What..new imac 21,5" and no ethernet?

So I just bought a new iMac and I have no Ethernet connection. At least not when I'm connected through a switch. I have a wired network in my house where everything is connected to a switch which in it's turn is connected to a router. What I've tried so far:

1. DHCP connected to switch - fail
2. Manual settings with static ip, connected to switch - fail
3. Connecting iMac directly to router - pass
4. Wlan - pass

I have windows machines and other devices such as media players (popcorn hour) connected to this network and they all get ips and everything works fine. I have verified that routing tables are ok when I have a manual setup but still ping to my router and other machines does not work.

Any ideas? I'm ready to return this one...


The switch is a FSW-1621 - 16-Port Fast Ethernet Switch - Ethernet Switches - Home and Office Products - LevelOne (UK)

Do you get a light on the port on the switch when you plug in the cat-5 from the iMac? All cables wired as Straight Through and not crossover?

Yes, I get a light on the port and I have no cross-over cables. I have tried the same cable with two different windows machines. They work with both static and dhcp. Really strange.

When I setup everything manually I get connected and a green light in the network preferences window but still I can't reach anything on the network...

no ethernet

I`m having the exact same problem,as I type.I lost my connection but,my asus laptop works fine.I was running intego AV with a firewall,but ripped that out when I lost my connection.Ran my clean app,ran my spring cleaning,and did a custom search.for intego.took out everything.even ran my onyx.I am having problems with my HD thou,having to run the disk utility twice for a Damaged dr.and even got the falling Grey screen with the power off message. twice.I hope its not the controller this is one of the new imacs 21.5 with a 3.33mhz and 8gbs of ram.worked like a charm so far

I have all the same equipment as above...no problems...4 mo. and counting...

Switch was the problem

As I suspected, the switch was the problem here. I talked with the vendor (Level1) and they confirmed compatibility issues with Mac, I changed the switch to a Netgear and everything works fine.

Just for the record and in case others have this issue, do you know what brand and model that switch was that did not work with your Mac?

It's a Level1 FSW-1621, FSW-1621 - 16-Port Fast Ethernet Switch - Ethernet Switches - Home and Office Products - LevelOne (UK)