Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

need help with router

twoodcc

twoodcc

macrumors P6
Original poster
Feb 3, 2005
15,307
26
Right side of wrong
ok, i have a linksys wireless router that has been working fine for as long as i've had it, with the every once in a while reset.

but now it has messed up today.

at my dorm, it has to go from the wall, to a switch, to my router. and this worked all last semester and has been working this semester until now.

i get the yellow dot in system preferences. (instead of green)

but it works when i plug just into the switch directly now.

any ideas on what to do? i tried resetting it, but to no avail

thanks
 
What do you mean exactly, when you say you have a switch *and* a router? What kind of switch? The gimme answer is that, for some reason, the network is blocking access to your router by MAC address or wildcarded MAC address. Does your network officially allow routers?
 
mkrishnan said:
What do you mean exactly, when you say you have a switch *and* a router? What kind of switch? The gimme answer is that, for some reason, the network is blocking access to your router by MAC address or wildcarded MAC address. Does your network officially allow routers?
Click to expand...

yes, to my understanding, that the network is supposed to allow routers.

the switch was supplied by Pur Digital, the company hired by the school. The brand looks like GigaFast.
 
twoodcc said:
well i guess you'd call it a subnetwork. i use it for wireless also.
Click to expand...

No, that's not really what he meant. I think he was trying to make sure your router wasn't distributing IP addresses to the rest of your dorm network.

I'm familiar with the type of setup you have; I currently work for a university IT department and some of the student rooms require a switch like yours does. Assuming you have the switch plugged into your router via the router's WAN (Internet) port, you have it physically connected correctly.

I'm not sure what the "yellow" dot means because I don't usually troubleshoot networking through the OS X control panel, but I assume it means it's physically connected but not getting an IP address. What happens when you go into the details for that connection and click "Renew DHCP lease"? Can you access the admin interface for your router?
 
mrogers said:
No, that's not really what he meant. I think he was trying to make sure your router wasn't distributing IP addresses to the rest of your dorm network.

I'm familiar with the type of setup you have; I currently work for a university IT department and some of the student rooms require a switch like yours does. Assuming you have the switch plugged into your router via the router's WAN (Internet) port, you have it physically connected correctly.

I'm not sure what the "yellow" dot means because I don't usually troubleshoot networking through the OS X control panel, but I assume it means it's physically connected but not getting an IP address. What happens when you go into the details for that connection and click "Renew DHCP lease"? Can you access the admin interface for your router?
Click to expand...

thanks, i'll try to renew DHCP lease, and see if it works. but you are right, it has a "self-assigned IP address" or something like that.
 
wakerider017 said:
Do you use wifi?

If not can't you just plug a switch into the internet into the dorm?
Click to expand...

mrogers said:
And if you do use WiFi...you have it secured, don't you? And if you don't use it, you have it turned off, right?
Click to expand...

i use wifi very little, but i do use it some. i don't have it secured, but i don't broadcast my network name, and i can look to see who's connected in the router manager.

if i just use the switch, i have no security, correct?
 
twoodcc said:
if i just use the switch, i have no security, correct?
Click to expand...

Erm... well, that's a good question, actually. The wifi router gives you a NAT firewall, which the switch may or may not give you (probably it doesn't). If the switch doesn't give you a firewall, you'll need to be careful about how yours is set up.

However, with respect to security measures like hiding the SSID and using WPA, all these do is secure the transmission between the computer and the wifi router -- once it passes by cable from the router to the switch, it's the same as if it had been plugged in directly. So in that sense, all those security measures only address vulnerabilities that arise from using WiFi in the first place, and you're more secure in that respect without WiFi than you were with it. Although, marginally, in the case of the WPA/MAC/hidden configuration.
 
mkrishnan said:
Erm... well, that's a good question, actually. The wifi router gives you a NAT firewall, which the switch may or may not give you (probably it doesn't). If the switch doesn't give you a firewall, you'll need to be careful about how yours is set up.

However, with respect to security measures like hiding the SSID and using WPA, all these do is secure the transmission between the computer and the wifi router -- once it passes by cable from the router to the switch, it's the same as if it had been plugged in directly. So in that sense, all those security measures only address vulnerabilities that arise from using WiFi in the first place, and you're more secure in that respect without WiFi than you were with it. Although, marginally, in the case of the WPA/MAC/hidden configuration.
Click to expand...

ok, you're starting to lose me here....so what you are saying is:

basically, wireless is the only thing where security is a problem, and if i'm not using wireless, then it's the same as just plugging right in the wall?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back