A fix for failed Airport Extreme-N access control list updates

Apr 29, '09 07:30:03AM

Contributed by: tneale

I have confirmed this bug at two sites using seven different AirPort Base Stations. I thought I had updated the Access Control List (ACL) on multiple Base Stations to allow several new computers and devices on the networks. Afterwards, however, users claimed trouble accessing in some locations -- that turned out to be true anywhere there was an AirPort Extreme-N Base Station; the older AirPort-Gs worked fine. Here's the mix of gear I was using to confirm this issue:

The Problem: Using Airport Utility v5.4.1, importing an Access Control List (File » (Option key) Import Access Controls) shows the updated ACL in the Access tab list. When the Base Station is updated and the configuration redisplayed, none of the new ACL entries appear on the list -- so none of the new devices have access to the base station. The ACL was not updated or overwritten. I was expecting it to be completely overwritten by the imported data, as happened before the most recent software and firmware updates.

Here's the workaround: Manually delete (by selecting one and clicking the minus sign below the list) all of the existing ACL entries before importing the list. The import/overwrite used to work prior to the AirPort Utility 5.4.1 and v7.4.1 firmware updates -- now it's broken. The need to manually delete dozens of entries on multiple Base Stations is very, very time consuming.]

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