Keeping Ethernet Alive when Quad is off

[morrisond]

Hi,

I have my Powermac connected through Ethernet to a D-link Router 713p which is then connected to my cable modem. Whenever I turn the quad off the link is dropped and I have to reboot the routers. Real pain.

Any way to keep the link active while the Computer is off or asleep?

 

[DXoverDY]

Hi,

I have my Powermac connected through Ethernet to a D-link Router 713p which is then connected to my cable modem. Whenever I turn the quad off the link is dropped and I have to reboot the routers. Real pain.

Any way to keep the link active while the Computer is off or asleep?

none that i know of. if it's off there's no power. if it's asleep it only puts enough power to keep the ram from discharging and monitor a few vitals like keyboard presses, etc.

sounds like the router needs a firmware upgrade or something. it shouldn't need a reset when a machine disconnects. it's probably not the computer, most likely it's the router. my linksys works perfectly fine with my power book sleeping or turning it off.

 

[Bear]

Sounds like there is something wrong with the dlink. Have you triesd updating the firmware in it? And checking it's parameters?

And as for your Mac..when it is powered off, it is off.

For sleep mode, you can see if enabling "wake for Ethernet administator access" keeps the ethernet port powered up during sleep.

 

[cvalda]

I think it's the router. I used to have a Linksys WMP-G and I had to keep my computer on or else I'd get no wireless signal. The first thing some routers do is check to make sure it is plugged into an active PC, hence the PC light.

That's why I can't until I get my Airport. Just plug the cable modem in and you're done :love:

 

[Makosuke]

First, I agree--it sounds like there's an issue with your router. What you're looking for would fix it, but it shouldn't be happening in the first place. And I also agree that it's not possible--Macs do their ethernet negotiation through the OS, best I can figure.

Second, I admit I've really wanted to do this myself for a somewhat similar reason; my work G4 is plugged into one of the gigabit ports on our switch (midrange 48-port 3Com), but it takes a REALLY long time to negotiate a connection (maybe 20-30 seconds as opposed to 2-5 for the 100BT ports).

This may or may not be normal (I've never worked with 1000BT before), but the result is every time I put my computer to sleep I have to wait for it to re-initialize the network connection after waking it, and it's annoying.

Interesting that the IBM workstations we have appear to have some sort of self-sufficient ethernet port on them, so they'll negotiate a conection even if the computer is off (the network light on the front blinks even when powered down). I suppose you might be able to get a similar effect by using a 3rd party ethernet card in your G5, but I've never tried that.