Ethernet Help

[jrrmintz]

Hi, I've recently been having trouble connecting to the wired internet in my dorm room, and I was wondering if you excellent folks could help.

For some reason, my computer isn't recognizing that my ethernet cable is plugged in. It was working three days ago perfectly fine, but after I moved some furniture around (and unplugged the cable), it simply stopped working. The cable itself is in working condition (it works on my neighbor's computer, when plugged into her ethernet port), but not on mine. I tried switching my location to automatic, resetting the PRAM, and changing the speed and duplex. When I change the speed to 10baseT, System Preferences claims that it's working, but with a self-asigned IP address of 169.254.237.116. I'm able to connect wirelessly, but not wired. I don't know much about the internet here, other than I'm plugged directly into an ethernet port in the wall. No routers or anything.

If anyone could suggest anything, I would be eternally grateful. Thanks!

Edit: My computer is a MacBook Pro running 10.5.8.

 

[Makosuke]

Even though your cable works with your neighbor's computer, I'd recommend getting your hands on another one to test before doing anything else. If your cable is marginal on account of getting pinched or tweaked or something while moving things, it's possible that your computer doesn't like it while another one does.

Second, when you say the cable worked with your neighbor's ethernet port, do you mean her computer attached to the port in her room, or the same port you're using in your room? If you haven't tested another computer on the wall jack in your room, do that--the port itself could have had something happen to it.

Alternately, you could carry your MBP to someone else's room and try it in place of their computer on that jack, which would conclusively narrow it down to your computer.

Assuming it's not the cable or the wall jack, the second question is whether there is ANYTHING you changed software-wise. Just to be sure.

Do that stuff and if it doesn't help we'll see about other software things that could be related. To throw this out there, there is always the small chance that the port on your computer actually broke--it's rare, but that happened to my iMac once.