everything else worked fine (had about 10 things connecting to it), just my 4S couldnt. Had to roll back the firmware. Its working fine now so I've just left it at the older version. Right now I use it as my gateway/router, and sole access point with about 15 devices connecting to it regularly. Works great.

 

[MotionMan]

At work, we had an old PC sitting in a spare office. So, I brought the AE in yesterday, installed the utility, and was able to update the firmware.

When I got home, I was able to use my Mac set it up for my network.

There really should be a better way.

MotionMan

 

[Eug]

At work, we had an old PC sitting in a spare office. So, I brought the AE in yesterday, installed the utility, and was able to update the firmware.

When I got home, I was able to use my Mac set it up for my network.

There really should be a better way.

This is one thing I really hate about the Apple ecosystem.

In my case though it's usually not a problem, since I have so many Macs around that I can deal with it. I also keep bootable installs for OS X as far back as 10.4 since I have G4 Macs, old Intel Macs, and newer Intel Macs in the house. It makes troubleshooting stuff like this easier, but I agree, it shouldn't be necessary.