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finknottle · May 7, 2003, 01:59 PM

I live in Ireland where the roll-out (more like a stutter) of broadband has been very slow. Anyhow finally a company arrived in town that offers cable broadband so I ordered after checking with the rep. that Macs are supported.
So the engineer arrived today and the engineer looked at the machine and made the astounding observation "That's not a PC". Well doh! Anyway things went downhill from there, with the result that he's left me the set-up which is live but not working on my 700Mhz iBook.
The Modem is a Motorola SB4200E Surfboard Cable Modem which is connected to the ethernet port. Would anyone be able to tell me how to set it up on OSX.2.6 ?? Please??
The company is getting back to me in the next few days but it would be great if I could get it going.
Any help gratefully appreciated.

SpoiledMan · May 7, 2003, 02:08 PM

Go to the network preference pane. Select "TCP/IP". Make sure your location is set to "Auntomatic." Connect using "Ethernet." Configure usin "DHCP" and then save the changes. You should be able to use your connection from there. May need to restart but I don't think so.

Chris

finknottle · May 7, 2003, 03:34 PM

Thanks. I did what you said, clicked apply and tried using Safari but nothing. I restarted just in case - still nothing.

Any other ideas?

Mac Zealot · May 7, 2003, 04:14 PM

Ok that's the weirdest thing ever.. sounds like either your ISP is using forced IP or PPPoE then...

Call and ask how they hand out IP

legionare · 04:36 PM

1. Maybe you need to fill in the DHCP Client ID field, if it's required by your ISP's DHCP server.
2. Maybe your SB4200's MAC and HFC addresses are not registered in the ISP's database. Is your cable modem sync'ing up?

Since it's a Moto cable modem, you can check out http://192.168.100.1/ for more diagnostic information. Pay particular attention to the Log page. That'll often have some telltale log messages.

finknottle · May 7, 2003, 06:29 PM

Thanks for the info. WIll ring "tech support" tomorrow and see about the PPPoE and DHCP Client. The weblink wouldn't load for whatever reason. What does it mean to have the cable modem "sync up"? All I can tell you is that the Power,Receive, Send And Online are all lighting up green with the Activity light flicking yellow every few seconds.
This is a bit frustrating

jckalen · May 7, 2003, 10:34 PM

Try unplugging the cable modem first. Then go to system preferences --> network. Make sure Show: Built-in ethernet is selected and set TCP/IP to configure using DHCP. If "apply now" isn't clickable, switch to another option then back to DHCP and apply. Turn the modem back on and reconnect the ethernet cable. The computer will refresh the modem's settings and it might work. I had a similar problem with an airport and an older imac with no airport card. The key was turning off the modem.

legionare · May 8, 2003, 09:31 AM

Ummm, seems like your cable modem is "sync'ing up" with the cable headend, which can mostly rule out Possibility #2.

Does your mac get any sort of IP address at all, when you click "Apply" in Network? My SB4100 cable modem usually hands out 192.168.100.x (x > 1) address to my mac on a temporary basis while it's waiting to sync up with the cable headend. After obtaining sync, then I get the real IP address from the ISP's DHCP server 68.x.x.x. If Network shows no IP address at all, or only an address resembling 169.x.x.x, I think you might have a bum ethernet cable, or a crossover cable. Make sure to use a straight-through ethernet cable between the cable modem and your mac.

bbales · May 8, 2003, 02:46 PM

I had major modem/DSL difficulties last night, which necessitated a call to AT&T/SBC whoever. Anyway, for some reason my settings had gotten out of whack. Under "network" do you have your account name with the @xxxxx after it? (Mine had disappeared.) It was a stupid problem, but fairly easily fixed. (Down side was that the guy had me change some other settings which, after the router, etc., were plugged back in, didn't work! Had to go to the "old" settings."

You don't have the "connect using PPOE" box checked, do you? You have all those possibilities for a problem.
Good luck.

finknottle · May 8, 2003, 03:15 PM

Thanks for the replies. Okay The IP address is showing up like 217.xx.xx.xx with (provided by DHCP Server) underneath.
The Subnet Mask and Router Numbers are also filled in. Apparently I do not need to have a DHCP CLient ID according to the company.
I also turned off the modem, plugged out the ethernet cable etc. as suggested. Still no joy...
Anything else I can try?

legionare · 03:57 PM

I don't think it's a physical-layer problem anymore. Everything seems fine from the cable plant all the way to your mac.

Can you ping the "router" by it's IP address? Can you ping 17.254.3.183? Can you ping apple.com? I tend to jump to conclusions. So let me say this seems like either a DNS issue or perhaps [part of] your ISP's network space is having trouble reaching the internet.

aaanorton · May 8, 2003, 04:11 PM

Does your ISP employ any MAC address filtering? Call them and tell them you need to update the hardware (or MAC) address of your computer. Give them the ethernet address (xx-xx-xx-xx-xx-xx) of the ethernet card listed in the Network Overview in Apple System Profiler.

