Why won't my Mac Pro recognize my internet connection

August 5, 2009 6:31 PM

When I shut my Mac Pro off for a few hours and turn it on, it does not recognize my internet connection. I am having trouble diagnosing the problem.

So here it goes:

Mac Pro: Early 2008 2.8 GHz Quad Core - Airport Extreme Card

Wireless base station: Apple Airport Extreme 802.11n

When I turn the computer on and open Safari or Firefox I get a "you are not connected to the internet" message, even though my network is being recognized by the Mac Pro.

I can say this problem is specific to the Mac Pro, as my iPhone is connected to the same wifi connection and works fine when this problem is occurring.

The problem does not occur when I restart the Mac Pro, and the only way I know how to fix it is by restarting/turning everything off and hoping the Mac Pro will eventually recognize that the network does indeed have an internet connection. Sooner or later it does, but it can take 20-30 minutes...so any suggestions would be much appreciated!

posted by helios410 to Technology (5 answers total)

I had a similar problem. I fixed it with a new router.
posted by kingjoeshmoe at 6:40 PM on August 5, 2009

Response by poster: I have been using OpenDNS for some time now. I'll try manually setting the DNS server
posted by helios410 at 7:12 PM on August 5, 2009

In your network settings, does it say your Airport has a self-assigned IP address? If so, there are a million other people with the same problem and a million ways to fix it. Google "airport self assigned ip" for info.

This fix worked for my mom's Air, but there are others.
posted by obiwanwasabi at 10:27 PM on August 5, 2009

I've been living with this issue for a few months. I haven't been actively trying to find a solution as I didn't find the problem terribly troublesome like it probably would be for most people. Just today I ran software update and a security update for OS X 10.4(my current version) came up. It seems to have fixed the issue for me. It's worth a try, at least.
posted by lizjohn at 10:38 PM on August 5, 2009

I sometimes have the same problem, the steps below will renew your connection without restarting the whole system:

System Preferences > Network > Airport - in this pane, check the 'Show AirPort status in menu bar' button, now you can access AirPort functions next to your clock in the upper right corner of the screen. If you connection goes down, click the AirPort icon and 'Turn AirPort: Off" wait a few seconds, then go back to the menu and chose the 'Turn AirPort: On' option.
posted by limited slip at 7:21 AM on August 6, 2009