Small saving grace here in Japan - the ISP's are really fond of routers - I'll bet he doesn't have an accessable global IP. But if you live in a gaijin house or the standard high-density dwelling the neighbours are plenty close enough :)

I fully sympathise with the language issue - I spent the afternoon beating a router into submission that I bought on vacation just to get english firmware.

Base station blues
 

Hi Acme: accessable global IP, does that relate to the base station being difficult to access from the net. I guess I can just get the ISP to confirm that - is it an advantage if that is the set up?

My main concern was not so much people near by accessing the Snow base station and connection, but more external overseas access as a relay for some hackers - which would be more malicious.

The lights on the base station are flashing like a Christmas tree, usually early morning - e.g. around 6 am. This is after disconecting and all computers being turned off the night before. The left light blinks at about double the speed of the right light. This occurs at random and not everyday, so I assumed it is intentional intrusion?

The Snow, bought at Big Camera in Tokyo, accepted the updates I downloaded from Apples so the set up is in English, but the manual is in Japanese - all the information on Apple.com seems to be pushing Airport Extreme.

Thanks also Hyne, I have unchecked the two boxes in the WAN set up. Can a Hacker use my connection to mask some activity using access via my modem - just guessing that the answer could be yes is what is giving me a hard time.

I also checked the 'enable interference robustness' check box, assuming this would cut any other interference that could effect the system.

The main point is when the Snow airport is doing its Christmas tree impersonation I can't access the net, I need to unplug the base station for some time, then reconnecti the power, then try to access the Snow base station using the airport utility and restart it - then all is OK. If I unplug the Snow base station only for a short time then I can't access the Snow with the airport utility as it can't find/access the unit.

Thank you for all the ideas - sure that the situation is improving as the information builds up

Snow ABS Issues
 

Hi Acme: accessable global IP, does that relate to the base station being difficult to access from the net. I guess I can just get the ISP to confirm that - is it an advantage if that is the set up?

My main concern was not so much people near by accessing the Snow base station and connection, but more external overseas access as a relay for some hackers - which would be more malicious.

The lights on the base station are flashing like a Christmas tree, usually early morning - e.g. around 6 am. This is after disconecting and all computers being turned off the night before. The left light blinks at about double the speed of the right light. This occurs at random and not everyday, so I assumed it is intentional intrusion?

The Snow, bought at Big Camera in Tokyo, accepted the updates I downloaded from Apples so the set up is in English, but the manual is in Japanese - all the information on Apple.com seems to be pushing Airport Extreme.

Thanks also Hyne, I have unchecked the two boxes in the WAN set up. Can a Hacker use my connection to mask some activity using access via my modem - just guessing that the answer could be yes is what is giving me a hard time.

I also checked the 'enable interference robustness' check box, assuming this would cut any other interference that could effect the system.

The main point is when the Snow airport is doing its Christmas tree impersonation I can't access the net, I need to unplug the base station for some time, then reconnecti the power, then try to access the Snow base station using the airport utility and restart it - then all is OK. If I unplug the Snow base station only for a short time then I can't access the Snow with the airport utility as it can't find/access the unit.

Thank you for all the ideas - sure that the situation is improving as the information builds up

There's 2 kinds of IP addresses - private and global. If you have a router (which I suspect you do - who is your isp? ODN, Itscom, gol?) then your modem/router will separate you (private) from the rest of the world (global). It will translate the addresses on the fly so the process is transparent to the user. They're usually as bulletproof as you can get.

Maybe it's not another user - I'm in western Tokyo and I have problems with electrical interference - it's always setting the phone off. Unlikely, but could be a contributing cause.

Why don't you just turn it off at night?