I upgraded the firmware using Airport Utility on Snow Leopard to 7.4.2, and the thing would not connect to the AT&T ADSL after that.
Debugging
I have a working Airport Express so I was able to copy every setting for TCP/IP, DHCP and alike but it would never connect again to the modem. The Airport Express works well, so I took my time researching the issues with the AEBS. I was not alone, others have part functioning ones that don't pipe data to/from the ADSL. "Ethernet Unplugged" seems a common issue.
Apple Store
In the San Francisco Apple store, with a Genius advising I find out that there's no repair available for a $169 item out of warranty. I buy a $99 Express (now has 802.11n whereas the older one I use for travel has the slower 802.11g only). I leave the old one with them; Cupertino might want to use it to help improve the line, but I'm told there is no mechanism to get them back to head office.
Ponzi Scheme
I'm increasingly coming to believe that Apple items are not designed to last three years. In fact I think they're running a an electronics Ponzi scheme. Sales for next year will cover warranty for this year. Similarly for those disgruntled outside of the warranty period, there is the allure of something better for effectively less to reduce the pain of writing the dead item off.
My advice? - buy the cheapest Apple products you can get away with. Don't buy multifuction devices. For example the TimeMachine versions of the AEBS seem to be a double trouble proposition. Ditto iMacs.
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