[TribeLeader]

My wife and I each have MacBook Pros running 10.6.2 and for both our home network and my wife's office, her Airport is reporting "No IP Address," even though the Airport is connected (full bars).

I fixed her home connection (restarted Time Capsule, if I remember correctly), and haven't worked on her office connection, yet. Any ideas, especially if resetting the modem/router doesn't work there?

Also, any ideas why this happened? I'm not a networking expert so I'm wondering why this effected both networks.

Now, we are experiencing some printer setup problems at home, trying to set up an Epson Artisan 810. We're having trouble Installing the Snow Leopard-compatible software from Epson's website (Epson is blaming the OS), and I'm wondering if loading the printer driver (via adding the printer on the Mac) on my wife's Mac would have messed with her Airport connection at all. Or was this a coincidence?

Thanks for any help!

[seanc]

If Airport card is failing to get an IP address in multiple locations, there's a problem with the card or configuration on OS X.

[reader50]

Rebooting the Time Capsule caused the DHCP server to be restarted. My older Linksys routers slowly crash over time - first the web frontend, then the DHCP server. The main router functions don't fail, just the web server and DHCP server. It doesn't affect my computers because I have LAN IPs specified manually. But I notice it when connecting another Mac for diagnostic work.

Rebooting the office router is a good step if you have access. Just turn it off for a few seconds, or pull the power cord if there is no switch. If that doesn't fix it, then I'm with seanc - something is wrong on her MacBook.

[ghporter]

I second rebooting the router. Memory leaks, lots of traffic, and time for the two to percolate together lead to this sort of thing-I have exactly the same DHCP server issues reader50 describes, and the first thing I do (and that I've taught my wife to do too) is to pull the plug on the router. Sometimes I just turn off the outlet strip with the router, the access point, and the modem and restart everything. A restart of the router certainly cannot hurt, and if it doesn't work I'll third seanc's suggestion.

[TribeLeader]

Thanks for the replies.

I got it fixed at my wife's office. Since I didn't have access the router last night (my wife would have today), I tried a few things in Network Preferences (turning off/on Airport, renewing the DHCP lease, etc.). I just kept doing (and re-doing) different things and then finally ran Network Diagnostics which fixed a problem with DNS settings. First time I'd seen that in Network Diagnostics.

Anyway, just seemed strange that the problem appeared immediately after installing a driver for a new printer.

[ghporter]

If there's a network version of that printer, a stray setting error could have messed up your wife's network settings. Stranger things (FAR stranger!) have happened with printer drivers.

[TribeLeader]

Yes, there is a network version (although I was trying to set it up via Airport).

Interestingly, I had problem at *my* office this morning (after it being fine Monday and Tuesday). I could see the network but couldn't connect. Network Preferences kept freezing on me and my MBP eventually froze, for all intents and purposes. I could do some stuff but I could quit/restart or even open new apps or much else.

After turning off/on, I was able to get things straightened out somehow.

I haven't completely set up the new printer yet, but all this has me a bit concerned.