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gigahurtz
Premium Member
join:2001-10-20
USA

1 edit

gigahurtz

Premium Member

[X] Unable to grab IP address from router

My girlfriend's MacBook will not grab a IP address from my Linksys WRT54G router. This started last night when she got home from school. Both Windows PCs grab an IP address with no problem (one wireless laptop and one wired desktop). I also wired the MacBook directly to the router and still had no luck.

I recently upgraded the firmware on my Linksys to the latest copy. I thought that could be the problem so I went back to the previous version and it didn't work.

Any idea what's going on?

dscl
join:2001-07-15
Suwanee, GA

1 edit

dscl

Member

1.Did you check her network settings to make sure it's setup to get IP from DHCP?
2. Can you ping the router?
3. If you are using encryption(WEP,WPA...) did you add a "$" in front of the key on the Mac?

tommy3rd
I Am Nuckin Futs
Premium Member
join:2000-03-10
Clifton, NJ

tommy3rd to gigahurtz

Premium Member

to gigahurtz
reboot, and if it still doesn't work, check the router settings again to make sure nothing got corrupted. the settings on the router stays the same even after you downgrade the router firmware, unless you do a hard reset on it to return to factory defaults.

gigahurtz
Premium Member
join:2001-10-20
USA

gigahurtz to dscl

Premium Member

to dscl
said by dscl:

1.Did you check her network settings to make sure it's setup to get IP from DHCP?
2. Can you ping the router?
3. If you are using encryption(WEP,WPA...) did you add a "$" in front of the key on the Mac?
1. Checked network settings and it's setup to grab a IP. I tried renewing but nothing.

2. I cannot ping the router.

3. I did not put a $ in front of the key. Never have and it worked?
said by tommy3rd:

reboot, and if it still doesn't work, check the router settings again to make sure nothing got corrupted. the settings on the router stays the same even after you downgrade the router firmware, unless you do a hard reset on it to return to factory defaults.
I did reset the routers settings and still nothing.

rjackson

join:2002-04-02
Ringgold, GA

rjackson to gigahurtz

to gigahurtz
Anything in the router's logs?

Can you manually assign an IP, subnet, and gateway and get on?

gigahurtz
Premium Member
join:2001-10-20
USA

gigahurtz

Premium Member

said by rjackson:

Anything in the router's logs?

Can you manually assign an IP, subnet, and gateway and get on?
Cannot set a manual IP.

Nothing so far in the routers logs.

SuperNet
Go Ninja,Go Ninja Go..
Premium Member
join:2002-10-08
Hoffman Estates, IL

SuperNet to gigahurtz

Premium Member

to gigahurtz
If you can't do it with a STATIC ip then it has to be the NIC or the software...

Doing it with static it by pass's the DHCP in the router..
Did you try a different port or network cable?

tommy3rd
I Am Nuckin Futs
Premium Member
join:2000-03-10
Clifton, NJ

1 edit

tommy3rd to gigahurtz

Premium Member

to gigahurtz
create a new account and create new settings and stuff in the network panel. see if that works.

i would also try to take the router out of the equation. plug the dsl/cablemodem directly to the laptop and see if you're able to get an IP and get on the net.
tommy3rd

tommy3rd to SuperNet

Premium Member

to SuperNet
said by SuperNet:

If you can't do it with a STATIC ip then it has to be the NIC or the software...
i don't think it's the NIC, since both the airport and ethernet port stopped working.

gigahurtz
Premium Member
join:2001-10-20
USA

gigahurtz

Premium Member

I'm at a complete loss. I'm not a big Mac guy but cannot figure this out for the life of me. Like I said, both my laptop and desktop work fine.

SuperNet
Go Ninja,Go Ninja Go..
Premium Member
join:2002-10-08
Hoffman Estates, IL

SuperNet to tommy3rd

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to tommy3rd
said by tommy3rd:
said by SuperNet:

If you can't do it with a STATIC ip then it has to be the NIC or the software...
i don't think it's the NIC, since both the airport and ethernet port stopped working.
I didn't see that post.. So yea.. Software problem
SuperNet

SuperNet to gigahurtz

Premium Member

to gigahurtz
What version of mac do u have?
ftzsee
Premium Member
join:2001-11-22

ftzsee to gigahurtz

Premium Member

to gigahurtz
Make sure that the network interface settings that you're changing are the right ones (don't look at built-in Ethernet if the computer connects wirelessly, and vice versa).

If it's wireless, does it connect (black bars on the little wireless guy by the clock; a check mark next to the network name when you click on it)?

You might want to look at the router's DHCP settings to make sure that there's room in its pool to assign more addresses. If it's set up to only spit out two addresses and you already have two machines on the network, it's no surprise that the Mac isn't getting an IP address.

