[jarling]

I was hoping someone here had some insights.

I run my TiBook pretty much nonstop. This weekend, the ethernet no longer seems to work. The tech guys at my school took two hours to lead them to believe its a hardware problem. They recommend I buy a new motherboard (not cheap) or PC ethernet card (less expensive, but...)

Now, I've noticed that when I run it for a while, even the airport stops working. Internet Connect says I'm still connected, but none of my browsers or e-mail programs are able to do anything.

That leads me to think that it has something to do with thermal expansion (I let it crunch, it heats up, the connections arent as tight) So, I write this as my laptop sits on an icepack, like the wounded animal it is. Anyway, is this theory plausible? Is there anyway it can be fixed without buying new hardware? Could this problem spread beyond the ethernet dealie inside my computer?

I understand if this thread has to be moved to somewhere more hardware oriented, I just thought someone might have run across the issue while also running their computer 24/7. Thanks.

[Microns]

Originally posted by jarling:
Snip...
I understand if this thread has to be moved to somewhere more hardware oriented, I just thought someone might have run across the issue while also running their computer 24/7. Thanks.

You didn't mention which TiBook you're using but my 550Mhz TiBook runs Seti@home 24/7/365 when it is not in use and it does not have any overheating problems.

It would help everyone think about your question if we knew more about things (hardware, OS ver, description of your connection to the internet, how was the diagnosis of ethernet hardware problem arrived at, etc.)

Is your TiBook out of warranty? If not then how about looking for an Apple service provider.

More information is good...

[jarling]

Ti Book, 400 MHz, 256 MB RAM, OS 10.1.5, usually running Folding@home. When I run it, I usually place things under it so that it can get some air. However, occasionally the fan still comes on. I typically connect through the ethernet when on campus, but use a wireless back in my apt.

The tech guys came to this conclusion after being unable to connect to the ethernet in all the usual ways. Next, the network utility gives an IP address of 6.3.6.0 (which they know is not correct), and the "Link Status", even when a cable is plugged into an active port, always remains "Inactive."

Hope this helps.

[Microns]

How about we first establish if the OS can "see" the ethernet hardware.

Fire up the terminal window and look up the "ifconfig" command ("man ifconfig" will get you the man pages).

IIRC "ifconfig en0" (that is "en-zero" not "en-oh") will get you a report of that interface's status in the output. You should see something like "status: active" somewhere in the output.

If the interface is inactive go back to the man page and learn about the "up" parameter of ifconfig. Use it to re-initialize the interface (iirc something like "ifconfig en0 up"). This should be happening automatically with each reboot but it may be worth a try.

Alternately, you could first look at the routing tables and see if the en0 interface is present. Go to the terminal and look-up the command "netstat". i believe that "netstat -nr" gets you the routing tables.

If the OS isn't seeing the interface I begin to get concerned about a hardware issue...

[Scotttheking]

I fried my Ti 500 a few times.
I have a Ti550 now, but I won't run DC on it.
The revA Tibooks has a frying problem.

If you still have warranty, call apple.
If not, ouch.

[jarling]

I know very little about Unix, so I'll let you interpret it for me.

When I did "ifconfig en0" I got:

en0: flags=8863<UP,BROADCAST,b6,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICA ST> mtu 1500
ether 00:30:65:d6:50:3c
media: autoselect (none) status: inactive
supported media: none autoselect 10baseT/UTP <half-duplex> 10baseT/UTP <half-duplex,hw-loopback> 10baseT/UTP <full-duplex> 10baseT/UTP <full-duplex,hw-loopback> 100baseTX <half-duplex> 100baseTX <half-duplex,hw-loopback> 100baseTX <full-duplex> 100baseTX <full-duplex,hw-loopback>

When I tried to up ifconfig en0, it said I didnt have sufficient privileges. I guess I need to log in as root, but thats the extent of my knowlege...

When I looked up the routing tables, I got

Routing tables

Internet:
Destination______Gateway_______Flags___Refs_Use__N etif_Expire
default_________128.223.216.1___UGSc___7____5____e n1
127.0.0.1_______127.0.0.1_______UH_____5___4505__l o0
128.223.216/22__link#2_________UC_____0____0____en1
128.223.216.1___0:4:75:71:e5:64__UHLW___1___11____ en1__1196
128.223.216.90__127.0.0.1_______UHS____0____0____l o0

(I dont know why it deletes my spaces, I had to throw in those lines.)

