Connected to airport but no internet

Question

Level 1

8 points

Connected to airport but no internet

Hi,

I'm suddenly having problems with my internet connection. My airport is connected to a modem that is programmed in bridge mode (NAT is turned off) by my internet provider and my Airport Extreme is in DHCP & NAT mode in order for a working WiFi network.

This worked fine during the past months until today. Now my devices do connect to the airport extreme but they cannot go online. The modem itself has connection to internet: internet works fine when I connect through LAN directly on the modem with my Macbook. When I change the router mode of the Airport Extreme to 'bridge' mode, I can connect with one device through WAN on my Airport and I have an Internet connection, just as when I directly connect to the modem. But all my other devices can't connect because (I assume) the router doesn't provide IP addresses.

I've already tried to reset all devices and set-up the Airport from scratch. I've also tried it with another Airport Extreme (I have 2) to ensure the Airport is not broken but with same results.

Any ideas what I'm doing wrong?

Many thanks if someone could help me out here!

Posted on Jan 21, 2019 12:12 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

jeroen194 Author

Level 1

8 points

Jan 23, 2019 11:26 AM in response to jeroen194

I ended up with a network specialist today. In his experience there are frequently issues with a network of Airports when the modem of the provider is in bridge mode. His advice was to have that modem (a ZTE F668A) set in DHCP mode and both Airports in bridge mode.

That seems to work fine until so far, so if anyone has similar problems in the future, maybe this is a solution...

thank you all for the help.

Reply

Answer 2

Tesserax

Level 10

158,058 points

Jan 21, 2019 1:40 PM in response to jeroen194

In addition to Bob's comments, give the following a try to narrow down where in the network the culprit it "hiding:"

With the AirPort Extreme powered-up and connected to the modem, open the Network Utility and try the following, in order:

Hold down the option key, and then, click on the Apple logo on the left-side of the macOS menu bar.
Select System Information...
After the System Information window opens, select the following from the System Information menu bar: Window > Network Utility
Select the Ping tab.
Enter www.apple.com for the Internet address to scan.
Enter 3 in the Send only X pings window, and then, click on the Ping button. Three pings should be enough to tell if the connection is working or not.

A successful result would looks something like the following:

The key is the line: 3 packets transmitted, 3 packets received, 0.0% packet loss
An unsuccessful result would be anything else.

If the result is something like: ping: cannot resolve www.apple.com, then there is a DNS error. If that is the case, try entering the IP address for Apple (a good one would be: 23.35.97.144) and try the ping again. If the result is successful, then this confirms the error is DNS. If it's not, then there may be a communication error between the AirPort and the modem.

Reply

Answer 3

Bob Timmons

Level 10

184,988 points

Jan 21, 2019 12:45 PM in response to jeroen194

After you connected your computer directly to the modem to make sure that the modem was working correctly........did you power off the modem completely and leave it off for at least 30 minutes.......before.......you connected the AirPort Extreme to the modem and set up the AirPort Extreme?

Reply

Answer 4

Bob Timmons

Level 10

184,988 points

Jan 21, 2019 12:55 PM in response to jeroen194

Sometimes it takes the equipment back at the provider headquarters some time to completely reset the connection and issue a new fresh IP address.

Try a power down of 30-60 minutes on the modem.

I assume that you have tested to make sure that the Ethernet cable is good.

If you are still having difficulty, connect your Mac directly to the modem Ethernet port again and make sure that you can get good Internet connection that way.

Then, open System Preferences (the gear icon on the dock)

Open Network

Click on Ethernet on the left panel to highlight it

Look at the info to the right of the window. What is the IP address that the Mac is receiving?

Do not post the exact IP address that you see......only post the first 3-4 digits that appear.

Reply

Answer 5

Bob Timmons

Level 10

184,988 points

Jan 22, 2019 6:44 AM in response to jeroen194

With the AirPort in Bridge Mode mode, click directly on the AirPort in AirPort Utility and a smaller window will appear with information about the connection.

Look for the IP Address. Note the settings. Only post the first few digits.

Now change the AirPort to DHCP and NAT mode and perform the same check again. Do you see the same IP address as you see when the AirPort is in Bridge Mode?

Reply

Answer 6

jeroen194 Author

Level 1

8 points

Jan 22, 2019 1:59 AM in response to Bob Timmons

well, still the same difficulty. No problem going online with my Airport connected to the modem and Airport in bridge mode But as soon as I put the Airport in DHCP-NAT mode, connection is lost. Even after waiting an hour before I switched the modem back on.

I waited a few hours and connected the Mac directly to the modem Ethernet port. Internet works fine now.

The IP adres the Mac is receiving starts with 185.4

I also did the Ping test from Tesserax (many thanks). Ping test was succesfull :

3 packets transmitted, 3 packets received, 0.0% packet loss

Reply

Answer 7

jeroen194 Author

Level 1

8 points

Jan 22, 2019 8:39 AM in response to Bob Timmons

Thanks for trying to help me out Bob.

Yes, I see the same IP address in Bridge and in DHCP-NAT mode:

IP starts with 185.4xxx

(right now I also lost the internet connection in bridge mode; so no connection in bridge or DHCP NAT mode but the connection works when my Mac is attached directly with LAN on the modem)

Reply

Answer 8

Bob Timmons

Level 10

184,988 points

Jan 22, 2019 9:55 AM in response to jeroen194

Sorry, I do not have a solution for you since I cannot duplicate the error that you are reporting. If the second AirPort is doing the exact same thing, that is very strange.

If I come up with something, I will post back.

Reply