[sebbio]

I have a MacBook Pro, and recently bought a second hand AirPort Snow - a.k.a. Dual Ethernet.

I can't seem to get it configured. It's locked with the old password, and the signal is WEP protected I think.

What I've done is I've performed a hard-reset - following the guide from the Apple Support pages, but it just didn't work.

Then...after hours and hours of googling, searching forums and stuff, I find this page: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301510 and I quote:

To administer the original AirPort Base Station (Graphite) or second-generation AirPort Base Station (Dual Ethernet) from a Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger" computer, you must use AirPort Admin Utility.

The version of AirPort Setup Assistant included with Tiger can't be used with the older base stations, and the older version of the assistant cannot be installed on Tiger.

The one exception is if you upgraded your computer from Mac OS X 10.3 with AirPort 4.1 software to 10.4. Under this circumstance, the "AirPort Setup Assistant for Graphite or Snow" may be carried over into 10.4. Though it may remain on your system after an upgrade, it will not actually work. It is left so that you may use it in the event that you "dual boot" your computer. In certain situations, this may also be called "AirPort Setup Assistant for Graphite and Snow."

Note: "Snow" is an alternate name for the second-generation AirPort Base Station (Dual Ethernet).

So...does this mean that I'm doomed, and there's no way I can get it up and running, or is there some way around the problem, or some hacks I can try?

[SWFan]

Thats just saying the automated assistant won't work with a Snow under Tiger. But the standard Airport Admin utility should work.

Are you trying to connect to the device using an Ethernet cable or via wireless? If you haven't tried Ethernet yet, I suggest you go that route. If your MBP won't connect to the base station via a direct wired connection then you could have a hardware failure problem with the BS. Also, IIRC, the hard reset only lasts for like a minute, so you have to be quick about connecting to it during the reset.

[sebbio]

I connect with cable.
I am able to find the base station, both when reset and not, but when I've finished point 17 in this guide: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106685 I get the error: "An error occurred while updating configuration"

[edit]

I tried it once more now - followed the guide point by point except this time I waited to turn on my AirPort until point 13 - just to make sure it was still in hard-reset mode while trying to configure it. Same thing happened: An error occurred while updating the configuration.

Annoying...

[spauldingg]

Bump, cause I am having a similar problem now. Any resolution in the last few months?
thanks.

[ghporter]

It sounds like the configuration isn't taking. This could easily be because the "second hand" ABS is FUBAR. While sebbio has hard reset the thing, has he restarted it? A good "turn it off for several minutes" power cycle could undo a host of glitches. What about you, spauldingg?

[spauldingg]

I believe that the problem lies with "system.keychain". It seems impossible to get the password to be accepted at startup/login, or in Keychain Access app. (in fact, system keychain is listed twice in the Keychain app. Can't be deleted.)

I have hit so many sites researching this, and the conclusion was formed from an amalgamation of sites so I can't really give any links. I have tried all of their "solutions" but the upshot is that the only way to do this without wiping the harddrive clean is to do some terminal stuff. Which scares me, mostly because the websites that post the commands are htlml and may or may not have the line breaks formatted correctly so I never know when to hit 'enter.'

I could most probably find that site again, I think it was on MacOSXhints.com or linked from there.

[spauldingg]

Oh, sebbio, I found out in my quests that the Snow and earlier airport hubs are not accessible with tiger through airport admin utlility. This might have changed with recent upgrades, as my intel iMac is now able to access it.

[ghporter]

Doesn't Apple have something in their knowledge base about this? I seem to remember something about a link to an older Admin Utility...