[Scotttheking]

Originally posted by jarling:
(I dont know why it deletes my spaces, I had to throw in those lines.)

use code tags
[ code]

[ /code]

just take out the space

[Microns]

Originally posted by jarling:
I know very little about Unix, so I'll let you interpret it for me.

When I did "ifconfig en0" I got:

en0: flags=8863<UP,BROADCAST,b6,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICA ST> mtu 1500
ether 00:30:65:d6:50:3c
media: autoselect (none) status: inactive
supported media: none autoselect 10baseT/UTP <half-duplex> 10baseT/UTP <half-duplex,hw-loopback> 10baseT/UTP <full-duplex> 10baseT/UTP <full-duplex,hw-loopback> 100baseTX <half-duplex> 100baseTX <half-duplex,hw-loopback> 100baseTX <full-duplex> 100baseTX <full-duplex,hw-loopback>

When I tried to up ifconfig en0, it said I didnt have sufficient privileges. I guess I need to log in as root, but thats the extent of my knowlege...

When I looked up the routing tables, I got

Routing tables

Internet:
Destination______Gateway_______Flags___Refs_Use__N etif_Expire
default_________128.223.216.1___UGSc___7____5____e n1
127.0.0.1_______127.0.0.1_______UH_____5___4505__l o0
128.223.216/22__link#2_________UC_____0____0____en1
128.223.216.1___0:4:75:71:e5:64__UHLW___1___11____ en1__1196
128.223.216.90__127.0.0.1_______UHS____0____0____l o0

(I dont know why it deletes my spaces, I had to throw in those lines.)

I too know just a little *nix so your first idea (to move to the hardware forum) may be the best.

Your output makes me think bad things about the ethernet interface. The "status: inactive" thing is saying that the interface is down (not doing it's job). The default behavior is to reset to active during every reboot unless specifically told to do otherwise. So, unless you have intentionally disabled it, this is a little troubling.

It's also a little puzzeling why ifconfig reports the status of "en0" while netstat talks about "en1". You don't have two interfaces on this box do you?

[jarling]

Internet:
The en1 is my airport.

This is the important one, I think. Why its lo0 instead of en0, I dont know.

Code:
 
Destination        Gateway    Flags     Refs     Use     Netif   Expire
127.0.0.1          127.0.0.1   UH        5       678    lo0

I also don’t think my modem is working. I only get a dial tone…it doesn’t ever actually dial.

What you say about me intentionally disabling it is also troubling, as I was fiddling with it to try to create an appletalk network with a friend by linking the two computers with an ethernet cable. I wasnt doing anything in Unix, and nothing that I thought would have screwed everything up, but who knows...This was the first time I noticed things werent working. Whether I broke it while trying to create that network, or it was broken before, I dont know. (Which is why I'm hesitant about buying a new motherboard...)

Ok, now I'm starting to sound like an idiot (hey, at least I know that the telephone cord will NOT work in an ethernet port, and that the CD tray is not a cupholder )

[Microns]

Originally posted by jarling:
Internet:
The en1 is my airport.

This is the important one, I think. Why its lo0 instead of en0, I dont know.

Code:
 
Destination        Gateway    Flags     Refs     Use     Netif   Expire
127.0.0.1          127.0.0.1   UH        5       678    lo0

I also don’t think my modem is working. I only get a dial tone…it doesn’t ever actually dial.

What you say about me intentionally disabling it is also troubling, as I was fiddling with it to try to create an appletalk network with a friend by linking the two computers with an ethernet cable. I wasnt doing anything in Unix, and nothing that I thought would have screwed everything up, but who knows...This was the first time I noticed things werent working. Whether I broke it while trying to create that network, or it was broken before, I dont know. (Which is why I'm hesitant about buying a new motherboard...)

Ok, now I'm starting to sound like an idiot (hey, at least I know that the telephone cord will NOT work in an ethernet port, and that the CD tray is not a cupholder )

Of course, you told us that earlier. Your en1 interface is airport not the ethernet on the back panel. Having both the airport and the ethernet port on the back panel probably changes the default en0 behavior (something like Solaris "notrouter"?). Anyone know about this?

