Mac messing up my networking!
 

I'm running a wireless home network on a 2wire router/modem. The connections include a primary desktop PC (wired), 2nd desktop PC (wireless), laptop PC (wireless), XBox 360 (wireless) and Mac iBook (wireless).

Everything works fine when using the Windows based systems/XBox but when the Mac is introduced into the mix, the whole thing goes flaky. The Mac seems to retain it's connection but the other wireless connections keep dropping intermittently. On attempting connection I keep getting the Limited or No Connectivity dialogue, it all seems to fail when attempting to assign IP address.

Does anyone have any idea what might be causing this or how to fix it?

Re: Mac messing up my networking!
 

I'll take that as a no then :( excuse the bump ;)

Re: Mac messing up my networking!
 

Umm Your Mac isn't running a DHCP server of its own is it? Or something silly

Re: Mac messing up my networking!
 

What router?

Re: Mac messing up my networking!
 

It's impossible to say without being able to see all the settings in your Mac's System Prefs, although if the Mac is staying connected and the MS stuff is dropping it, I'd prefer to think there was something wrong in one or more of the other machines that is tolerable only so long as only Microsoft systems are attempting to connect.

What are the DHCP settings in your router?

Re: Mac messing up my networking!
 

Thanks for the replies :)

I know very little about DHCP, but these are the settings on the mac:

Configure IPv4: Using DHCP
IP Address: 192.168.1.67
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0

And on my router DHCP settings, I have;
192.168.1.0 / 255.255.255.0 (default) checked and all the addresses seem to match up.

As I say, its an intermittent problem. Is there any specific info I can provide which may help troubleshoot?

The modem is a 2wire 1800HG.

Re: Mac messing up my networking!
 

Just as another bump, I'm still experiencing the same problems as above. I've tried eveything I can think of. After a recent reformat of my PC laptop, I've installed the latest wireless drivers, but the problem is just as bad. Whenever the iBook is on my laptop and even 360 wifi connections keep dropping. They fail on reconnection as they cannot acquire an IP address. As soon as the mac is off, all is well. The puzzler is that sometimes they can all work, but more often than not there's a problem.

Any new ideas I can try?

Re: Mac messing up my networking!
 

Can you borrow a mate's router?

The only thing I can think of is that the Mac is trying to create a ad-hoc network which is confusing the PCs. How or why, I don't know.

Do the wireless PCs work fine when you use the Mac via ethernet?

Re: Mac messing up my networking!
 

Very odd, as Zeph suggests it sounds like there's another DHCP service floating about on your network. Can you see where you're getting your dynamic IP address from on the mac?

Go into terminal and issue this command:

ipconfig getpacket en1

then check the value of the "server_identifier (ip)" parameter

Re: Mac messing up my networking!
 

I've got that server_identifier....what will that tell me, and what am I looking for?

Just had a look at the network settings on the mac - under the TCP/IP tab Configure IPv4 has 'Using DHCP' selected. Also at the bottom an IPv6 address is listed - this is set to automatic. Should I disable this?

Re: Mac messing up my networking!
 

it'll tell you which dhcp server is allocating the ip address to your mac. This should of course be the address of your router.

Re: Mac messing up my networking!
 

yep, I can confirm that they match.

Re: Mac messing up my networking!
 

Sorry, I just re-read your original post and it's just your wireless clients dropping connection. I'm wondering if this is some sort of RF/Crosstalk issue where your mac is basically blatting out the radio signal to your other clients. Have you tried shifting your Mac into another room away from the router and your PCs and running it like that for a while?

Re: Mac messing up my networking!
 

It does sound like thats the most likely answer. I think it seems that the problem is worse when the PC laptop is closer to the mac. The mac, PC and 360 are all in the same room.

Re: Mac messing up my networking!
 

whats the ip addresses for all the devices that are connected to the router, what I think it is myself is that something has the same IP address as the MAC and thats why you are getting these issues.