The Latest AirPort Base Station Firmware Released

The Latest AirPort Base Station Firmware Released — Apple releases new firmware for its AirPort Express and AirPort Extreme Base Stations every few weeks, which is testament to the difficulty of maintaining Wi-Fi and operating system compatibility while keeping the units stable. The latest firmware updates (5.7 for AirPort Extreme and 6.3 for AirPort Express) appeared last week. The issues addressed range from major – LAN performance with AirPort Extreme – to obscure, such as improved support for RADIUS authentication. RADIUS isn’t obscure for those who use it, of course, and a bug I found in testing a server that used RADIUS for Wi-Fi logins may be fixed in this update.

<http://www.apple.com/support/airport/>

As with previous base station firmware releases, I recommend waiting to install these upgrades for a few days or weeks unless you are experiencing a specific problem enumerated in the release details. There are routinely reports of firmware installation problems when upgrades are released, and Apple often ships a quick fix a few weeks later. [GF]