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2 macs, same network, only one can connect

M

macswitcha2

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Oct 18, 2008
1,255
8
Ok, I have two macs and strangely one mac is unable to connect to the internet via airport while the other one can via airport. What gives?

What I'm observing is that when I open up Network Preferences in both macs, the Airport says its connected on the working one while it says no IP Address on the one that's not working.

However, when I change locations so that both macs have the same locations, the one that's not working says, Self-Assigned IP, yet, still no connection.


One more thing, I also notice that in advanced settings under TCP/IP, both macs have two different IPv4's.

How did this happen?
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8B117 Safari/6531.22.7)

What's your network configuration?
What Router?
Anyhow, this points to faulty settings on the Mac that can't connect. There is a multitude of potential culprits.
 
Bernard SG said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8B117 Safari/6531.22.7)

What's your network configuration?
What Router?
Anyhow, this points to faulty settings on the Mac that can't connect. There is a multitude of potential culprits.
Click to expand...

I'm using Verizon DSL wifi as my network and using the router they gave me which is a Westell.

In terms of Config, I'm using DHCP
 
well, I'm sorry, I fear I won't be of valuable help. I'm not familiar with the router you mentioned. Maybe the best course of action is to contact the ISP and ask them to help solve your issue.
 
Bernard SG said:
well, I'm sorry, I fear I won't be of valuable help. I'm not familiar with the router you mentioned. Maybe the best course of action is to contact the ISP and ask them to help solve your issue.
Click to expand...

I appreciate all your help. I don't think calling will do any help. It's not a hardware issue since same router for both macs. I wonder of I should do a fresh reinstall of the OS X Snow Leopard and see if that fixes it.
 
The weird thing is that I did nothing to the settings before it stopped working.
 
I had an issue similar to yours. My mother-in-law got verizon dsl with the westell. Using her wireless router with the dsl just wouldn't work. A wired connection straight to the modem worked but a wired connection through the router wouldn't. The router worked perfectly fine with a desktop, two laptops (one mac), four iphones, and a ps3 all on it at once (talk about overload).

Make a long story short... new router... just plugged it in and everything worked.
 
Have you tried static settings?

try forcing IPv4 settings to something like:
IP: 192.168.x.y (if on a C class network) where x=same as your routers 3rd octet, y=usually anything in range 10-100 is safe to use.
Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
Router: router's address
DNS: router's address or you can use Open DNS:
208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220
and retry
if that doesn't work then trash preference file and restart (so the OS X can rebuild it) you might/will loose time zone settings and any saved WEP/WPA passwords in the process.
Under "advanced" see if the MTU is set to "automatic" or is it a specific value - make sure it matches MTU used on the router.

Good luck and let us know how it went...


Also try disabling wireless security/password altogether and see if that helps (temp)
 
Monkey194545 said:
Make a long story short... new router... just plugged it in and everything worked.
Click to expand...

Yeah, may have to get a better one, any suggestions?

Eric M said:
try forcing IPv4 settings to something like:
IP: 192.168.x.y (if on a C class network) where x=same as your routers 3rd octet, y=usually anything in range 10-100 is safe to use.
Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
Router: router's address
DNS: router's address or you can use Open DNS:
208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220
and retry
if that doesn't work then trash preference file and restart (so the OS X can rebuild it) you might/will loose time zone settings and any saved WEP/WPA passwords in the process.
Under "advanced" see if the MTU is set to "automatic" or is it a specific value - make sure it matches MTU used on the router.

Good luck and let us know how it went...


Also try disabling wireless security/password altogether and see if that helps (temp)
Click to expand...

Would this affect my working mac? The other mac works fine, I'm currently using it as I type.

UPDATE: Ok, I tried the first set of instructions by using the settings on the working mac. It say that its connected. But, no pages are loading.
 
macswitcha2 said:
Would this affect my working mac? The other mac works fine, I'm currently using it as I type.
Click to expand...

Changing settings on the other mac will not affect the working one.
Removing the wireless password (on the router) however - will.

After you clear the WEP/WPA on the router, just re-join the network - this time it will not ask you for the password though.
Test on the other mac and if that sorts it then just use a different type of security.
Few years back I had a mini that would not join any networks with a WPA2 password - changed to WEP (less secure) and added MAC filtering on the router and it connected fine. If a memory serves me right it was on 10.4.x system.

