G4 Powermac won't connect to internet

[TheKeith]

Randomly my nice old G4 PowerMac, running 10.4 stopped connecting to the internet.
Checking the Ethernet settings, it isn't seeing any information.

My cable modem and router are both fine. The router is wireless, and computers receiving the wireless signal work fine. I hooked the modem up directly to the Mac, and it still wouldn't see it.

I'm actually a little concerned about a virus or something.

Has this happened to anyone else?

 

[zmttoxics]

Randomly my nice old G4 PowerMac, running 10.4 stopped connecting to the internet.
Checking the Ethernet settings, it isn't seeing any information.

My cable modem and router are both fine. The router is wireless, and computers receiving the wireless signal work fine. I hooked the modem up directly to the Mac, and it still wouldn't see it.

I'm actually a little concerned about a virus or something.

Has this happened to anyone else?

If you can paste the following...
-Screen shots of the gui settings
-Output from this command in Terminal.app: ifconfig -a
-Output from this command in Terminal.app: cat /etc/resolve.conf

... we can then proceed with helping you.

 

[Eric S.]

What do you mean by randomly? Sometimes it connects and sometimes it doesn't? How do you know your cable modem and router are fine? Have you tried power cycling them? Have you changed any router settings lately? What make of router do you have?

 

[fireshot91]

Sure it can't be the ethernet adapter (For a lack of a better word) on your G4?

 

[TheKeith]

By randomly, I mean that one day I was using the internet just fine, walked away from the computer, walked back an hour later and the internet no longer worked.

Yes, I power cycled the modem and the router. I removed the router from the chain entirely, hooking up the modem right to the Mac through Ethernet, no effect. It goes Cable Modem to Router, Router to Mac through Ethernet, Router to a Windows laptop and iPod Touch wirelessly.

And the two devices that connect to the internet wirelessly through the router work just fine. So I know for a full fact that the modem and router are working fine.

Thank you for the suggestions, I will post the results later.

 

[TheKeith]

Sure it can't be the ethernet adapter (For a lack of a better word) on your G4?

It could be. I hope not.
I can't afford a new Mac right now.

 

[aibo]

It could be. I hope not.
I can't afford a new Mac right now.

If that is the problem, I don't understand why you'd need a new mac over a $15 ethernet card.
http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/osx/os_x_network_cards.html

 

[Eric S.]

And the two devices that connect to the internet wirelessly through the router work just fine. So I know for a full fact that the modem and router are working fine.

Right. Well the only problems I've had with devices not being able to connect to the internet always had something to do with the encryption setting in the router. In that case one device would not work while others worked OK. It sounds like that is not your problem though, from the other things you describe.

One thing you could try is that for a fairly small cost you can get a USB wifi stick from Asus (or probably other manufacturers). That would be on the theory that the ethernet on your G4 is the problem.

 

[TheKeith]

If you can paste the following...
-Screen shots of the gui settings
-Output from this command in Terminal.app: ifconfig -a
-Output from this command in Terminal.app: cat /etc/resolve.conf

... we can then proceed with helping you.

<my name>-power-mac-g4:~ keith$ ifconfig -a
lo0: flags=8049<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING,MULTICAST> mtu 16384
inet 127.0.0.1 netmask 0xff000000
inet6 ::1 prefixlen 128
inet6 fe80::1%lo0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x1
gif0: flags=8010<POINTOPOINT,MULTICAST> mtu 1280
stf0: flags=0<> mtu 1280
en0: flags=8863<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
inet6 fe80::203:93ff:febd:7f2c%en0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x4
ether 00:03:93:bd:7f:2c
media: autoselect (100baseTX <full-duplex>) status: active
supported media: none autoselect 10baseT/UTP <half-duplex> 10baseT/UTP <full-duplex> 10baseT/UTP <full-duplex,hw-loopback> 100baseTX <half-duplex> 100baseTX <full-duplex> 100baseTX <full-duplex,hw-loopback> 1000baseT <full-duplex> 1000baseT <full-duplex,hw-loopback> 1000baseT <full-duplex,flow-control> 1000baseT <full-duplex,flow-control,hw-loopback>
fw0: flags=8863<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 2030
lladdr 00:03:93:ff:fe:bd:7f:2c
media: autoselect <full-duplex> status: inactive
supported media: autoselect <full-duplex>

<my name>-power-mac-g4:~ keith$ cat /etc/resolve.conf
cat: /etc/resolve.conf: No such file or directory