So try an "ifconfig en1". Does it report en1 active? If you open the terminal window and learn about "ping" ("man ping") then ping your airport card IP address ("ping yyy.yyy.yyy.yyy") and ping your gateway router's IP address ("ping xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx") do they both respond?

BTW the lo0 interface is the "loopback" interface (google "loopback interface" and I'll bet there is background info on the net for help). Not relevant here, I don't think...

[mikkyo]

Instead of playing around in the command line, try opening System Preferences and clicking on Network. Choose New Location from the Location menu. Call it working.
It should have all your ports active by default.
Choose Built-In Ethernet from the Show menu.
Setup your Ethernet config, jack in, and see if it works.
Your hardware is obviously there since ifconfig can find the MAC address.

[jarling]

Mikkyo, I like your thinking. I hate messing around in the command line. Unfortunately, it didn’t work.

Ifconfig en1 shows that that port is active.

I pinged all those listed as en1 (my airport card IP address, I believe)
128.223.216.1- worked when airport was on, didn’t when airport was off. Seems good.

I pinged all those listed as lo0 (my gateway router IP address, I believe)
127.0.0.1- worked when airport was on and when airport was off. Seems good
I also unplugged my Ethernet cord (and turned airport off, and went out of airport range), and it still worked…is that good or not?

128.223.216.90- worked when airport was on, didn’t when airport was off
This one is listed only as destination, not as gateway (see horrible “chart” above). I don’t know if that matters.

Seemingly having luck with that 127.0.0.1, I entered that as the IP address in the “Manually using DHCP Router” option. But had no luck.

For some reason, the Network Utility still thinks that my IP address is 6.3.6.0. I don’t know where it got that idea, since that number never comes up in the routing tables. I think (pure conjecture) that if I can get that back to 127.0.0.1 things will be working again. <crosses his fingers>

[reader50]

It is possible that while messing around with your network configuration, you accidentally changed the permissions on some network-related files. You could try Apple's permissions repair utility: link

The article says it's for 10.1.5, I'm not sure if it would work right for 10.2.x or not.

Edit: If it is a permissions or configuration problem, try booting from a different partition (or CD) and see if ethernet can be gotten running there. A different partition with a clean system install would be best, a boot CD might not have complete network files.

[Microns]

So, your en1 interface is "up" and you can ping the interface IP address and the gateway router (not just the loopback interface lo0). Cool!

So that means everything in the Airport connection to your gateway router is working. Now if you can only get it configured correctly. How about reset everything to where it was when you started. The IP address (or DHCP), the subnet mask, the gateway router address, and the search domain name that your ISP or network admin gave you.

Re-enter those in the system preferences application, reboot and see what happens. Leave the ethernet jack on the TiBook back panel disconnected for now (one thing at a time).

BTW - 128.223.216.1 appears to be your gateway router address and 128.223.216.90 appears to be your Airport card IP address (see netstat output). lo0 is the name of your loopback interface. 127.0.0.1 is the IP address of the loopback interface.

[jarling]

Sorry, I was away for the weekend.

So, under the network panel, all I can do is set it to "Configure using DHCP," and enter the search domains. I've got no way of entering anything manually. Plus, Ive done this all a hundred times, as have the techies at computer help, and it hasnt helped.

Also, doesnt the fact that I havent been able to find an en0 suggest that the ethernet hardware cant be found?


(PS, thanks for all your help...Im a little frustrated, and its early monday morning)

[Microns]

Originally posted by jarling:
Sorry, I was away for the weekend.

So, under the network panel, all I can do is set it to "Configure using DHCP," and enter the search domains. I've got no way of entering anything manually. Plus, Ive done this all a hundred times, as have the techies at computer help, and it hasnt helped.

Also, doesnt the fact that I havent been able to find an en0 suggest that the ethernet hardware cant be found?


(PS, thanks for all your help...Im a little frustrated, and its early monday morning)

Ah, so you have an Airport card but not an Airport basestation? Oops, I assumed you had both. My bad...

If that's true it may at least be cheaper to get a basestation than a new main board for the TiBook but at this point I'd ask an Apple service provider to have a look and let you know what your options are.