5.1 seemed to fix the DNS issue I was having with the Airport Express, and the G5 desktop, but the MBP continues to have the internet hang consistently while in use. Sometimes quitting and reopening Safari seems to jumpstart it, but not always.
Any ideas why this may be happening and how I can resolve the issue is appreciated.
Now, if I can just find the preference for Auto-Make Cup of Coffee How I Like It,
Mac OS X (10.5)
My network iconbar shows a strong network connection, but internet activity doesn't respond. When the internet connection drop occurs, and I attempt a ping to www.apple.com with the Network Utility, AFTER approx 2-3 minutes I get the following result:
Ping has started ...
ping: cannot resolve www.apple.com: Unknown host
The SAME result is IMMEDIATE if I attempt to ping www.apple.com with Airport turned OFF.
*ONCE AGAIN: This problem does NOT affect the G5 Desktop, which connects to the same network on the same Airport Express.*
This problem only seems to occur when I'm actually using Safari. If I open the laptop, leave it on for an hour, and then open Safari, it works. But when I'm using Safari, the connection seems to drop after about 10 minutes...
Since leopard both my macbook pro and macbook have troubles to keep a stable wireless internet connection. Via cable it is a bit faster, but still slower than under Tiger.
A major bummer - how can such an issue not show up in beta-testing, I wonder. It's quite a mistery, how there can be known issues with internet connectivity and take weeks to find a fix (is everybody busy with the iphone or planning another generation of the ipod?).
My company is switching its Macs back to Tiger this week and has stopped an order for a new server altogether (was planned to work with leopard - since we have a mixed network the whole PC-Mac disussion is a neverending story, anyway). I guess next time we will be much more slow on purchasing updates, too. So it's fair to say that Leopard made us a little smarter. Thanks for small blessings.
Comcast tech had me remove the Airport Express, and run the Ethernet cable from the modem directly to the desktop.
So far the internet connection is running stronger than ever. It's too early to clearly identify Airport + Leopard as the problem, but it's pretty clear that Leopard + Airport + DNS is the area of concern.
I'm still up in the air on this one and somewhat confused (which is why I have not posted any more traces).
When the mac is hanging, the windows PC on the same network (wired) seems to work fine.
Also, when the mac is hanging, I can ping other wireless devices from the mac by IP, but I can't ping the routers IP address from the mac.
This all does add up to what I noted earlier that the Layer 3 of the router appears to be dropping the MacBook's MAC address from its arp table. After a couple of minutes, it'll re-arp, pick it up, and everything is fine again.
This wouldn't impact Layer 2 (the Wireless to Wireless pings) since the Layer 2 CAM table of the switch (built into the home router) is keeping the MAC in its table just fine.
The problem is - I'm having a hard time thinking of how this could possibly be an OS issue since if the OS is sending traffic (as in my case, I can prove it is), then the router should be keeping the arp info up to date. That's not really something the OS has any control over.
That said, folks with multiple router types (I'm using a DLink DI-604 right now, have seen others mention airport) are all reporting the same issue.
I think I'm going to switch out my WAN router with a different brand/model and see if anything magic happens.
If others can try to ping their default router by IP in a second terminal window while they are hanging on trying to get a DNS resolution (confirm in the first terminal window, not just safari), we can see if this is exactly the same issue elsewhere. Also try to ping things on the wireless network as well.
It may take a few tries to ensure that it wasn't a timing issues and working pings aren't a coincidence and DNS has started working already.
Very interesting. I've had zero unexplained issues since replacing the Dlink DL-604 with a Belkin F5D7230-4.
Even more interesting is that I have always been going through the Belkin - just not as the Internet gateway - Wireless AP only. So that rules out the wireless part of my case at least and points squarely at some difference in how the Dlink and Belkin are handling packets.
This also would match up with the sniffer traces and L3 ARP entry being lost in that both of the items can be explained by a faulty L3 router.
Take that back - just had a hang - check out this little bit of crazy. There is an 8 second gap of no traffic after the crazy destination on the first SYN and the correct one on the second when things start flowing again.
18:38:49.771595 IP 192.168.15.110.62163 > 0.0.254.19.80: S 1974853609:1974853609(0) win 65535 <mss 1460,sackOK,eol>
18:38:57.311525 IP 192.168.15.110.62164 > 209.85.159.165.80: S 941715933:941715933(0) win 65535 <mss 1460,nop,wscale 3,nop,nop,timestamp 520154049 0,sackOK,eol>
Note the destination address: 0.0.254.19 ??? It's valid and all, but not for this. And especially not over the Internet (that I'm aware of).
That address is also in DNS cache (showing a few other goofy entries):
Category Best Before Last Access Hits Refs TTL Neg DS Node
---------- ------------------ ------------------ -------- ------ -------- ----- ---------
Host 11/27/07 19:37:43 11/27/07 18:37:43 0 2 3600 YES
Key: h
ipv4_addrlist:0.0.254.19
Host 11/27/07 19:30:13 11/27/07 18:30:13 0 2 3600 YES
Key: h
ipv4_addrlist:0.80.222.24
Host 11/27/07 19:30:40 11/27/07 18:30:40 0 2 3600 YES
Key: h
ipv4_addrlist:0.144.229.24
Have you tried hitting the Airport's reset button? I left mine unplugged (power & Ethernet disconnected) for four hours, and since haven't noticed the internet drop o*ver the last several days.* I think this is roughly the equivalent of the hard reset.
I have my DHCP lease set for 7 days, so we'll see if the problem reoccur in a few.
Yet another person with the same problem. I have tried all of the suggestions on this post and others but it is still dropping all the time. It is usually inconsistent unless I open mail. For some reason it kills my connection every single time I try to check for new mail. Never had a single problem until Leopard.
Sorry - apple can't help you here. It's like the 9th circle of ****.
Since it sounds like you can reproduce your specific issue fairly easily, can you give some more info on what's going on?
If you can boil it down to a minimal case, that would be great.
Also, please do some tests such as starting a ping in a terminal window to your default router. Start whatever it is that causes you to break. When it breaks, see if the pings in the terminal window change (missing sequnce numbers, drastic changes in response time, etc.).
