[BGK]

Yesterday we had a storm blast through while my wife and I were away. We came home to no power, no internet. When we did get the power back on, we couldn't get the router or cable modem working. Here are a series of questions in hopes someone out there can help me in this arduous troubleshooting process:

1. Since the cable modem and router no longer functioned, went to Best Buy and purchased new ones (Cable modem: Toshiba PCX2200. Router: D-Link DI-604).
2. I have three machines: PowerBook G4 (15 inch, 400mhz), PowerMac G4 (tower, 466mhz), and a PowerMac G3 (Blue/White tower 350mhz).
3. When I plugged in the new router, only the port for the PowerBook lit up, the other two, no lights.
3a. Is it possible the network cards on those other two machines were burnt out in the storm?
3b. Is it possible the router itself is being troublesome and not assigning a router number to the two other machines for some reason? I tried powering the modem off for ten minutes, but no go, no lights appeared. I had this problem in the past when I moved, and replugging it worked. What kind of testing can be done to see if the cards are okay on these other two machines?
3c. If the cards are in fact fried, how difficult is it to replace one on the old G3 tower? Is it something I can do myself? I ask this because it seems the card on this particular model is built in and not very easily assessable.
4. I just called Cox Communications to let them know I have a new modem and gave them the info on it. Seems if you do get a new modem like that, they have to have the info first before you can get a connection. (Very likely that they'll reimburse me, however, for the old one since it's under a year - which is great!)
5. What kind of equipment do you suggest I purchase to avoid something happening like this in the future? Obviously a little surge protector won't do the job.

That's all I can think of for now. Thanks in advance!!!

[starman]

Learn to determine the problem .

1) With the Mac that works, point a browser and see if you can see the router. I don't do D-Link, only Linksys, so someone else will have to help you.

2) Use the known good cable with other Macs. That will determine if it's the ports on the Macs or the ports on the router.

3) Get those APC battery backups. Last night the power went out twice, but my entire computer room kept on running.

Mike

[BGK]

Originally posted by starman:
Learn to determine the problem .

1) With the Mac that works, point a browser and see if you can see the router. I don't do D-Link, only Linksys, so someone else will have to help you.

2) Use the known good cable with other Macs. That will determine if it's the ports on the Macs or the ports on the router.

3) Get those APC battery backups. Last night the power went out twice, but my entire computer room kept on running.

Mike

1. yes, I can. in fact I went in and changed one setting, to Eastern standard time. did not change the admin password or anything like that. so my PowerBook can connect successfully, and under System Prefs/Network in OS X, I can see the assigned router number. This is blank on the other machines.

2. This is a good idea and I don't know why I didn't try it yet... (am at work now). That raises - is it possible for a cable to blow out on me, too?

3. How much are the APC battery backups?

[starman]

Battery backups are about $100 each. Not a bad investment considering what you're going through now. Not that these can completely prevent a direct hit from a lightning bolt, but it helps.

Also, from your Mac, ping the router (just to be sure), and then ping the cable modem's gateway if you think the modem's working. That's what I do - work my way out. Router->Cable Modem router->DNS Servers. If I can get anywhere past the router, then I know it's not me. The two sites I constantly ping are apple.com and microsoft.com.

Cable blow out? Doubt it.

Mike

[BGK]

Almost all fixed now.

1) The cable modem was blown out. Cox Communications gave me a new one. There was some initial trouble, but one they got the MAC Address correct, everything went fine.
2) The two network cards were blown. Changed one already on my wife's machine and installed the driver for it. Full connection now. Once I replace the card on my desktop, that should do it.

Thanks everyone for your help!!! I didn't spend as much as I thought I would.

[tooki]

Yup. And thanks to the fact that Realtek has Mac drivers on its website, you can get any Realtek 8139-based 10/100 ethernet card for $5 and run it just fine on a Mac!

tooki

[BGK]

Okay.... further questions. Last night I get in and my friend had FedEx'd me a D-Link network card, the same product number as the card I got for my wife a few nights ago and successfully installed, with the exception that this one was a bit older (though a sealed box) and did not say WinXP/Mac OS X drivers inside. So I figured, "What the hell, I can put the card in and use my wife's CD to install the OS X driver."

Ran through all the same steps like with her machine. First thing, I was surprised that I did not realize this before, but the network card is also on the motherboard, just like the G3 tower!

So I ran through the same steps: Installing the physical card, then powering up, installing the OS X driver from the CD. Rebooted, went to System Prefs, Networking... and Networking just sat there. Nothing happened. That's where I am now: at a loss.

With my wife's G3 when I opened Networking, it said something to the effect of, "This computer has detected a new port, hit apply..." (See post above). Frustrated, I sat it out a bit, then decided to see if installing it a few more times would work, and of course multiple reboots. Haha.. Nope. It occured to me, that maybe I'm just going to have to buy that same card the other night, the update D-Link.

When I go to Apple System Profiler, it recognizes that a card is in the slot, but says that the card is unnamed or something like that. The card itself is blinking, showing there IS some type of connection.... By the way, it is in Slot 2, if that makes a difference. I'm going to try it out with different slots and see what happens also, before I go out and buy that new card.

Anyone have any ideas????