Internet Sharing broken again with 10.6.8 update?

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Level 1

19 points

Internet Sharing broken again with 10.6.8 update?

I have used Internet Sharing for years. (SysPrefs/Sharing/Internet Sharing/Share your connection from [Ethernet] to computers using [Airport]). It is very useful in my large old house, where my iMac is connected by an ethernet cable to a WiFi router in another part of the house; it gives me another WiFi zone without having to buy a WiFi extender.

This seems to be a forgotten feature in the OS (forgotten by Apple, that is). Several times in the last few years, it has "broken" ie ceased to work after an OS upgrade, and only worked again after either another upgrade to the OS or to Airport. The last time, upgrading to OS 10.6.7, it still worked but had an annoying but tolerable bug which required me to switch it off then on again after a restart.

I have just upgraded to 10.6.8 and it seems to be broken again. (iPad etc can see the network, pretend to join it, but don't actually connect to the internet).

Anyone else got the same problem?

Anyone at Apple reading this?

Maybe I should just go and buy another WiFi extender (they're a lot cheaper now) and stop trying to use my Mac to do this!

2.8GHz 24" iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.6), + 13" MBP + G1 Touch + iPad + iPhone 4

Posted on Jun 24, 2011 9:38 AM

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Answer 1

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Doug the Mac Author

Level 1

19 points

Jun 26, 2011 7:24 AM in response to Doug the Mac

Seems to be fixed now, after repairing disk permissions.

Found this thread:

"10.6.8 killed my airport"

<discussions.apple.com/thread/3139398>

in which various people having various Airport problems after 10.6.8 update suggest various remedies, mainly using the combi update rather than the incremental one. ds store suggested a whole string of fixes starting with repairing permissions, so I thought I'd try this first. Bingo. Disk Utility reported and fixed lots of wrong permissions in files with Airport in their names, and indeed, a restart after the repair and all is well again.

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Answer 2

Armen52

Level 1

0 points

Jul 6, 2011 8:22 AM in response to Doug the Mac

I had the same problem, and Repairing Permissions fixed it for me as well. Thanks.

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Answer 3

Jul 10, 2011 6:08 AM in response to Doug the Mac

My wife's new(ish) MacBook Air had the wifi problem. As soon as she upgraded to 10.6.7, she lost internet connection - though wifi signal was still strong. We were hoping the new upgrade to 10.6.8 would fix the problem. It didn't. I tried everything - PRAM, disk permission repairs, etc etc. Finally, this evening, on a whim, I decided to input my old DNS settings (from when I was using the Witopia VPN) into her network settings. I have no idea why, but her connection returned immediately. I tried deleting them again to make sure it really was that, and the connection was lost. Put them back, and the internet came back. Bizarre. We are not even using Witopia anymore (we are in China, and use Asterill). Can anyone explain what's happening?

Thanks!

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Answer 4

Jul 26, 2011 11:53 PM in response to Doug the Mac

I have the same problem after last 10.6.8 upgrade

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