Just test it - if nothing happens then you can go back to the original settings in a few clicks.

Also - this is just a temp solution - you can create an ad-hoc network between the two macs and just share the connection on the working machine to the other on and see if that connects.

****************update*********************

You can try shutting down the interface and re-initializing it from the terminal.
Open terminal and type ifconfig check which interface is the airport (usually en1) and then use the two commands to shut it down/start:
sudo ifconfig en1 down - to shut down
sudo ifconfig en1 up - to re-initialize

Another option is to delete all locations and then reset networking->create new location.
 
macswitcha2 said:
UPDATE: Ok, I tried the first set of instructions by using the settings on the working mac. It say that its connected. But, no pages are loading.
Click to expand...


Go to the System Preferences>Network>Airport>Advanced>TCP/IP and make sure that router's address and minimum one DNS is showing - if not then populate with the right values.
 
Eric M said:
Changing settings on the other mac will not affect the working one.
Removing the wireless password (on the router) however - will.

After you clear the WEP/WPA on the router, just re-join the network - this time it will not ask you for the password though.
Test on the other mac and if that sorts it then just use a different type of security.
Few years back I had a mini that would not join any networks with a WPA2 password - changed to WEP (less secure) and added MAC filtering on the router and it connected fine. If a memory serves me right it was on 10.4.x system.

Just test it - if nothing happens then you can go back to the original settings in a few clicks.

Also - this is just a temp solution - you can create an ad-hoc network between the two macs and just share the connection on the working machine to the other on and see if that connects.

****************update*********************

You can try shutting down the interface and re-initializing it from the terminal.
Open terminal and type ifconfig check which interface is the airport (usually en1) and then use the two commands to shut it down/start:
sudo ifconfig en1 down - to shut down
sudo ifconfig en1 up - to re-initialize

Another option is to delete all locations and then reset networking->create new location.
Click to expand...

In tried the delete location option and it does not allow you to delete all locations. In any case, how do you reset location network?

Will try the others.

Eric M said:
Go to the System Preferences>Network>Airport>Advanced>TCP/IP and make sure that router's address and minimum one DNS is showing - if not then populate with the right values.
Click to expand...

In this option, both was showing correctly yet did not work.
 
macswitcha,

Can you post the information from Sytem Profiler -> Network for Airport on the machine that is working?
 
macswitcha2 said:
In tried the delete location option and it does not allow you to delete all locations. In any case, how do you reset location network?
Click to expand...

You have to go into locations, then edit, create new and then delete the existing location.

Have you tried removing WEP/WPA on the router yet?
What was the result?
 
Eric M said:
You have to go into locations, then edit, create new and then delete the existing location.

Have you tried removing WEP/WPA on the router yet?
What was the result?
Click to expand...

Ok, I actually pressed reset on my modem and therefore lost connection on the working on. When I tried again to connect on the working mac, internet directed me to install some Verizon disk and I was like, nope, never had to install anything on the mac to connect to the internet from Verizon. I went back to the nonworking mac and still had the same issues. So, I called Verizon and spoke to a mac specialists who walked we through in setting up a new network via some Verizon redirecting site. Now I"m back connected again, on both macs and with a more secure network since the person set me up with a WPA2 security. I went from a WEP to WPA2 which he said was better security.


Thanks Eric and thank you Bernard for all of your efforts in helping me out.

P.S. Is it true that WPA2 is more secure than WEP?
 
macswitcha2 said:
Ok, I actually pressed reset on my modem and therefore lost connection on the working on. When I tried again to connect on the working mac, internet directed me to install some Verizon disk and I was like, nope, never had to install anything on the mac to connect to the internet from Verizon. I went back to the nonworking mac and still had the same issues. So, I called Verizon and spoke to a mac specialists who walked we through in setting up a new network via some Verizon redirecting site. Now I"m back connected again, on both macs and with a more secure network since the person set me up with a WPA2 security. I went from a WEP to WPA2 which he said was better security.


Thanks Eric and thank you Bernard for all of your efforts in helping me out.

P.S. Is it true that WPA2 is more secure than WEP?
Click to expand...

I'm told WEP is extremely easy to crack. Never tried it, personally.
 
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