Snow Leopard Network drops out, DNS?

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I have recently bought a MAC mini.

But it keeps losing network connection. If I run Assist me in the network window it say 'fail' for the ISP, and I have no network connection at all. Not even to my router. (Netgear DG834G). If I disconnect and reconnect the LAN to the MAC it re-establishes connection, similarly with airport. But looses it again fairly shortly. This does not always happen sometimes it works for ages with no problem.
Rebooting the router fixes it but that's not acceptable.

I have tried manual configuration, auto DHCP, turning off IPv6. I have assigned an IP in the router. I have configure the ISPs DNS's.

Sometimes in auto DHCP it says the router has assigned 169.254.91.248 which is outside my routers DHCP allocation range of 192.168.02 - 192.168.0.50 so where is it getting that from? It says self assigned.

I have an XP and an Ubuntu machine on the same network which have no problems at all. So it can't be the ISP or the router.
It all points to a bug in Leopard.

Anyone else having this sort of problem?

I've just noticed there have been other threads with similar problems but none seem to solve it, so is there a leopard bug?


I'm having to write this using Windows.......
 

chscag

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It's not a DNS issue. DNS problems cause slowdowns, slow page loading, etc. And it's not a Leopard bug. Too many folks running Leopard and wireless networks without any problem whatsoever. Sometimes Macs can be more difficult to get up and running via wireless than Windows machines are.

First thing I suggest if you haven't already done so, is read the FAQ sticky at the beginning of the forum.

Attach an ethernet cable from your router to the mini and start going over all the settings via System Preferences, Network, Airport. Also check the settings in your router by accessing its setup menu.

Using encryption? If so, turn it off temporarily while trouble shooting. Is your router broadcasting its SSID? (network name) If not, turn it on. Turn off MAC filtering if turned on. Change broadcast channel.

Regards.
 
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Sometimes in auto DHCP it says the router has assigned 169.254.91.248 which is outside my routers DHCP allocation range of 192.168.02 - 192.168.0.50 so where is it getting that from? It says self assigned.

I'm having to write this using Windows.......

Sounds like there is an issue with DHCP if it is self assigning. Is there just the Netgear DG834 between the Mini and the wall jack?


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First I'm using LAN not wifi. But the same thing happens with Wifi.

The is a netgear switch between the router and MAC. But the XP machine is also plugged in there. But i have bypassed this and it still drops out.

The router is set to allocate a fixed IP to the MAC. I have reserved for the MAC as its not mobile.
 
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I have recently bought a MAC mini.

But it keeps losing network connection. If I run Assist me in the network window it say 'fail' for the ISP, and I have no network connection at all. Not even to my router. (Netgear DG834G). If I disconnect and reconnect the LAN to the MAC it re-establishes connection, similarly with airport. But looses it again fairly shortly. This does not always happen sometimes it works for ages with no problem.
Rebooting the router fixes it but that's not acceptable.

I have tried manual configuration, auto DHCP, turning off IPv6. I have assigned an IP in the router. I have configure the ISPs DNS's.

Sometimes in auto DHCP it says the router has assigned 169.254.91.248 which is outside my routers DHCP allocation range of 192.168.02 - 192.168.0.50 so where is it getting that from? It says self assigned.

I have an XP and an Ubuntu machine on the same network which have no problems at all. So it can't be the ISP or the router.
It all points to a bug in Leopard.

Anyone else having this sort of problem?

I've just noticed there have been other threads with similar problems but none seem to solve it, so is there a leopard bug?


I'm having to write this using Windows.......

169.254.x.x is APIPA: DHCP is not going through so it's giving itself an IP.

Ping in Network Utility (Applications > Utilities) and do these addresses in this order:

127.0.0.1 (loopback)
192.168.0.1 (our whatever IP is your router)
then do the IP the ISP assigned you.

Let us know which one does timeout or unreachable.
 
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deus_ex_machina
Cheers. I'll try that tonight when I get home.

Also.
I've just seen a repsonse from Janus_006 on the thread 'Internet problem after installing snow leopard'. That sound similar. As I think I have windows sharing on. I'll try that too. I will also try turning the windows machine off and see if it still occurs.
 
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Yeah, now the Windows sharing fix is not working so well any more. My wife's computer seems to have a constant connection to the Internet, as do the two iPhones. However, my Mac is having problems. When I use the Internet in XP on Boot Camp, it works fine.

