How to configure OS 9.2.2 TCP/IP to work with Airport Extreme ethernet

There shouldn't be any issue at all. The QuickSilver you're using has a 100M/1G Ethenet card and should have no trouble connecting to the AirPort Extreme.
This is confirmed by the use of OSX 10.4 on the same Mac working.

You must remember that OS9 is awful at detecting changes to Ethernet and AppleTalk. So in the extreme, a restart after the AirPort Extreme has been up and running for a few seconds should mean that the QS will pick up a TCP/IP address during startup. Remember also that AppleTalk will need to be enabled, TCP/IP runs over AppleTalk in OS9, using the Shareway IP extension, which you may want to check is installed - it's installed by default.

Further, if you leave the "Activate only when needed" checkbox set for AppleTalk or TCP/IP, the Mac may give up the IP address immediately. You would have to start something like Internet Explorer to re-establish a network connection.

So far I'm presuming that you're opening the TCP/IP control panel and seeing no IP address details - a sign the TCP/IP has not started. If you're seeing a self-assigned IP address, one beginning 169.x.x.x then there may be other issues.

I don't miss OS9 and networking. If this turns out to be the cause, we can elaborate on using the Location Manager to get things working from when they are not, much better than having to restart. Location Manager and the Location Manager Control Strip came in the Apple Extras folder on the original disc, it was only installed by default on PowerBooks / iBooks.

My experience is that Mac OS 9 does not proactively connect to the Internet. It may continue to happily hold a 169.254.xxx.yyy IP address until you FORCE some Internet activity.

The usual list of things that force Internet activity:
A) Open a Browser window and enter a URL
B) initiate a Software Update
C) set the Network Time

although it is a long shot, could it be that the Mac that does NOT get an IP Address is NOT set to use Network Time, and the one that works DOES use Network Time? If that is the case, it is beahving as expected.

One other wacky stumbling block is that the settings are not saved until you Close the window and click "Save Changes". Sit there with the TCP/IP Control Panel window opened, and the changes you entered will NEVER take effect.

Where did the OS9.2.2 System Folder originate from ? Is it a copy of one from another Mac ? (or is another Mac using a copy of the one from this Mac ?)

When you do this it usually stops File Sharing becoming active, and you get a warning at startup about it. Resolved by trashing the "User & Groups Data File" in the Preferences folder in the System Folder.

Just double check that TCP/IP is set to use Ethernet rather than PPP or AirPort (or FireWire). You sound extremely competent at all this but I have to ask you to check.

Last thing may be to trash all the preferences associated with TCP/IP, AppleTalk, etc, restart and set them all up again.

Why does it work when going through a hub / router ? no idea. May be the ethernet has been nobbled in some way (it is on-board Ethernet isn't it ? rather than a PCI Ethernet card ?) and it only communicates at 10Mbps which the AE somehow can't work with - no idea why it would work in OSX 10.4 then.

Based only on it working with OSX 10.4 and not in OS9.2.2 would indicate an issue like described in my first post, OSX rocks at getting it right, OS9 does not. Didn't say it before but make sure the Ethernet cable is firmly plugged in between the Mac and the AE before you boot the Mac.

I know we're banging on about the same things again and again trying to get it to work, but we've been through exactly the same issue, many years ago. For me it was trying to get a LAN of an iMac G3, a PBG3, a PBG4 and a PMG4, all running OS9 to netwotk together for various reasons - including a LAN game of Diablo II.
Could I get any of them to hold an IP address for more than a few seconds, if at all ? Nope. Got all the settings right, still nought. Fired up Internet Explorer on each, went to an Apple page, and fired up Diablo II immediately. Some worked and some still refused to work.
I think in the end I switched from a DS108 hub (Netgear dual speed 10M/100M 8 port hub) to a 4 port router which let me reserve IP addresses, or I may have switched to OSX on one of the Macs - which was hosting the game - and all was good after that. I'm sure that you can get it to work, it's just fussy - but once it's connected it should stay so - until the Mac sleeps or is shut down.

This says to me that the OS 9 driver for the particular ethernet card on this particular machine is dodgy and doesn't let it connect to gigabit ethernet, only that of the 10/100 Base-T hub.

Does the cable you are using have 8 conductors? This may be a speed issue rather than a TCP/IP issue.

tcarlson wrote:
When I booted the DA from the Mac OS 9.2.1 CD-ROM ...
When I went back and did this same thing on the Quicksilver

So it's an original (2001) QuickSilver rather than the QuickSilver 2002, which required OS9.2.2 as a minimum ? Just wanted to clarify where the System Folder came from.

tcarlson wrote:
This says to me that the OS 9 driver for the particular ethernet card on this particular machine is dodgy and doesn't let it connect to gigabit ethernet, only that of the 10/100 Base-T hub.

Like I asked before, is it the built-in Gigabit Ethernet, or the a PCI Ethernet card ? The built-in Ethernet should be able to handle 10M / 100M / 1G, after that it comes down to the quality of the cable you use. I use Cat 5e, which can support Gb Ethernet, but it's UTP (unshielded twisted pair) and it's very rare I get 1Gb, nearly always drops to 100Mb, even on the old QuickSilver 2002 I used to have. If it's built-in Ethernet, the OS9 default set of drivers / extensions should work.

There were some extra netowkring extensions for OS9, available from Apple, that fixed the networking speed to 10Mb or 100Mb or 1Gb. Don't think you have them installed as you've not mentioned them - it's not something you can install by accident either. If you have installed them, the lack of negotiation over the network speed may be what is throwing the AE, which the hub just "does what it is told".

Last idea, does the QuickSilver have an AirPort card in it, broken or not ? Or some PCI wireless solution, broken or not ?

And what does the Apple System Profiler tell you about the Ethernet (built-in or PCI card) is OS9. Does it give you a MAC address ? Does it show "Auto select" for the speed ?

Don't know much about the AirPort Extreme model you are using, MAC filtering is normally only applied to clients connecting by wireless, is MAC filtering on at all on the AE ?

I have had occasions where OS 9 was really cranky about starting to use a new Ethernet connection. Sometimes it took setting the IP Address and speed Manually to get a connection, then doing a Restart, then changing to DHCP to get it on automatic.

I suspected it had something to do with Parameter RAM, since the last-used Addresses are stored there, but I never saw anything in writing confirming this.

Hi,

I do not know whether it is of any help here, but this article has the basic steps for an Internet connection via Ethernet.

Jan