#AIRPORT UTILITY UPDATE PROBLEMS UPDATE#

Getting your IPv6 backĪccording to Jeroen Massar, one of the operators of the free SixXS tunnel broker service, updated AEBSs send back error messages in response to the ping packets sent by the tunnel broker to determine whether the tunnel is operational. Inspection with the ifconfig command in the Terminal showed that the AEBS wasn't giving out IPv6 addresses. Unfortunately, the error message in the Airport Utility didn't go into any detail about the issue. I use one of those toward Hurricane Electric's free service, and indeed, after the upgrade my home network was IPv4-only.

#AIRPORT UTILITY UPDATE PROBLEMS UPDATE#

The update does, however, break manually configured tunnels. As such, those of us who want to be on the bleeding edge, Internet Protocol-wise, have to put our IPv6 packets inside IPv4 packets in order to skip over the IPv4-only part of the network. Ideally, ISPs would just provide IPv6 connectivity the same way they provide regular IPv4 service. Recent versions of the AEBS can provide IPv6 connectivity to the devices connected to them in four different ways: with and without tunnels, and automatically versus configured manually. The Airport Extreme base stations (AEBS) have a long and checkered past when it comes to supporting IPv6, which is the next version of the Internet Protocol that we now need more and more of as the world runs out of IP(v4) addresses. But don't panic-this is easily fixed by changing a setting in the Airport Utility. The update adds the ability to extend a guest network or add a WPS-capable Wi-Fi printer, and it improves 'international support.' However, it does something else, too: it breaks IPv6 tunnels. Assuming the release notes are accurate, the update barely warrants a bump after the second decimal point. Apple recently released firmware version 7.6.3 for its line of Airport Extreme Wi-Fi base stations.

Airport utility update problems