[mitchgtz]

I have an Appletalk network with an Extreme switcher and a cablemodem and router. On my network I have only one mac that has this problem.

It will communicate over the ethernet and connect to the Appletalk network, it will find printers, server and have no problems communicating. So I figured the wiring is alright, but very often this machine will startup in either OS 9.2 or 10.2 and it won't find the TCP/IP DHCP network and it will assign it's own TCP/IP number. From there it won't connect to the internet (won't access the cable modem) but all appletalk communications are fine.

The problem seems to be slightly intermittent, I was able to have the machine running fine yesterday, but today I can't get it to connect to TCP/IP. I even tried plugging it directly into the router, but this didn't help.

I tried using a fixed IP address, but this didn't help either.

Can anyone please help me with this crazy problem?

Thanks-
Mitch

[ghporter]

Many standard networking protocols use ethernet-standard media without having anything to do with TCP/IP; AppleTalk is one of those.

It sounds like your "flakey" computer either has a problem with its DHCP client, or there's some other issue that keeps it from getting (and keeping?) an IP. When you gave it a fixed IP, what indications did you have that it wasn't working, and were your manual settings still present when this occurred? When DHCP works does the computer get DNS server information too?

Finally, when you say "this machine will startup in either OS 9.2 or 10.2," can I assume that you're saying that whether you choose 9.2 or 10.2, rather than the machine chooses itself?