Apple Releases AirPort and Time Capsule Firmware and Utility Updates

Apple today released a series of updates for its AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule wireless base stations, addressing wireless performance issues in its latest models and offering several other bug fixes.

- Time Capsule and AirPort Extreme Base Station Firmware Update 7.5.1 brings fixes for a pair of issues on Apple's latest AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule base stations released last October.

This update provides several fixes for the latest Time Capsule and AirPort Extreme Base Station (Late 2009) including:

- An issue with wireless performance in the 5GHz band
- An issue with creating a Guest Network in the 5GHz band

Issues with 5 GHz performance on the new base stations had been well-documented, and users noted earlier this month that models had begun shipping with the 7.5.1 firmware version that seemed to address the problem. Today's release, which is accessible through AirPort Utility, extends the fix to existing devices.

In order to support the new firmware version, Apple has also released AirPort Utility 5.5.1 for Mac OS X (10.24 MB) and Windows (10.70 MB). The updates also offer fixes for several other minor issues.

AirPort Utility 5.5.1 includes general bug fixes and addresses the following issues:

- Not importing all settings when importing a configuration.
- Not propagating MAC address control lists when using an extended network.

The Mac OS X version of AirPort Utility 5.5.1 requires Mac OS X 10.5.7 or later, while the Windows version requires Windows 7, Vista SP1 or later, or XP SP3 or later. Users are encouraged to update AirPort Utility before applying the base station firmware update to AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule models.