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JohnCoffee · Dec 30, 2003, 04:57 AM

my airport base station (graphite) stopped workin all of a sudden this morning. no more access to the internet.

It is connected via ethernet cable to a cable modem. This setup worked to my satisfaction for over 2 years now. connection was lost during normal internet browsing.

what I have tried so far:
- restart the G4
- restart base station
- restart cable modem
- complete reset of base station with paper clip and upload all software / settings again via a direct ethernet connection as described in Apples Article 58613
- verify all settings like IP adresses, Router etc. I definitely sure that all is set correct.

So nothing seemed to help.
Interestingly, a connection between 2 Macs through the base station works fine. And since I could upload and configure the base station through the ethernet cable by this direct connection, I assume that there is neither a hardware problem at this point.

what buzzes me is to believe that this thing can be broken suddenly - I just can't believe it.

Is there any other idea what to check and to make sure it is really broken before considering to get a new one? (guess repair is a no go here, or am I wrong ?)

Thanks for any help or suggestion what to try else.

JC

car1son · Dec 30, 2003, 11:58 AM

Have you verified your cable service is still working by removing the airport and plugging one of the Macs directly into the cable modem (making necessary config changes to the Mac network settings.) ? Maybe the cable is down.

JohnCoffee · Dec 30, 2003, 12:06 PM

Originally posted by car1son:
Have you verified your cable service is still working by removing the airport and plugging one of the Macs directly into the cable modem (making necessary config changes to the Mac network settings.) ? Maybe the cable is down.

sure - as I'm using a direct Ethernet connection now - the cable is ok.

any other hint here?

chabig · Dec 30, 2003, 12:37 PM

It might have just "failed." The graphite base stations had some power supply problems. Do the LEDs still come on?

Chris

JohnCoffee · Dec 30, 2003, 12:47 PM

Originally posted by chabig:
It might have just "failed." The graphite base stations had some power supply problems. Do the LEDs still come on?

Chris

all is green and seems to work except no internet connection.

- connections between 2 macs via the base station work
- downloading software throught the ethernet cable work fine too.

So these 2 things seem ok. I cannot understand why it doesnt work then..

chabig · Dec 30, 2003, 01:02 PM

Yeah. I think I missed some of the details you originally posted. It does seem to be working fine except for the sharing.

Have you tried a hard reset?

JohnCoffee · Dec 30, 2003, 01:21 PM

Originally posted by chabig:
Yeah. I think I missed some of the details you originally posted. It does seem to be working fine except for the sharing.

Have you tried a hard reset?

yeah - I did that. (Apple's ID 58613 describes how to do a forced reload of the firmware and all settings through the ethernet cable).
Still no way to get connected to the cable modem / internet after all settings have been configured again.

stanford88 · Jan 19, 2004, 10:36 PM

What happened at the end? The same thing happened to my snow airport station. I'm thinking about buying a new one soon (DAMNIT).

Exact same symptoms and I've tried everything. Somehow the Airport won't pick up the cable ethernet address anymore.

JohnCoffee · Jan 25, 2004, 04:46 AM

Originally posted by stanford88:
What happened at the end? The same thing happened to my snow airport station. I'm thinking about buying a new one soon (DAMNIT).

Exact same symptoms and I've tried everything. Somehow the Airport won't pick up the cable ethernet address anymore.

I just guess that there is some sort of strange thing goin on - all works expect internet through my cable modem. Still it is broken - no way for connections.

I guess I'll buy a 802.11g router now, but not from Apple anymore. The airport is way too expensive compared to other products that work as well without problems.

ghporter · Jan 25, 2004, 06:18 AM

It could be that the cable provider just stopped allowing connections to AirPort devices. The MAC address of an AirPort base identifies it as AirPort-it's from a different numeric sequence from Apple's wired network cards. Cable modems can communicate the address to the cable ISP. Some providers (Rogers in Canada, for one) have pointedly excluded AirPort devices-just about anything else works fine.

Assuming the only thing that doesn't work is a connection to the cable modem, my suggestion is to go out and buy an inexpensive cable/DSL router. Just about all of them allow you to report ANY MAC ADDRESS YOU WANT to the cable modem. Today, BestBuy has both D-Link and Linksys 4-port (wired only) routers for about $50, ComppUSA has a TrendWare 4-port for $30 after rebate. These boxes are simple to set up, sort of 'set and forget' devices. And they let you thumb your nose at your ISP-which should have at least told you they were going to stop connecting to AirPort equipment.