hi i have just purchased two imac 27" with mac osx lion at work, and i havent had much experience with macs as i have always preferred windows or linux. the problem i am having is that neither of the macs will connect via ethernet cable on the network where everyone connects with windows pcs fine. i have tried to input a static ip address for the macs but it keeps coming up as ip address conflict (another device has the same address), i know that it isnt a conflict as i have set up all ip addresses for the network and scanned for ips before setting and know which ones are free. i have also then tried to use dhcp on the wired side for the network and then tried dhcp for the macs, then i get the 169 (apipa address). very frustrating. i then managed to get them connected to one (out of 4)wireless access point via dhcp but this also is very hit and miss, it will be one connected and the other not being able to or both not atall. we have 4 access points operating on a large site which it finds but wont connect to. (all other windows devices are fine) static addresses wont work either as it comes up with ip address conflict. they both work fine when i connect to a mobile phone using mobile hotspot etc. i have also been onto my ISP and they dont have a clue, I have been onto apple they want to charge me to troubleshoot it. i have also tried removing the locations and adding them and its still the same its doing my head in abit now as i think i have tried everything i can, i dont really want to get charged by apple for this as you think they should connect out of the box for the huge pricetage you think it would. had anyone else had any problems with macs connecting to works networks etc or could anyone please help as i dont know much with macs. i just dont understand why it works sometimes on wireless only on one specific access point and not atall on ethernet. : other info on network router - draytek ethernet router access points onsite - belkin (works on this one) - 3 x edimax all windows pcs used ethernet and wireless are fine network printers are fine. tried to plug machines into different ports connected to different switches etc, tried different cables. sorry for the essay but can anyone please help it would be greatly appreciated. thanks
Mac's generally connect to a network without any issues. I'm sure you checked all this but I'd try the following. 1) Check there are still addresses available in the dhcp scope 2) Check the hostnames assigned to the mac 3) Try connecting the mac's directly to the core switch (or router if the router does it)
thanks for your reply, i know for the money you pay you would atleast expect it to work on atleast ethernet you usually expect the problems with wireless but not ethernet 1) there are over 100 free ip addresses and around 25 free in the dhcp scope i would probably say that there is 10-15 devices using dhcp on that site. 2) the hostnames/computer names? are different ending in 1 and the other ending in 2 3) i have tried connecting to relevant port in panel and directly into broadband router
thanks for your reply there is 4 access points on the network and i have got 3 of them using dhcp with a pool of around 20 ip addresses.
bit of a long shot, but your dhcp pools are not that large - are people accessing wireless using mobile phone devices etc? Some mobile phone devices are really reluctant to give up IP address', namely, iphones. I dont know if the new ones are any better, but the old ones used to hold on to IP address for bloody ages, irrelevant of lease times, or if you "forgot" the network on the device. have you considered hand held devices? (you probably have, not trying to sound condescending, trying to help you cover all bases ) edit: just read this isnt really working on ethernet either, so my above points are a bit redundant.
thanks for your reply, i think that may be a possible problem with the wireless not connecting but ethernet is the strange one with this i think. with the wireless i think i will reconfigure them and change the details etc for them all. if they connected via ethernet there would be no problem. bit of a bad experience with these macs to be honest.
Do the network sockets work if you plug other laptops etc in to them? Is there a chance the switches are locked down by mac address (we do this on all our Cisco's at work)?
i have had my windows 7 laptop plugged into the ports and they have been working ok. there are 4 ports in the room with the macs 1 for a network printer, 1 for wireless router and 2 live for the macs. i dont think they are as i am always adding new devices throughout the year ie upgrading pcs to windows 7 pcs and installing new pcs etc. *one thing though since i started introducing windows 7 at this site i have had a problem connecting windows 7pcs to the internet, i have to edit the registry and add a new DWord ArpRetryCount in the tcpip parameters folder in the registry. This enables them to connect to the internet, could this be linked? and if so how could i sort this for the macs.
what is the actual network setup? Do you have any subnets/vlans? Is funny you have to put an arp key in the registry to get w7 machines to see the internets.
to me this to me this is the clue. what do you use for the dhcp server? i've seen this when an ip address is assigned to a machine, even when not in use, if its a windows server, check the dhcp management console, release any that aren't actually being used
thanks for your reply the actual setup is all computers running off a broadband router over the lan, we do have a mpls on the network but no servers assiging dhcp just static ip addresses from the broadband router which is the same for all sites. its strange i have to edit the registry to get win7 to connect but isp didnt have a clue why windows 7 wont connect. i dont think its the router because its a Draytek and there pretty good. the macs connect to one wireless from time to time which is strange because any windows 7 pc will not connect atall without ArpRetryCount.
cheers rich i have a couple of wireless access points leasing ip addresses on dhcp, no servers just broadband router on static ip addresses. i think i will re configure all the routers to not lease ip addresses on dhcp and configure dhcp on the broadband router, and that only. still stuck with the problem with ethernet cable connecting though
yeah shouldnt think its the router, i got a draytek at home and on quite a few sites, never had to do funky registry! what oem are the boxes? thats so weird! sorry im derailing though. Have you tried binding the mac ip's to mac address? and for curiosity's sake, what happens if you do increase the size of your dhcp ranges?
not tried binding mac ips to mac address will try that. i am going to redo the dhcp range also today see how i go with that aswell. boxes as in wireless access points??
I assume the dhcp pools don't overlap? I also assume there's a reason why there are three dhcp pools - are they on different subnets/gateways? If they're all on the same subnet/gateway, perhaps try just having one large dhcp pool on one router and see if the macs then connect.
sorry by boxes, i meant computers. I am very lazy with terminology ha. boxes/teles, means computers and screens - its my bosses fault.
rite state of play on this is i have managed to get the 2 macs connected to the wireless using static ip addresses, i went around the whole site and rearranged the ip addresses. the two macs are still coming up with ip address conflicts but upon pressing ok on the dialogue box they connect with that ip address inputted. i also reconfigured the access points onsite changed the password and reconnected any machines myself and took any dhcp off them and kept one access point leasing 25 addresses at the end of the range 200-225. it seems to be working at the minute on wireless but they still will not connect via ethernet which has really baffled me if it connects via wireless it should definately connect via ethernet. if it connected via ethernet it would prevent all the hassle with the wireless does anyone have any fixes or same problems with ethernet on mac os ?
Bearing in mind you need to hack the registry on Win 7 machines to connect via ethernet I still suspect you have an issue with your network and not the macs. What regkey do you change on Win 7 to make it work?
hi saspro thanks for your reply, i dont have a problem with any other sites so i think its got to be that site that is the problem but the ISP providing the broadband cant seem to find a problem as they are all set up the same way on all sites. windows 7 will not connect wirelessly or via ethernet so i have to go to HKEYLOCALMACHINE\SYSTEM\CURRENTCONTROLSET\SERVICES\TCPIP\PARAMETERS and then create a new DWORD and name it ArpRetryCount set to 0 i restart the windows 7 machine and it finds the interent straight away. havent a clue whats going on with the macs because they are connecting to the wireless now but not ethernet. very strange this and its frustratin me no end
