Mac recognizing LAN cable

[anirudh]

The ethernet cable used to connect my modem to my PC is not recognized at all by my mac. The LINK light on the modem is not on, plus in network connections on my mac it shows not connected.

What might be the problem? Plus, do I need a special LAN cable (like straight or cross) or something?

 

[Insulin Junkie]

Did your mac recognize the cable before, or is your mac a new computer? I had problems linking up to the internet when we got new computers, my guess is you need to configure your modem somehow, I'd phone the ISP and see what they say, I doubt it's a problem with your computer. Also, are you connecting more than one machine to the internet? If so it's most probably a case of re-configuring your modem to allow more than one machine to hook up to the net.

Type your modem address into your browser and try and configure manually.

 

[CanadaRAM]

Bad connection or bad cable.

First, swap the cable end for end and replug it into the Mac and the modem.

Also, if this is an ADSL modem, some ISPs configure it for the MAC address of the specific computer and you will have to get them to reconfigure if you are using a different computer.

 

[anirudh]

Did your mac recognize the cable before, or is your mac a new computer? I had problems linking up to the internet when we got new computers, my guess is you need to configure your modem somehow, I'd phone the ISP and see what they say, I doubt it's a problem with your computer. Also, are you connecting more than one machine to the internet? If so it's most probably a case of re-configuring your modem to allow more than one machine to hook up to the net.

Type your modem address into your browser and try and configure manually.

I was using the cabke to connect my ADSL modem to my XP machine. Cable appears to be ok. ISPs here dont know about configuring on a Mac (strange). And, I am just trying to connect my modem to my macbook. THats it, no multiple machines.

 

[Insulin Junkie]

I was using the cabke to connect my ADSL modem to my XP machine. Cable appears to be ok. ISPs here dont know about configuring on a Mac (strange). And, I am just trying to connect my modem to my macbook. THats it, no multiple machines.

I think you have to re-configure the modem. Strange, your ISP should have the configuration for both PC's and Macs, I remember I had to phone them up too and have them tell me the configuration details over the phone.

Did you type in your modem address into the browser yet? It's usually something like 10.0.0.138. When you do, post what it says under 'connection'.

Honestly, it sounds like a simple configuration you need to undertake, so shame on your ISP. I'd phone up a computer service and see if they have the data by chance. I'm not so sure phoning Apple would help, because they're not responsible for ISP problems.

 

[winninganthem]

It's pretty easy to deal with ethernet connections on Macs, it should be pretty much entirely plug and play.

What you might try doing though is when you switch your Mac to connect directly to the modem, reset the modem.

Disconnect power from the modem for about 30 seconds and repower the device. Let the modem do its 'turning on' flashing lights procedures, and don't try to open up any browsers or anything until all the lights are solid. This should take maybe around 5 minutes or so.

This should get you an internet connection, since you have already ruled out bad cable. Messing around in Network Preferences shouldn't hurt either. Maybe just a misconfigured setting. Maybe make sure that the ethernet isn't disabled or something.

 

[anirudh]

the thing is my mac is not detecting the cable at all.. i.e the ethernet light does not light up on my modem.... like we configure 192.168.1.100 for IP address on windows, what are the equivalent configurations on the mac???

 

[Insulin Junkie]

the thing is my mac is not detecting the cable at all.. i.e the ethernet light does not light up on my modem.... like we configure 192.168.1.100 for IP address on windows, what are the equivalent configurations on the mac???

The same thing happened with my wireless, the light was red until I reconfigured it at which point it started flashing green. It's the modem, not the Mac, I'm quite sure. Sorry, can't help you with the specific configurations.

 

[misterredman]

the thing is my mac is not detecting the cable at all.. i.e the ethernet light does not light up on my modem.... like we configure 192.168.1.100 for IP address on windows, what are the equivalent configurations on the mac???

I think you should try a different cable. I noticed with my MacBook that some cable that works perfectly on other machine are not recognized.

The light on the modem and the mac should recognize the connection when the cable is connected. The IP address doesn't matter here as first the cable must be detected.