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"You are not connected to the Internet"

T

trevorhabeshaw

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 6, 2008
6
0
I recently installed a new Airport Extreme base station at home and installed the old one to our place in the country where we have 2 identical G4 iMacs running OSX 10.4.11 in our house.

I bought 2 Mac USB wireless cards from Rokland (excellent) and plugged them in to both machines.

Machine 1 is working perfectly using either of the USB sticks (I'm typing this message on it!) but Machine 2 (5 metres away upstairs) indicates a signal strength of 92% and 91% for link quality but then gives me 'You are not connected to the internet".

Clicking on System Prefs>Network gives me "Ethernet Adaptor (en2) has a self-assigned IP address and may not be able to connect to the internet".

I have several exchanged of email with the helpful guys at Rokland but no result.

I take the Machine to the local Mac Shop and they have no trouble logging in and connecting to the internet. The technician is stumped. Any ideas please?

PS I am a mac user since 1980 but a complete novice when it comes to understanding what's going on inside the machine.
 
Well it's difficult to say. Try using the WORKING wireless card on the other Mac. Does it work? If it does, you know the problem is with the wireless card. If it doesn’t, you know it's something with the Mac.

If it turns out to be the Mac, you'll have to play around with settings. But I'd check the wireless card first.
 
"... not connected to the internet"

Thanks for your interest.
Both USB sticks work on my machine, and works on all the USB ports on the iMac. The USB ports on the other machine are all working fine for the printer, mouse etc. (Rokland recommends that the USB stick use the ports on the iMac rather than on a USB hub or keyboard)

The guy in the shop asked me if the adaptors do or do not have the same 'MAC address', which was good of him but not helpful because I don't know what that means and I am not sure how to do anything about that on an Airport base station.
What is a 'MAC address'?
Does it relate to the iMac or to the Airport Base station?
What's the procedure for identifying a 'MAC address' wherever it is?

I'm wary of 'playing around with the settings' as I know zilch about the inside of the machine!
 
" ...not connected ..."

Thanks for your interest. I really appreciate it.
I'm sorry but I'm a real Mac dummy and I know nothing.
Where do I look for the MAC address and what does it look like?
Once I have found it, what then?
 
you're not looking for the mac address, only the IP address. I suspect you are not receiving one from your router.

to find your IP address, go to your hard drive, applications, utilities, network utility.

select your network card from the drop down menu and your IP address should show.
 
You are not connected to the internet

Thank you sdsvtdriver

Sorry for the delay - I've been out of the country.
Following your last message, the IP address on the machine that works is 10.0.1.2

The IP address on the machine on which the USB stick is not working is 169.254.233.130

On both machines, the selected Network interface is (en2)

Trevor
 
You could try having your iMac use DHCP to get it's IP address, unless there is a reason you need a custom address.

Or, try setting the IP address of the iMac that isn't working to 10.0.1.3. Just make sure nothing else is using that IP address. Just open Terminal, and type "ping 10.0.1.3" (without the quote marks) and if nothing responds, you are fine.
 
You are not connected to the Internet

Thanks Macuser 154.
I tried what you said ( I'm not clear what you mean by "if nothing responds, you are fine") but I'm sill not connected I'm afraid.
T.
 
It's not clear to me that you compared Network prefs on the two iMacs and made sure both are identical - examples: IPV6 Off on both; PPPoE Off on both; connect using DHCP, etc.
 
'You are not connected to the internet .."

Thanks to each!
Details are as follows:
Both Machines have PPPoE (Off)
Both machines are connected using DHCP
IP Address for Machine 1 is 10.0.1.2 and for Machine 2 is 10.0.1.3
Subnet mask is the same 255:255:255:0
Router ID is the same 10.0.1.1
(PS I have no idea what these things mean, of course.)

I just checked on Network Diagnostics on Machine 2 and I get
"This computer internet connection appears to be working normally".
However, in the next frame, the Airport button (number 3 of 4) is grayed out.

Notwthstanding this (and I've have not run the machine in the last 2 days) it is now " .. connected to the internet ..". My wife is delighted and I'd like to thank my helpers for their patience and support.
 
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