If that didn't help, assign an IP address to the network interface in question (either wireless or Ethernet). Make sure that it's on the same subnet as the router, and that it's not an IP address in use by another machine. Linksys's default router IP address is 192.168.1.1, so pick 192.168.1.200 or something. Then open Terminal and see if you can ping the router.

bbarrera
MVM
join:2000-10-23
Sacramento, CA

bbarrera to gigahurtz

MVM

to gigahurtz
There are compatibility issues between Broadcom radio in wrt54 and the MacBook's radio. I saw it myself yesterday, lots of thread at Apple forums. Trying to adjust radio settings on a wrt54gs, will report any success. My client has MacBook trying to connect to Windows domain, DHCP server is on Windows Server. For about two years the wrt54gs has been working great as Access Point (not using router features) with iBook, PowerBook, Dell laptops, HP laptops, Sony laptops, etc. This is first problem since Intel wireless radio introduction -- the early Intel wireless drivers were terrible. Apple needs to fix but maybe tweaking a few wrt54 radio parameters will improve the situation -- at least it has for some folks commenting on Apple forums.

gigahurtz
Premium Member
join:2001-10-20
USA

gigahurtz

Premium Member

Checked the IP pool and there are plenty of IPs. I also double checked the settings i'm changing and it is the AirPort. Like I said, this has happened out of the blue. Was working fine a day ago.

tommy3rd
I Am Nuckin Futs
Premium Member
join:2000-03-10
Clifton, NJ

tommy3rd

Premium Member

have you tried setting up a new user account?

bbarrera
MVM
join:2000-10-23
Sacramento, CA

bbarrera to gigahurtz

MVM

to gigahurtz
said by gigahurtz:

Checked the IP pool and there are plenty of IPs. I also double checked the settings i'm changing and it is the AirPort. Like I said, this has happened out of the blue. Was working fine a day ago.
After I saw the problem ran Software Update and noticed she had original SMC Firmware and OSX version. So the problem happened with default install from when she purchased the MacBook. Then I installed all software updates starting with SMC Firmware. Still had the same problem. Nothing to do with DHCP server, as I gave the MacBook a static IP and the Airport utility reported a connection but there was no network activity.

gigahurtz
Premium Member
join:2001-10-20
USA

gigahurtz to tommy3rd

Premium Member

to tommy3rd
said by tommy3rd:

have you tried setting up a new user account?
My girlfriend is in class right now so I don't have access to the MacBook. I will try this when she gets home.
said by bbarrera:

After I saw the problem ran Software Update and noticed she had original SMC Firmware and OSX version. So the problem happened with default install from when she purchased the MacBook. Then I installed all software updates starting with SMC Firmware. Still had the same problem. Nothing to do with DHCP server, as I gave the MacBook a static IP and the Airport utility reported a connection but there was no network activity.
If I try a static IP again do you think this will resolve the issue?

bbarrera
MVM
join:2000-10-23
Sacramento, CA

bbarrera

MVM

said by gigahurtz:

If I try a static IP again do you think this will resolve the issue?
No. At least it didn't work for me yesterday. Rebooting wrt54gs fixed the problem (temporarily). I got a call today that MacBook was still having problems with wireless access.

gigahurtz
Premium Member
join:2001-10-20
USA

gigahurtz

Premium Member

What i'm confused on is the fact that I cannot get an IP address with a wired connection either.

bbarrera
MVM
join:2000-10-23
Sacramento, CA

bbarrera

MVM

I didn't try that, and it is strange.

gigahurtz
Premium Member
join:2001-10-20
USA

gigahurtz

Premium Member

Well, I manually assigned an IP address and it seems to have resolved the problem for now. We'll see if this lasts.

KCrimson
Premium Member
join:2001-02-25
Brooklyn, NY

3 edits

KCrimson

Premium Member

I had the same problem earlier this week with my WRT54G v.5 I still don't know what caused the problem, but the router's DHCP server seemed to refuse to issue an IP address. The problem MIGHT have been related to the new firmware from Linksys, but I BELIEVE it occurred twice - once before I flashed the new firmware, and once after. Both times I had gone to sleep listening to AOLRadio, perhaps repeated network errors from the sleeping Mac affected the router - I don't know. The first time it seemed to resolve after a 10 second power cord recycle. I was able to manually assign an IP address on the Mac to connect to the router, just as you stated you currently have done.
I was aware of the DD-WRT 2nd party "Linux based" firmware which recently had been modified (DD-WRT MICRO) to run on the V5 and later WRT54G routers, but I wasn't going to put it on a perfectly functioning router with the risk of "bricking" it. However with the router barely functioning it was junk-heap or DD-WRT, and I'm happy to report that it flashed perfectly to DD-WRT Micro. I like the router better with the 2nd party firmware. My speed test results have increased, and the routing table seems to handle peer-to-peer applications without overflow problems as it previoiusly did with Linksys firmware. Sorry if this post takes the topic further off-Mac-topic, but this solution however non-Macintosh it might be, just might be what you're looking for.