I may be missing something painfully obvious, but how do I upgrade the firmware on an Airport Express? When I visit the firmware page, I don't see a download link, but when I follow the attached instructions, the only firmware options I see in the Airport Utility are ones that I have downloaded locally. How do I go about upgrading this (either in Windows or Mac, I've got both).
Updating Airport Express Firmware
airport-expressfirmware
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Here's a tip for some of you that have issues with Airport Expresses dropping off Airport Utility/Airplay: After months of my ethernet-connected Airport Expresses dropping off Airplay in iTunes, and only appearing in about 2 minutes after a power off/on in Airport Utility/iTunes (Windows), I finally got it all working.
It turned out to be that the home router (Netgear WNDR3700) was blocking Bonjour multicasts over its switched ethernet ports and WiFi (although set up as no to, according to Netgear support, no GMPL spoofing etc). Connecting the ethernet ports to a bona fide switch (LinkSys LGS124) instead and using the Netgear router as a WiFi Access Point only, everything started to work and has been rock solid ever since! Never a drop, always appearing in iTunes (Windows) and iOS devices and I now have a super multiroom audio system with four Airport Express units. Now I am just waiting for Apple's rumored 24-bit/96 KHz update for Highdef audio ;-).
It did 'work' before when all was wirelessly connected, but then I had drop out issues due to WiFi interference and low signal strength in some rooms (big 19th century house with brick walls). This is why I installed Cat6 throughout and shifted to GigE in the first place.
I have seen many posts about disappearing Airport Express from Airplay and that Airport Utility cannot find the units - this post may provide a hint. Check out your router! If it's a run of the mill home router and not by Apple, chances are that it blocks the Bonjour multicasts by default - and you may not be able to configure it not to. I also tried with an ASUS RT-A66U with the same results as the WNDR3700.
According to the Firmware Upgrade Manual you should be able to check the firmware version of the drive in Device Manager. Presumably the device name will reflect the firmware version.
If not try going to the Details tab for the device in Device Manager and select Hardware Ids in the Properties dropdown you may see an extra bit of information in the drive name which may show what the firmware version.
-=EDIT=-
As a rather amusing aside, I can see why your firmware update is failing, as on their download page:
*CURRENT FIRMWARE RELEASE is v1.7
Note: Current FW must be v1.6 before flashing to v1.7
Please backup all data on the SSD as a precaution
I cannot immediately see V1.6, so it's rather stupid that they do not post previous versions of the firmware if it requires an incremental update.
Are you sure you don't have a Vertex 2 or Vertex LE whose firmware is at V1.35?
Best Answer
Typically I use the AirPort Utility program to upgrade the firmware on all of my airport devices.
Here's some FAQs from Apple on the subject. To quote: