Ethernet self-assigning ip address.

[JoeW91]

Hi everyone. N00bie here.

I've recently moved to halls and have tried setting up my 360 to Xbox Live, by running an ethernet cable through my MacBook Pro. For some reason no matter what I try the ethernet will self assign an ip address:Ethernet has a self-assigned IP address and will not be able to connect to the Internet. I'm connecting through DHCP, I've tried resetting the router, i've tried renewing the DHCP lease....

Can anybody offer an insight as to why it isn't working? My friend upstairs has it connected fine through his Toshiba and he can't explain to me what the problem could be!

Thanks
Joe

 

[MacTech68]

Have you tried a different ethernet cable? Or simply take it "upstairs" to where the Toshiba is and plug it in there. That should at least tell you if it's the MacBook or the network cabling.

 

[JoeW91]

Yep i've tried a standard ethernet and also a red crossover ethernet cable he lent me to see if it's that. He tried configuring it with his laptop in my room downstairs and it did exactly the same as when I try on my macbook...

If there was a problem with the router would you not think that it wouldn't let him connect? I'm just lost in what else I can do.

 

[MacTech68]

Yep i've tried a standard ethernet and also a red crossover ethernet cable he lent me to see if it's that. He tried configuring it with his laptop in my room downstairs and it did exactly the same as when I try on my macbook...

If there was a problem with the router would you not think that it wouldn't let him connect? I'm just lost in what else I can do.

Hold on.

"his laptop in my room downstairs and it did exactly the same as when I try on my macbook"

is that a typo? Do you mean when he tries the Toshiba in your room it doesn't get a valid IP?

 

[JoeW91]

Yeah apologies. He brings his laptop to my room downstairs...tries to connect and it will do the same or the equivalent to what my mac says about having to assign an ip address.....

It's odd because it works fine upstairs for him, but whenever i try with my macbook it will never work...

 

[MacTech68]

Yeah apologies. He brings his laptop to my room downstairs...tries to connect and it will do the same or the equivalent to what my mac says about having to assign an ip address.....

It's odd because it works fine upstairs for him, but whenever i try with my macbook it will never work...

Hmmm, well from that it sounds like a cabling issue. You should be able to get your MacBook to work UPSTAIRS on his cable.

If you have access to the router or hub, check to see if any new lights come on when you plug the cable in. That doesn't mean the cable isn't the problem, but it will tell you which port & cable is problematic. You could even try plugging directly into the hub or router, or try plugging the original cable into a different port on the hub/router.

I should ask is this a house or campus?

 

[JoeW91]

Here's what the Ethernet tab says when I have everything connected....
IP Address 169.254.5.170
Subnet Mask 255.255.0.0

802.1X studentnet
Authentication server is not responding.

Wouldn't be possible to plug an ethernet into the hub itself as I have no idea where it's located seeing as the internet is shared between my block of halls.
Yeah i'm on campus, but that shouldn't be a problem. As i've said my friend upstairs is doing EXACTLY the same thing as me by connecting the ethernet cable from the Xbox to the computer.

Just kind of lost and i'm starting to think i've done something which is simple very wrong...

 

[Thunderhawks]

Here's what the Ethernet tab says when I have everything connected....
IP Address 169.254.5.170
Subnet Mask 255.255.0.0

802.1X studentnet
Authentication server is not responding.

Wouldn't be possible to plug an ethernet into the hub itself as I have no idea where it's located seeing as the internet is shared between my block of halls.
Yeah i'm on campus, but that shouldn't be a problem. As i've said my friend upstairs is doing EXACTLY the same thing as me by connecting the ethernet cable from the Xbox to the computer.

Just kind of lost and i'm starting to think i've done something which is simple very wrong...

This is not related to any cabling or hook up issue. I had the same thing happen to me for a while and googled it and got a solution that worked for me.

Here is a point to start:

support.apple.com/kb/TS1920

 

[ScoobyMcDoo]

Just kind of lost and i'm starting to think i've done something which is simple very wrong...

I'm really lost too trying to understand what you are doing. You said the XBox is connected to the computer? Is this directly? What is connected to the router?

 

[JoeW91]

I'm really lost too trying to understand what you are doing. You said the XBox is connected to the computer? Is this directly? What is connected to the router?

It's possible to connect to Xbox Live using an ethernet cable, if your laptop is connect wirelessly. This should explain what I'm trying to do.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBT-B-mfkBk

 

[Denarius]

Does your MacBook connect to the internet in your room? If so, is it via ethernet or Wifi?

 

[JoeW91]

Does your MacBook connect to the internet in your room? If so, is it via ethernet or Wifi?

WiFi.

 

[teleromeo]

Imo you have to use internet sharing. Open system preferences > sharing and activate internetsharing. This way you can share your airport connection via ethernet.

 

[JoeW91]

Imo you have to use internet sharing. Open system preferences > sharing and activate internetsharing. This way you can share your airport connection via ethernet.

Yeah that's been done. I've literally followed the video that I posted earlier step by step. Sorry though, I should have mentioned that I had internet sharing on at the start... This is why i'm so confused as to why it won't work. haha

 

[Denarius]

WiFi.

Okay, so assuming you've turned on internet sharing with Ethernet checked in there, what are your current settings for ethernet in the network panel?

 

[ScoobyMcDoo]

What teleromeo said.

However, if you take the xbox out of the equation, does the mac connect to the internet OK through wifi?

 

[JoeW91]

What teleromeo said.

However, if you take the xbox out of the equation, does the mac connect to the internet OK through wifi?

Yes works perfectly. Internet sharing is on, sorry forgot to mention that earlier...

 

[Denarius]

Yes works perfectly. Internet sharing is on, sorry forgot to mention that earlier...

