HELP! iMac, cable modem won't go. - Page 4

stripes · 22-02-2007, 14:57

So, tried that lot.

Tried inputting the sudo command string to no effect. Still says 'not connected to the Internet on launching Safari'; still reverts to a 169 address on Network pane.

Tried just pulling the ethernet out of the modem and reconnecting the G3 ethernet line instead. No go, had to powerdown and reboot etc. (As it happens, got a strange 'Scripting OSAX' message which screwed up Netscape and Outlook Explorer, but which seems to have gone away now, thankfully).

Tried the modem on for five minutes first, before booting Mac. No go.

So, I shall now pull the coaxial from the STB, without much hope of success, and report back again shortly.

Allen.

Chris W · 22-02-2007, 15:12

hmm. How very bizarre.

When you do ifconfig is it now showing the same mac address on the new Mac as it is on the old one? (just to confirm that the sudo command has worked).

If the mac addresses are the same, this tends to point to a problem with the Mac (bizarre as it seems) because if the two devices have the same mac address, as far as the cable modem and the network are concerned they are the same device.

I don't suppose on the intel Mac you have bootcamp installed and dual boot with XP or Vista do you?

Dark Fiber · 22-02-2007, 15:17

The following is a Q&A in a sample paper for the "Mac OS X Support Essentials v10.4 Exam"

"You are using DHCP to distribute IP addresses on your corporate network. One of
your computers has a self-assigned IP address. How can you force this computer
to attempt to acquire a DHCP address? (Choose TWO.)
A. xxxxxxx
B. Enter a new DHCP Client ID in the Network preferences and click Apply.
C. xxxxxxx
D. Set a manual IP address in the Network preferences and click Apply, then
change to Configure Using DHCP and click Apply"

I suggest trying 'D'

NTLVictim · 22-02-2007, 15:17

May I suggest big M for the Macintosh and small m for mac address?

I'm getting dizzy, is all..

Dark Fiber · 22-02-2007, 15:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by NTLVictim

May I suggest big M for the Macintosh and small m for mac address?

I'm getting dizzy, is all..

Definitely not! Media Access Control = MAC
Macintosh computer (often wrongly referred as a MAC) properly referred to as a Mac

PS And what were the idiots at Ofcom thinking when they coined "Migration Authorization Code" for ADSL transfers?

stripes · 22-02-2007, 15:36

Chris: not sure what I'm looking for on the ifconfig result data.

one line reads inet 127.0.0.1 netmask etc.

another line reads ether 00:17:f2:d0:f7:bb

and another reads lladdr 00:19:e3:ff:fe:6c:6a:94

None of which bear any resemblance to the 213 etc address of my old G3.

(When we set up the G3 connection 2-3 years back, the ntl man gave me these figures to keep:

00:0e:9b:fd:0d:3e
ntlct8cj486

but I don't know what they mean, needless to say.)

So does the sudo command appear not to have worked? If not, and you think it's worth a retry, could you confirm whether or not the iMac should be connected to the modem at that point?

No, no bootcamp installed.

MAC for MAC addresses, Mac for Apple Macintoshes. Do?

Dark: you write...
set a manual IP address in the Network preferences and click Apply, then
change to Configure Using DHCP and click Apply"

Been there, etc., but I'll do it again if you want. What figures should I put in, and where?

Allen.

NTLVictim · 22-02-2007, 15:39

Stripe, massive respek to Dark, but try Chris's first..looks like the MAC didn't take.

Dark Fiber · 22-02-2007, 15:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by stripes

(When we set up the G3 connection 2-3 years back, the ntl man gave me these figures to keep:

00:0e:9b:fd:0d:3e
ntlct8cj486

MAC for MAC addresses, Mac for Apple Macintoshes. Do?

Dark: you write...
set a manual IP address in the Network preferences and click Apply, then
change to Configure Using DHCP and click Apply"

Been there, etc., but I'll do it again if you want. What figures should I put in, and where?

Allen.

That's the (WAN facing) MAC address of the modem, and a code used for initial registration of an NTL account.

Shouldn't matter as you're just prodding the OS, I would enter 192.168.0.1
In the IP address box that appears when you set the Configure IPv4 pulldown to Manually

Chris W · 22-02-2007, 15:47

That MAC address is wrong- it should be 12 hex characters.

Try using

sudo ifconfig enX ether [new Mac]

instead. Might get the address changed properly.

stripes · 22-02-2007, 15:50

Fellows (sorry if any non-fellows replying).

You're starting to treat me as if was an engineer who knew about things. I am not an engineer. I do NOT know about things. I am just doing, robot-like, each thing you tell me.

Also, assuming on the gloomy side that none of this cures the problem, will any of the 'tampering', i.e. with the Terminal string inputs, cause any collateral damage down the line?

Anyway, I've got to switch off now, as I've been on the darned thing most of the day and have got a blinding headache!

I shall come back to it, fresh (?), in the morning, and do what I can.

Thanks for your time. (And is it just me, or are there loads more 'ntl broadband modem problem' messages lately?)

Allen.

Dark Fiber · 22-02-2007, 15:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by NTLVictim

try Chris's first..looks like the MAC didn't take.

I don't think you can modify/"clone" a computer's MAC in OS X and very much doubt it would survive a restart even if you could.

Chris W · 22-02-2007, 15:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dark Fiber

I don't think you can modify/"clone" a computer's MAC in OS X and very much doubt it would survive a restart even if you could.

yes you can... i think i gave the wrong command the first time though, and it should be the second one that i posted that does the job

NTLVictim · 22-02-2007, 16:38

Bleedin' ntl..

Stripes, when you come back in the morning, I found this;

" % sudo ifconfig en0 ether aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff

where en0 is the network interface (numbered from en0, en1, en2 ...) and aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff is the desired MAC address in hex notation."

Which is what Chris said only in a different way, if that helps.
Chris, can you verify that syntax above, I'm no expert!

Another thing is Stripes' Belkin router may turn up tomorrow, and they have a very handy cloning button in their routers webpage interface, which may be a better way to go?

Dark Fiber · 22-02-2007, 16:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris W

yes you can... i think i gave the wrong command the first time though, and it should be the second one that i posted that does the job

After much Googling, I see you are correct for OS X 10.4 [ Earlier versions of OS X required kernel patching

]
While this tactic may be useful here as a diagnostic, I can't help feeling that the problem should be able to be solved more simply.

The WWW is full of problems where IPs are self-assigned because DHCP servers don't respond quickly enough or clients time-out too quickly. There seems to me to be a hint that Intel-chipset based Macs may suffer from the latter.

---------- Post added at 17:52 ---------- Previous post was at 17:43 ----------

Quote:

Originally Posted by NTLVictim

Bleedin' ntl..

Another thing is Stripes' Belkin router may turn up tomorrow, and they have a very handy cloning button in their routers webpage interface, which may be a better way to go?

What will be interesting is whether the router's "native" MAC works out-of-the-box. There should be no need to clone anything

unless the problem actually lies with his cable connection

parky · 22-02-2007, 17:19

Is this not a 'Provisioning' problem?