[Jim di Griz]

Recently took possession of new TiPb, was very happy, untill I tried to connect to my ISP via a cable modem.

Did System Preferences->Network->Built-in Ethernet->Using DHCP->Apply Now then started up IE and 'Unable to find server' error.

Checked back to the settings and for some reason the IP Address, instead of being (Provided by DHCP Server) has (Self Assigned) under it ???!!!

Tried to connect with my Windows Desktop machine with the same equipment and no problem, so I know the modem and cable are OK

Connected the laptop and the desktop to each other with a patch cable and transfered files between them OK, so I assume the actual ethernet socket is OK

Have contacted my ISP (Ntl in the UK) and they walked me through the settings though they don't officially support OS X, stilll same message.

Have contacted AppleCare, they too were stumped.
So now I'm open to suggestions?

[Usama's Carcase]

I assume you're using an ethernet-based cable modem. correct?

power down your cable modem, i.e., turn it off and unplug it. shut down your Macintosh, but make sure that 'built-in ethernet' is active, set to dhcp, and in the first position in the network ports list. just drag it to the top. now shut down the Mac. Let it sit for a few minutes. make sure the Mac and cable modem are connected via a standard ethernet cable (not crossover).

now turn on the cable modem. let it cycle to ready. start up your Mac. This should do it.

[ghporter]

If Usama's advice didn't help, let us know. Some cable providers will only let you hook up one network card to their modem, and if you want to hook up a different one you have to call them and give them the hardware address (the MAC address-it stands for Media Access Control) of the new card. There's a way around this, but it's not worth discussing if the previous advice fixed your problem.