Ethernet—botched manual ip address

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Level 1

6 points

Ethernet—botched manual ip address

Hi I've been living with this problem for quite a while. But now with our current stay-at-home orders in Germany, it has become irritating.

A few years ago we moved our internet modem to the celler—my office is upstairs, so there are 2 stories with cement floors between me and the internet connection. Wifi usually works, but now that everyone is staying at home, my wifi seems to get pushed out of the way by the neighbors'. (I can read their names on the Wifi networks. So yes, it is them).

When we first moved the modem downstairs I tried setting up a LAN ethernet connection. But I botched it, by putting a manual IP address in. And of course that was a mistake. It has been so long ago, I don't know why I did it. Maybe the devil made me do it. IDK.

I've lived with it, but now I really want to fix it. First I deactived the WIFI on my computer and removed the Ethernet from the Network. Then I I followed some instructions on resetting the network settings, by going to /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/, selecting the following plists

com.apple.airport.preferences.plist
com.apple.network.eapolclient.configuration.plist
com.apple.wifi.message-tracer.plist
NetworkInterfaces.plist
preferences.plist

and deleting them, and then restarting the mac.

According to the document the network should have been cleared and I would have had to re-enable wifi and ethernet. However, that did not work. I tried it twice.

I want to reset the ethernet connection and reset the IP so that the manual IP no longer is used.

My iMac is running on Sierra 10.12.6

The LAN/ethernet plug device is an Allnet 168610 600M Giga Ethernet Bridge. I realise it is very old (2014), but that is what I have at the moment. I will buy a new devise if I can get this to work as our internet is supposed to be very fast.

How do I accomplish this?

The ethernet cable is connected. The problem is the IP-address.

Any tips? Thanks.

iMac 27", macOS 10.12

Posted on May 21, 2020 12:32 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

HWTech

Level 9

68,606 points

May 21, 2020 7:26 PM in response to iconorama

Maybe you need to reset your router instead. The macOS part should be as simple as either enabling DHCP again assuming your router is configured as a DHCP server. Or just create a new network location and start the setup process for network configuration from scratch.

https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/use-network-locations-on-mac-mchlp1175/mac

Are these preferences located in the main Library on the root or do you mean the files located within your home user folder Library ("~/Library/Preferences")? If you've been deleting system level network configuration files, then you may need to reinstall macOS over top of itself to repair any damage caused. To do this boot into Recovery Mode and select "Reinstall macOS". As long as you don't erase the drive none of your data should be at risk. However, things can always go wrong so I highly recommend making sure to have a good backup before proceeding.

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Answer 2

iconorama Author

Level 1

6 points

May 21, 2020 11:50 PM in response to HWTech

Hi,

As for your questoin where I deleted the plists from: I deleted them from my user file. The computer seems to be working and that botched Ethernet is still appearing. I use TimeMachine for automatic backups and I did check for the time of the last back-up—it was about 10 minutes before I tried to fix things.

Then I will try to reset my router.

Have a good weekend.

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Answer 3

Billz808

Level 1

4 points

Aug 11, 2020 4:24 PM in response to RBNetEngr

I Just followed these steps and still Self Assigned IP is all I get. Ethernet cable is new.

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Answer 4

Jun 29, 2020 10:52 AM in response to iconorama

It sounds like you did many unnecessary steps to try and reset the manual IP address. It's very simple to clear a manual IP address. First though...are you talking about IPv4? IPv6? Or both?

Try this:

1) Go to System Preferences

2) Select Network

3) In the Left panel, choose your Ethernet network adapter

4) In the Right panel, choose the Advanced button

5) Set the following in the Advanced panel:

Configure IPv4: Using DHCP

Configure IPv6: Automatically

6) Click OK

7) Click Apply

That should be it. Both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses will be set automatically. This requires that something on your network (usually your router) has a DHCP server enabled and will assign an address to your computer when it sends a DHCP request (which it will now do).

Hope this helps.

-rb

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Answer 5

BDAqua

Level 10

250,253 points

Aug 12, 2020 6:02 AM in response to Billz808

Make a New Location, Using network locations in Mac OS X ...

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2712

System Preferences>Network, top of window>Locations>Edit Locations, little plus icon, give it a name.

System Preferences>Network, click on the little gear at the bottom next to the + & - icons, (unlock lock first if locked), choose Set Service Order.

The interface that connects to the Internet should be dragged to the top of the list.

Sys Prefs>Network>highlight the Interface you're using>Advanced>TCP/IP>Configure IPv4: Using DHCP.

System Preferences>Network>choose interface>Advanced>Proxies Tab, make sure none are set, like for HTTP & HTTPS.

System Preferences>Network, unlock the lock if need be, highlight the Interface you use to connect to Internet, click on the advanced button, click on the DNS tab, click on the little plus icon, then add these numbers...

8.8.8.8

8.8.4.4

1.1.1.1

9.9.9.9

Apply.

If still self assigned IP the Router or Modem isn't cooperating.

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Ethernet—botched manual ip address

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