So what are your settings in system prefs->network->ethernet?

 

[JoeW91]

Okay, so assuming you've turned on internet sharing with Ethernet checked in there, what are your current settings for ethernet in the network panel?

Here's what the first tab looks like...http://i1127.photobucket.com/albums/l623/joew91/Screenshot2011-03-30at161713.png

If you want to see the advanced options let me know.

 

[ScoobyMcDoo]

So, I watched the video, obviously made by some 12-year old kid with a shaky hand. He left out some steps and gave some bad info as well.

On the XBox, as I recall, he set the IP to 192.168.1.2 and the gateway to 192.168.1.1. So that means you need to set up your ethernet connection to static IP of 192.168.1.1. Also, he gave his nameserver addresses presumably from his provider - you will want to use the addresses for your provider.

 

[Denarius]

Here's what the first tab looks like...http://i1127.photobucket.com/albums/l623/joew91/Screenshot2011-03-30at161713.png

If you want to see the advanced options let me know.

I think the problem is that the Mac won't be serving DHCP for the XBox, in which case set up the Mac as follows in system preference->network->ethernet:

Configure IPv4: Manually
IP address: 192.168.5.1
subnet: 255.255.255.0
Router: 192.168.5.1
DNS Server 8.8.8.8

Set up the xbox as follows:

Manual IP.
IP address: 192.168.5.2
subnet: 255.255.255.0
Router: 192.168.5.1
DNS: 8.8.8.8

Note: I've assumed that 192.168.5.x is not the subnet that your wifi connection is using. If it is, use something else, doesn't really matter what so long as it's valid.

 

[JoeW91]

I think the problem is that the Mac won't be serving DHCP for the XBox, in which case set up the Mac as follows in system preference->network->ethernet:

Configure IPv4: Manually
IP address: 192.168.5.1
subnet: 255.255.255.0
Router: 192.168.5.1
DNS Server 8.8.8.8

Set up the xbox as follows:

Manual IP.
IP address: 192.168.5.2
subnet: 255.255.255.0
Router: 192.168.5.1
DNS: 8.8.8.8

Note: I've assumed that 192.168.5.x is not the subnet that your wifi connection is using. If it is, use something else, doesn't really matter what so long as it's valid.

Ok we got somewhere with that!
It recognised the cable, but now it won't connect to the internet (on the xbox)
"Your DNS server can't resolve the names of the Xbox LIVE servers or Xbox.com.
Your console has these manually-defined DNS settings:
Primary DNS: 8.8.8.8
Secondary DNS: 0.0.0.0"

I'll give it a quick go with the DNS settings were posted on the video...not sure if that will work however.

 

[Denarius]

Ok we got somewhere with that!
It recognised the cable, but now it won't connect to the internet (on the xbox)
"Your DNS server can't resolve the names of the Xbox LIVE servers or Xbox.com.
Your console has these manually-defined DNS settings:
Primary DNS: 8.8.8.8
Secondary DNS: 0.0.0.0"

I'll give it a quick go with the DNS settings were posted on the video...not sure if that will work however.

Okay I made a mistake. Go to network preferences->airport->advanced and make a note of the router there (in the TCP/IP tab).

Substitute that router number for the router assignment in the mac's ethernet configuration.

8.8.8.8 is fine as a DNS: that's google DNS. You can add 8.8.4.4 as secondary DNS if you want.

 

[MacTech68]

Ok. Now that I understand what's going on (I think ) here's a few tips:

1. Internet Sharing will setup a new network on the interface you chose in Internet Sharing preferences. Usually, Apple uses 192.168.2.x with 192.168.2.1 as the gateway IP (the IP address of the Ethernet interface on the Mac).

2. Don't expect to see that when you go into the Ethernet tab in System Preferences. You can actually bind different networks to an interface so the settings under the Ethernet tab allow you to do so. (You don't need to do anything for your setup)

3. If you open Terminal (Applications/Terminal) and type:

ifconfig eth0

and hit enter (note that's eth zero) it should show you "inet 192.168.2.1 ..." or similar.

That being the case, Internet Sharing is running and has a DHCP server running to assign IPs in that range ( 192.168.2.x ).

4. If your XBox doesn't get a valid IP from the Mac's DHCP server..... give it one manually. For example, if ifconfig eth0 gives you "inet 192.168.2.1 ..." then:

on the XBox:

IP Address = 192.168.2.2
Subnet Mask = 255.255.255.0
Gateway = 192.168.2.1
DNS = YOUR NETWORK'S DNS SERVER.

 

[Denarius]

Ok. Now that I understand what's going on (I think ) here's a few tips:

1. Internet Sharing will setup a new network on the interface you chose in Internet Sharing preferences. Usually, Apple uses 192.168.2.x with 192.168.2.1 as the gateway IP (the IP address of the Ethernet interface on the Mac).

2. Don't expect to see that when you go into the Ethernet tab in System Preferences. You can actually bind different networks to an interface so the settings under the Ethernet tab allow you to do so. (You don't need to do anything for your setup)

3. If you open Terminal (Applications/Terminal) and type:

ifconfig eth0

and hit enter (note that's eth zero) it should show you "inet 192.168.2.1 ..." or similar.

That being the case, Internet Sharing is running and has a DHCP server running to assign IPs in that range ( 192.168.2.x ).

4. If your XBox doesn't get a valid IP from the Mac's DHCP server..... give it one manually. For example, if ifconfig eth0 gives you "inet 192.168.2.1 ..." then:

on the XBox:

IP Address = 192.168.2.2
Subnet Mask = 255.255.255.0
Gateway = 192.168.2.1
DNS = YOUR NETWORK'S DNS SERVER.

I'm 95% confident that the Mac won't be serving DHCP...