Hozie · May 8, 2003, 06:01 PM

Maybe something way simpler: find out if you need to go through a proxy. If you do, then go to /system preferences/network ---> proxies tab. Fill in your proxies (generally they're all the same and in the form proxy.yourisp.com, but not necessarily) and the ports (generally 8080). Click 'apply now' and try connecting to a website.

anoetic · May 8, 2003, 07:39 PM

It sounds like the cable modem is fine from your end -- as long as you get green on all the lights, especially send and receive. However, most of the time the cable company has to intialize your particular cable modem and it's mac address. Since the tech just up and left they may have not done that. I had that problem when I switched cable modems. Everything seemed like it should work but I couldn't connect until they added the new mac address to their computer system. A minute later everything worked.

Once they do that it's a simple matter of setting up the network settings for DHCP. You can ask them if they require any additional features like PPPoE, DNS servers, search domains. Most of the time they don't.

finknottle · May 9, 2003, 05:39 AM

I think your right. Today they sent out a mac repair guy who sat there for 10 minutes and said "it's not the mac". He said that they do not require any extra settings. The cable company will have to change something on Monday and then my iBook will hope fully be online...Won't hold my breath.

clarkgoble · May 12, 2003, 09:20 PM

Just a note I started having exactly the same problem with Comcast. At my old location my Mac worked fine with the cable modem. Now I get 169.*.*.* addresses, signifying an error. Occasionally I'll get a 192.*.*.* from the DHCP server on the modem. But it still won't get an internet connection.

Here's the weird part. I took an old PC portable and it can use the cable modem (via the ethernet port) with no problem. Works fine. I take my Mac to work and connect to a NAT server acting as a DHCP server. Works great. So I head down to Comcast and get a new modem. Take it home. Same deal.

I was on tech support for 3 hours and they said it was the Mac. But it *only* has problems with cable modems. Further, it only started doing this when I moved! I just updated the Mac to 10.2.6 just in case it was some weird problem introduced by some update. But it is really weird.

Unfortunately while the cable modem supports a USB connection, the modem is a Motorola one which only has Windows drivers.

So I feel your pain. This, btw, is the *first* problem I've ever had with OSX. But boy is it a doozy.

aaanorton · May 12, 2003, 09:30 PM

Originally posted by clarkgoble:
I was on tech support for 3 hours and they said it was the Mac. But it *only* has problems with cable modems. Further, it only started doing this when I moved! I just updated the Mac to 10.2.6 just in case it was some weird problem introduced by some update. But it is really weird.

Did you ask your provider about MAC address filtering? Your problem is probably related to this somehow. Are you using DHCP in the Network pref pane or are you manually assigning IPs?
Try unplugging the modem's power for a full minute or two. Plug it back in and wait til the lights are on steady and normal. Then connect the iMac and try a web site. Try DHCP first, and assign IPs later if needed.

clarkgoble · May 12, 2003, 09:31 PM

We tried all those things. As I said it is very weird. I may just have to find an old PC and install Linux on it and run it as a router/firewall.

aaanorton · May 12, 2003, 09:35 PM

Try a different ethernet cable. Make sure it's not a crossover.

aaanorton · May 12, 2003, 09:38 PM

Do you still have something funny in the PPPoE or Proxies tabs of the Network pane from your old DSL set up?

legionare · May 13, 2003, 09:52 AM

Nope, your problem is completely different. Yours sounds like the common problem of not being able to get a valid IP address from the ISP's DHCP server, which could be attributed to MAC/HFC address registration, modem sync, last-mile physical connectivity, or simply trying to get on with more than one computer without using NAT. In finknottle's case, he can get a valid IP address alright ("217.x.x.x").

Originally posted by clarkgoble:
Just a note I started having exactly the same problem with Comcast. At my old location my Mac worked fine with the cable modem. Now I get 169.*.*.* addresses, signifying an error. Occasionally I'll get a 192.*.*.* from the DHCP server on the modem. But it still won't get an internet connection.

Here's the weird part. I took an old PC portable and it can use the cable modem (via the ethernet port) with no problem. Works fine. I take my Mac to work and connect to a NAT server acting as a DHCP server. Works great. So I head down to Comcast and get a new modem. Take it home. Same deal.

I was on tech support for 3 hours and they said it was the Mac. But it *only* has problems with cable modems. Further, it only started doing this when I moved! I just updated the Mac to 10.2.6 just in case it was some weird problem introduced by some update. But it is really weird.

Unfortunately while the cable modem supports a USB connection, the modem is a Motorola one which only has Windows drivers.

So I feel your pain. This, btw, is the *first* problem I've ever had with OSX. But boy is it a doozy.

finknottle · May 13, 2003, 04:42 PM

Okay, I'm up and running since yesterday. They made some changes at the companies end and now it all works. They said something about the way Macs and PC's broadcast their addresses in different ways?! I haven't a clue I'm afriad. The main thing is it works and I can't believe how much better broadband is!!! All I need is airport now!

clarkgoble · May 19, 2003, 08:44 PM

No - my problem was an incompatibility with the DHCP on most cable modems (I tried 3) and my Mac. I don't know why as it once worked fine.

Once I set up an old computer as a NAT server using XP then I could get the XP box to talk to the cable modem's DHCP and now I'm back online.

(I tried doing it with Linux so I could run scripts on it - but Linux is such a pain in the ass to get working right. After about six hours trying to get it to work right I gave up and installed XP)