Mac takes down internet connection

B

bltassoc

Registered
I had my Mac and a PC both hard wired into an older linksys router and everything worked fine. I recently got VOIP and a new linksys WRT54GP2A-AT router that supports VOIP. I connected both the PC and Mac to the new router and both connected to the internet. However after a short time the internet connection was lost and I needed to reboot the router. Through trial and error I discovered the problem was with the Mac. If I disconnect the Mac from the router, the internet connection remains up all the time. The minute I connect the mac, the mac connects to the net but soon afterwards the whole connection goes. I called Linksys and all they told me was to try a new cable. The cable was OK for the old linksys router, why would it not work with any other router? Does anyone have one of these routers and if so are you having the same problems? Can anyone think of any router settings that would effect only the Mac with these problems but not the pc's. I had Panther and was hoping when I upgraded to Tiger the problem would stop, but it didn't.
 
By any chance would Internet Sharing be enabled on the Mac? If so, disable it.

(This is just a hunch since I'm guessing both the Linksys router and the Mac, which would be acting as a router if Internet Sharing is enabled, are causing issues since both would want to route packets to somewhere.)
 
I checked the sharing, it was turned off. Thanks, I wasn't aware of the option and now I know something more.
 
That a cable worked well with the old router doesn't mean it's still working. You moved it, and if there was a flaw in it, it might be broken now. Change the cable. It's the same argument as saying "it worked yesterday so it can't be broken now". Well, guess what: it can!
 
I did finally try the cable. I switched the cable from the pc to the mac and the problem continued, it moved it back to the pc and the pc was still fine. The mac does connect, it just drops after so much idle time. I've heard the saying "but it worked yesterday and nothing changed" a great many times since I have worked in IT for over 30 yrs. So I thought I'd try it, however remote, but it didn't help. The cable movement was small, unplugging from one router and into the other. The biggest change was the router itself and the myrid of options that can be set or mis-set. I know computers but networking to me is still a black box.
 
It might not be the Mac as such that brings your router down, it could be traffic intended for it that does it.

I've found that running bittorrent will bring my Airport base station down, especially AFTER a torrent session, when i've shut down the client on my Mac.

What applications are you running on your Mac? Do you have any servers running on it, or open ports? Do you have a firewall running on the Mac?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top