Did that outage just zap my internets?
May 29, 2013 5:13 PM Subscribe
We had a power outage for about 3 hours yesterday evening, and when I restarted my Mac mini, I could not connect to the internet. Our wireless modem/router is working fine, as our other Mac (an ancient PowerBook g4) and my phone can both go online using wifi. Please help! More things we've tried below:
My Mac Mini indicated that it was connected to the wifi network, but no webpages would load. We also tried connecting directly with an ethernet cable. System preferences showed that it also could "see" that the ethernet cable was attached, but no internet still. Tried Firefox and Chrome to make sure it wasn't a browser issue, and uTorrent isn't working either. No proxy set up. CAN connect to the modem/router's firmware through ethernet cable.
Running Mac Mini 2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, OSX 10.6.8, plugged in to a surge protector.
Is this a fluke, or could the power outage have wrecked my computer's ability to access the internet? Is this a software or hardware issue? If it's a hardware issue, could anyone recommend any external wi-fi card/receiver or USB to ethernet solutions compatible with this Mac? Any other thoughts/solutions? I would love to get a new computer, but unfortunately, it's not in the cards at this point. Thanks, Mefites!
I did see this post, but I think we've pretty much covered those bases.
My Mac Mini indicated that it was connected to the wifi network, but no webpages would load. We also tried connecting directly with an ethernet cable. System preferences showed that it also could "see" that the ethernet cable was attached, but no internet still. Tried Firefox and Chrome to make sure it wasn't a browser issue, and uTorrent isn't working either. No proxy set up. CAN connect to the modem/router's firmware through ethernet cable.
Running Mac Mini 2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, OSX 10.6.8, plugged in to a surge protector.
Is this a fluke, or could the power outage have wrecked my computer's ability to access the internet? Is this a software or hardware issue? If it's a hardware issue, could anyone recommend any external wi-fi card/receiver or USB to ethernet solutions compatible with this Mac? Any other thoughts/solutions? I would love to get a new computer, but unfortunately, it's not in the cards at this point. Thanks, Mefites!
I did see this post, but I think we've pretty much covered those bases.
Power outage alone can't break anything, but power spikes will. Surge suppressors only work in limited cases, and they only have a limited lifetime.
But if you can see the router's webpage, you have some kind of configuration problem. I would double check all settings in the router. Especially if you have anything like MAC address filtering going on.
posted by gjc at 5:34 PM on May 29, 2013
But if you can see the router's webpage, you have some kind of configuration problem. I would double check all settings in the router. Especially if you have anything like MAC address filtering going on.
posted by gjc at 5:34 PM on May 29, 2013
What happens if you "ping 8.8.8.8"? Could be misconfigured DNS. Did you have to reboot any of your other (working) devices?
Make sure the Ethernet cable is good by trying it with your other Mac. I've had cables be wonky and it frustrated my diagnosis.
Lion has tools which may help.
I would bet against it being a power-related problem.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 8:29 PM on May 29, 2013
Make sure the Ethernet cable is good by trying it with your other Mac. I've had cables be wonky and it frustrated my diagnosis.
Lion has tools which may help.
I would bet against it being a power-related problem.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 8:29 PM on May 29, 2013
Best answer: Go in to network preferences and set your dns to the 8.8.8.8 mentioned above then try and browse. Did the power outage occur while the mac mini was on? i had a macbook pros network config get somehow corrupted during a hard reboot in such a way that it never worked on my home network again without the DNS manually set, but worked most other places. It took an OS upgrade/reinstall to solve this(coincidentally too, i had completely forgotten it was even happening)
CAN connect to the modem/router's firmware through ethernet cable.
sounds oddly like that same situation i encountered.
By the way, i would be amazed if this was a hardware problem and it effected both wifi and ethernet. I've troubleshooted a bazillion network situations like this and it's basically always some software bork up if it occurs on more than once interface.
One last thing to try, burn an ubuntu cd, boot to the live cd, and see if it still happens. Problem solved? make a time machine backup then format the hard drive and reinstall OSX. Still ok? then restore the backup? happening again? then you now it's some corrupted setting/config file that got restored... and you'll need to manually pull files out of your backup.
posted by emptythought at 9:14 PM on May 29, 2013
CAN connect to the modem/router's firmware through ethernet cable.
sounds oddly like that same situation i encountered.
By the way, i would be amazed if this was a hardware problem and it effected both wifi and ethernet. I've troubleshooted a bazillion network situations like this and it's basically always some software bork up if it occurs on more than once interface.
One last thing to try, burn an ubuntu cd, boot to the live cd, and see if it still happens. Problem solved? make a time machine backup then format the hard drive and reinstall OSX. Still ok? then restore the backup? happening again? then you now it's some corrupted setting/config file that got restored... and you'll need to manually pull files out of your backup.
posted by emptythought at 9:14 PM on May 29, 2013
I'm guessing it is a dhcp or DNS issue, and that the working machines have settings for dhcp or DNS that are different from the Mini.
Go to network settings on each machine and see if they have the same DNS, and similar but distinct IP addresses for each machine.
posted by zippy at 8:40 AM on May 30, 2013
Go to network settings on each machine and see if they have the same DNS, and similar but distinct IP addresses for each machine.
posted by zippy at 8:40 AM on May 30, 2013
Nthing likely DNS issues. I always put in static DNS numbers on everything (8.8.8.8/4.4 or 208.67.222.222/220.220), even if you're using the DHCP. Saves all kinds of hassle down the road.
posted by liquado at 11:44 AM on May 30, 2013
posted by liquado at 11:44 AM on May 30, 2013
Response by poster: Followup for those searching this thread later:
Thanks for all the suggestions. The DNS numbers were already at 8.8.8.8. We ended up having to back everything up, wipe the HD, and reinstall the OS. This is the first page I went to to share the good news-- I'm back up on the internet on my own computer! Yay!
posted by asranixon at 1:33 AM on June 6, 2013
Thanks for all the suggestions. The DNS numbers were already at 8.8.8.8. We ended up having to back everything up, wipe the HD, and reinstall the OS. This is the first page I went to to share the good news-- I'm back up on the internet on my own computer! Yay!
posted by asranixon at 1:33 AM on June 6, 2013
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- Sometimes I have to reset my modem by unplugging the power cord. This is rare, but can help. And then wait the full 5 minutes for it to come back online.
- Other times my Mini will timeout and will wake up when I come back. Yay! But sometimes it won't, and I have to manually enter my ISP provider's modem password.
I have DSL, so ymmv. But doing one or the other of those things has always worked. Usually when I am on the phone to my ISP provider.
posted by Marie Mon Dieu at 5:32 PM on May 29, 2013