[jtbowden]

I thought I'd bounce this of the forum to see if anyone could help. When I visit for holidays, I have been setting up a simple network in my parents house. I ran all the cables, put in all the wall jacks, installed the hardware, etc. I am not an expert, but I know the basics.

Point is, my mother's PB 15" died a couple weeks ago (Hard drive made a terrible noise). So, she sent it in to Apple (and got it back in 3 days!) Apparently, all they replaced was the hard drive but it wasn't entirely clear.

Now she can't connect to the internet over ethernet. She can get on with Airport and she can access other computers on the network over ethernet, but she can't get a DHCP address from the router.

I was baffled and I can't physically play with it because I am on the opposite coast. She is not worried, because everything works as far as she is concerned, but I don't want her to have faulty hardware and not get it fixed in time.

So, what could the problem be? I called Apple and the best they could do was "well, your ISP must be blocking that computer for some reason." But this shouldn't be the case because we have all of our computers hooked into a switch and router and then into the Cable modem.

Any ideas? Help would be appreciated.

[Rainy Day]

That kind of thing is really hard to diagnose long distance. But it comes down to this: It was working before Apple got it, and not working afterwards.

You didn't say if they transferred anything over from the old HD, or if your mom restored from a backup. My guess is it's just a configuration amiss somewhere, but if you're in danger of the warranty expiring before your next visit back home, call up Apple and ask them to talk her through the configuration, or extend the warranty on the ethernet port until the next time you visit home.

I'm assuming, however, that you've had her check the obvious things like TCP/IP or Network settings, etc.? And the cables are plugged in, right? Does she see the LED indicator on the router/switch come on when she turns on her computer? It's usually the simple things which get overlooked.

Are you sure she can see the other computers via ethernet (and not just via Airport)? Some cable companies require you set the DHCP Client ID, but since you have a router installed, i'd expect it would be configured to handle that.

Just some random thoughts. Hope one might be helpful. Best of luck.

[jtbowden]

Yeah, I had her check all of the standard stuff. I didn't have her reset the router though. That will probably be the next step. And yes, she can connect to othre computers through ethernet. I had her turn off airport before she tested it.

The funny thing about all of this is that OS X integration with hardware is so good that you wouldn't know there was a problem unless you knew what to look at.

[Rainy Day]

Since she can talk to other computers via ethernet, that suggests that the ethernet port is good and the switch is working. Would pretty much have to be a configuration setting amiss.

Can other computers access the internet through this router? If so, do they have a value set for DHCP Client ID in their Network settings? Now typically, if there's a router involved, the router will take care of DHCP Client ID's, but who knows? The router may be set in bridging mode or something. Some cable companies still require a Client ID and you can't access the InterNet without one (but the rest of the network would work just fine, just as you describe).

I suppose another possibility is that she may have had a static IP assigned by the cable company for her computer, and now that's not set, but i don't see how that would work with the router if NAT is enabled, which is a fairly typical setup. Do you know how the router is configured?

[jtbowden]

It's all fixed. My dad disconnected her computer for some reason and some other cables as well, so I had to lead him through reconnecting everything. Turns out a red light had been blinking on one of the routers that they had failed to notice before. So after hooking everything back up and rebooting the routers, everything works. I hate doing things over the phone...

[Rainy Day]

It's often the little things which get overlooked and end up biting you. She must have been communicating with the other computers via Airport. Well, glad you got it going!

[cervellone]

I have a hardwired ethernet network at home with a dsl connection. I have 2 imacs, 2 powermacs, a powerbook g3, an Albook and a Tibook.

The internet connections all work fine except...

If I disconnect the ethernet cable from the Albook and Tibook and then reconnect it, the computers cannot re-establish the internet connection. I have to reboot to get the connection again.

I have never had this happen with any of the other macs. Here's what different about the Albook and the Tibook.
When I look at the DHCP clients table, only the Albook and the Tibook have a Client hostname, none of the other computers do. The only computers with Airport cards are the Tibook and the Albook. Also, they both have a Cisco VPN client and Microsoft Remote desktop connection software, but I have the dropped connection problem when the latter 2 pieces of software are not running.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

[aaanorton]

Have you tried switching from DHCP to anything else, and back to DHCP and applying in the Network pref pane to reestablish?

[cervellone]

I tried that to no avail.