[David2213]

Lately if i have been downloading over a MB or so my airport extreme will begin to flash brown and my airport utility will open itself up and it says





If I do nothing then everything returns to normal. It is just a hastle to have my internet turnoff anytime i download anything. I am on Cox interent.

Thanks for your help.

[Cold Warrior]

What does your airport extreme connect to - a cable modem or some other device like a combination modem/router?

[David2213]

just a cable modem i think...it is a motorolla surboard SB5101

[David2213]

bump

[Cold Warrior]

Just to confirm your network setup:

cable modem > airport extreme > MB.

[Big Mac]

If that's the setup and you're getting that error, then it would imply that your cable modem is doing NAT. I don't think surfboards have built-in routers, though. That's odd.

[Simon]

Originally Posted by Big Mac 

If that's the setup and you're getting that error, then it would imply that your cable modem is doing NAT.

That's exactly what I was thinking. Can you turn off all NAT/DHCP on the modem and let the your AirPort take over that job?

If that modem indeed does not do any routing, is it possible that it's further upstream? That the provider is putting many customers into the same subnet and running a NAT gateway further upstream? I've heard of some providers doing that to cut costs. Usually you will notice it when Bonjour picks up other "local" computers you know nothing about.

[ghporter]

The problem with having a cable modem is that the ISP can push things like firmware updates and (more importantly) configuration changes to the modem. And not every user is even aware that every broadband "modem" is a router and has some sort of configuration that can be accessed and altered. Get the Surfboard's manual (if you don't already have it) and see how to access it. Change the setup to bridge rather than NAT and you should be fine. You could also look for an option that prevents configuration changes from the WAN side...that would keep the ISP from messing with you like this.

[Cold Warrior]

I researched that model and didn't see support for any sort of routing so I haven't been focused on it. But yes, in the chance that it could be, dig into your modem and see if it's acting as a router or has some other functionality enabled.

[David2213]

Update: i haven't made any changes to my network setup but the problem seems to be fixed. I looked into the modem and it isnt a router and i couldnt see that i was acting as such. im not sure what changed but all seems to be ok for now.

Thanks for the help!