When I looked at the attached devices in my router, I found what seemed to be 4 current IP addresses for my computer. When I was in Tiger, I manually assigned IPs for both ethernet and wi-fi (my computers were attached via ethernet or wi-fi to a Netgear router, which in turn was plugged into a cable modem); ethernet had preference, and when I had the cable plugged in my airport had no IP. Now it seems that they are both connected at the same time. When I disabled all connections in Windows and all but one on the Mac side, it seemed to improve, but only when I let DHCP assign me an IP. I all still have this mysterious IP address under attached devices (using WPA security). I have no idea where it's coming from.

If you figure out something, let me know. I'm fairly certain that my router is fine since everything but my Macbook is running smoothly. I never had any problems in Tiger so I wonder if this isn't some issue with SL.
 
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And yeah, I don't know how you are running Windows, but when I had it on Parallels my Internet didn't fare well.

I just noticed that installing Boot Camp changed my date and time on the SL side. I fixed that and will try the Internet again when I get home. We shall see.
 
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Not sure if any of this is relevant. But MAC seems to be behaving now.

I've stopped Skype and iChat from starting at login.
Then stopped file sharing.
Turned of the XP and Ubuntu machines.
Set my router to reserve IP addresses for MAC mini and XP (LAN and WIFI)
Restarted MAC mini.
Just connected MAC using Wifi.
Powered XP machine.
Re-enabled file sharing.
Powered Ubuntu machine.
MAC is on workgroup network. XP and ubuntu are on mshome network.

When the router was dynamically allocating DHCP IP addresses I would often put the XP machine to sleep and back on. Whether the MAC was connected and then the XP machine got a different IP when it came back online but the MAC still thought it was the old IP?

I vaguely remember seeing an IP address in the Network utility netstat that wasn't currently allocated by the router.

Anyway I'm sure thus happened before. It would work happily for a few weeks then under a particular scenario the MAC would drop connection.

So until it fails again I can't try the ping test.

Will get back if it re-occurs.
 
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Glad to hear your problem has been resolved.

My problem was driving me crazy, but has been seemingly fixed. I'll post the solution here in case it helps anyone else.

As I stated earlier, my problem was incredibly bizarre. Internet would work with my computer closed (on other Macbooks and iPhones), and my Xbox Live connection would work no matter what. My d/l capabilities were relatively unaffected even when I couldn't load up sites. And my computer would work on other networks with no problems.

After much tinkering and no solution, I gave in and called my ISP (Comcast). I didn't want them out originally because I didn't want them screwing with my hardware (I don't have a Comcast modem), and I didn't want to pay a fee if the technician had to mess with my hardware (it's free if the problem is with Comcast). Turns out, the radio frequency for the Comcast connection was -16, and the connection is only meant to go as low as -10 (I'm not sure if I'm explaining this correctly, but it's something like that). The technician then sent a maintenance guy out to correct the problem. Apparently, extreme temperature changes can cause this problem, so it seems as though the ISP was at fault. If all else fails, call your ISP and ask what they charge for service calls, and see if you can stipulate that they are not allowed to fiddle with your hardware.
 
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It's all been working fine using airport for the last week and then this morning it's self assigned an IP again.

The only thing that's different is that I had a windows machine running on the network and I had put the MAC to sleep the previous evening. When the MAC was woken up it had no connection because it had self assigned.

Could it be the window PC stopping the MAC from getting it's IP via DHCP. The router is set to assign the same IP each time.
 
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are you using DHCP reservation? Add your Mac to the table to make sure it grabs the same one every time. :)
 
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Anyone got any new advice?

I have had this problem for well over a year now. I've tried everything.. and I mean everything. But I've watched my MacBook drop DNS/Bonjour right in front of me.

Just a minute ago I was looking at my file sharing settings in preferences and it changed from "Access files at afp://xxxx.local" to "Access files at afp://192.168.0.xxx" while I was looking at it!! Dropped all form of DNS/Bonjour connection.

I should mention that this machine has nothing running on it. I wiped my drive and reinstalled SL clean from the disk. Still dropped connection within minutes. This did not happen with Leopard at all and I'm going to have to go back to it. Definite SL bug. I know someone said earlier that "It's not a bug because many users don't have this problem". Yeah.. that's like saying "Diesel cars couldn't possibly exist because my car takes gasoline".

Anyway.. digging up the old Leopard disks right now and I'll report back regarding progress.
 
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I think it could be the modem since you stated that plugging/unplugging the ethernet cable
will establish a connection so this tells me it's having a problem handing out an ip automatically
or a setting in the modem/router.
 

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