I just ran Repair Disk Permissions on a couple of Macs that have gotten all those updates beamed down… and there were quite a few permissions glitches.

So, be sure to run Repair Disk Permissions (from Disk Utility) after running the update.

While Leopard has improved in this regard, I still suggest running Disk Permissions after any update that requires a system reboot.

This is a stark contrast to Steve Jobs’ own comments when Mac OS X Leopard was unveiled. “AirPort Extreme is the perfect backup solution for Leopard.” His words. Now that Time Capsule is out, Apple appears to refuse to fix the original AirPort Extreme, which with its USB port, could backup to Time Machine. However, bugs with the setup continue, and Apple refuses to detail any technical reason why they could not be fixed.

Today, Apple closed all my bug reports on the matter with the following statement: “Please note that the current configuration is not supported.  We recommend using Time Capsule.

We consider this issue closed.  Thank you for taking the time to notify us of this issue.”

So, Apple, will you credit my cost of the AirPort Extreme (which Steve Jobs told us all to buy ahead of Leopard), for the cost of a Time Capsule? Didn’t think so.

I advise everyone stuck with one of these units, to buy an OSx86 PC, and backup to that. If Apple hauls me into court, I’ll counter-claim in a class action over this debacle. Also, this weekend I will have much fun in yanking my AirPort Extreme from my network. Apple has clearly dropped the ball here.

I was at a lunch the day before, talking up how my MacBook Pro has been running without a hitch, while everyone else was complaining about MacBook failures. I was asking for it… and boy did I get it today.

Basically, AirPort started locking up. I could connect to my network, and web pages would load, but any data-intensive requests locked up. For example, Mail would time out, and NetNewsWire would struggle to load pages.

At first I thought I was dealing with a bad AirPort Card. Booted up my USB 2.0 hard drive with a separate Leopard install… and everything was working. So, I realized it had to be an issue with something on my internal hard drive drive. I’m still not sure what went screwy. No filesystem errors, no bad sectors on the drive, cleared the caches, trashed all the network and AirPort plist files… and it still wouldn’t work.

My only option was to reinstall Mac OS X. And, I couldn’t recover system settings and user accounts. I tested with a second user account, and it was not working too. So, I know it was a system corruption, but I couldn’t rule out a defective plist file somewhere else in /Library.

What a waste of a day… now I’m reinstalling software, moving files back by hand, and setting everything back up. Thankfully, I have a 12-inch PowerBook G4 for when this happens, and I’ll be finishing the weekend with that.

Oh, and why I wrote this post… I suspect it may be Security Update 2008-005 that caused this problem, since I installed that right before the problems surfaced. If you are having any network issues after installing 2008-005, post away in the comments so I can help Apple pinpoint the issue.

Update: This is getting very annoying, and it has taken up too much time. I have to move on, and de-commission my MacBook Pro for a week. Wonderful (not). I have pinned it down to something in /Library/. But, it’s not a preference, an input manager, or a launch daemon, and it’s not a startupitem.

The result? I can’t trust anything inside of /Library/ and have to reinstall every single application by hand.

This really, really, feels like a Windows problem…

I have successfully backed up my 12-inch PowerBook G4 over Wi-Fi to my AirPort Disk… and then restored the entire backup via Wi-Fi from my AirPort Disk. It took an excruciatingly long time to do, but it worked without a problem.

So, bottom line, if you want to use AirPort Disk as a Time Machine backup, make sure you’re running firmware 7.3.2 on the base station, and make sure your Mac is running 10.5.4 or later.

Now, the question remains (as it has with the past two updates), will this patch fix TIme Machine backups via AirPort Disk?

Historical Recap:

As you may know, and as I’ve crusaded here… Apple told people that Leopard would support Time Machine over the AirPort Extreme’s USB port, only to pull the rug out from everyone (after they had bought the base station in preparation for Leopard). And, then came Time Capsule… and the backlash.

Apple then offered an update to “enable” the feature… but that update had bugs, so then Apple declared it as an “unsupported” feature, and literally has refused to provide any information since. Great customer service Apple!

So, tonight, I’ll be trying again with Time Machine via AirPort Disk, and report back.

Anyways, I realized it’s really a bug that Apple doesn’t alert users about this.

And thus, RadarWeb bug 5860702 was born. Basically, it says, Apple, if you’re going to leave this feature buggy… you’ve got to warn users that it’s buggy. Time Machine data shouldn’t be put at risk, ever. This is people’s backups, their lives, we’re taking about.

Hopefully Apple will keep taking heat over this until they realize it’s worth their time to fix it. If that’s their plan already, they should do the right thing and say so already. And, until they do, I’ll keep reminding them of it until my AirPort Extreme is dead and gone… and long after too.

I just wish for one I would get a little credit for finding these bugs… Apple ignores my emails for comment, and then goes and tells someone else the confirmation a week later. What gives, Apple?

From Sprint WiMAX, all the way down to TechTool Pro security holes… folks just don’t like to take note of when I tell you about stuff first. It’s a shame really, because over at PhoneNews.com I clobber my staff at the hint of not giving credit where it is due.

Oh, and I’m going to keep covering AirPort Disk and Time Machine to the bitter end. Apple doesn’t get to tell folks to buy one thing (AirPort Extreme + USB Hard Drive) and then pull the rug out from under them with a “supported product” (Time Capsule). I’m not being bitter over this (though I could understand why someone would think so… I just know with Apple, it takes a crusade to fix these type of issues… and another crusade to get something fixed when it falls in “unsupported” realms.

If you want to help the cause, link back to this post. Digg it. Later, rinse, repeat.

Enjoy, consumer advocacy in action.

Update: There is also a corresponding firmware update for AirPort Extreme that needs to be installed. This should be picked up automatically by running AirPort Utility.

This is consistent with my prior analysis… the firmware brings AirPort Extreme in-sync with Time Capsule firmware, and the Time Machine update lets it seek out the new base stations.

I will follow up if the update improves storing on other shares (Windows, etc).

But, current-generation AirPort Extreme owners are starting to sharpen their pitchforks. See, Apple announced Leopard Time Machine with a demo of it talking to an AirPort Extreme hooked into a USB disk (AirPort Disk). That feature was later scrapped due to bugs.

Time Capsule includes newer firmware however that makes communicating with the hard drive much more stable. So, AirPort Extreme owners have started to figure this out, and are starting to slant their eyes at Cupertino’s direction.

Hopefully Apple will fix this quickly. Hopefully Apple will drop an AirPort Extreme firmware update at the same time as Mac OS X 10.5.2 is released. That would avert a major PR debacle… I can see the video right now… people happily backing up to Time Capsules, playing right next to a video of Apple demoing and touting Leopard backing up to an AirPort Extreme.

Not foreseeing that, I already locked in other plans for next week… oh well, hopefully this will stick and I can attend all the future CESes.

Many thought it was weird in ’04, ’05 and ’06 that PhoneNews.com chose Macworld Expo over CES. But, we had good reason… Apple has unloaded just about as many wireless innovations at Macworld, as the entire CE industry at CES. Need a list? AirPort / 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11n, Bluetooth, Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR, IMAP IDLE, iSync, SyncML… oh, and that little device that takes the entire web with you.