Newsroom Update

Beginning in May, a special Today at Apple series titled “Made for Business” will offer small business owners and entrepreneurs free opportunities to learn how Apple products and services can support their growth and success. Learn more >

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Can't connect to internet - please help

Other macs on my network have no trouble connecting, just the macbook pro, so it's not the router or ISP. This laptop previously had no trouble connecting to the internet on this network. It continually says ISP failed (airport, airport status and network settings are all green). Laptop running 10.6.8. I tried turning Configure IPv6 off, no change.


Any ideas?

MacBook Pro (17-inch Early 2011), Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Feb 17, 2012 8:51 PM

Reply
4 replies

Feb 18, 2012 5:12 AM in response to KayB

What's the full text of the "ISP failed" message?


Confirm the network settings are correct; compare the settings and responses from the DHCP server (or the static settings) are correct for the particular network; IP address, IP subnet mask, gateway router, and DNS server(s).


If you're using a wireless connection (as can be inferred), are you in an area where you're likely to encounter interference from other WiFi devices or other devices (cordless phones, other wireless devices, etc) transmitting in the same band you're using for WiFi? Or walls or other structures which might block the wireless signals?


If you are using the wireless connection, switch to the wired connection and see if that works.


If you are using the wireless connection, confirm the credentials, and move to a different location (and preferably closer) for the WiFi router.


If you're using a wired connection, switch to a wireless connection.


And confirm that any DHCP server that's in use here is correctly configured; that it's not passing out IP addresses that are incorrect for the subnet (if you're using more than one DHCP server), or addresses that overlap with any devices configured with static IP addresses.


If you're running more than one DHCP server or more than one WiFi router, consider consolidating to one DHCP server device, and running the wireless devices as access points; what Apple refers to as "bridge" mode with its Airport and Time Capsule devices.

Feb 18, 2012 5:33 AM in response to MrHoffman

The message I'm referring to is the red light on ISP (failed) in the network status of the Network Diagnostics utility. It will be green for about 5-10 seconds when I first run the utility and then turn to red.


I've compared all the settings between the working and non-working laptops and all are the same.


I'm only running one router and it's hard to believe that it would suddenly stop working just for one laptop, so I'm thinking it's not that but rather an issue with the laptop. I will try a wired connection once I can find a wire.


Given that this problem seems to keep popping up recently in the discussion boards, I'm wondering if this isn't an OS X issue.

Feb 18, 2012 6:30 AM in response to KayB

The documentation for that Network Diagnostics tool is certainly lacking. Since I'm not showing an ISP error here, I don't know what the text in that tool states for that error, and (given I use the command-line tools for this stuff) can't see what it might be complaining about. (What's the text in that tool claiming that ISP error means?)


I'd tend to expect that ISP red-light means there's an issue connecting to the ISP-specified DNS server(s), but that's a guess.


Launch Terminal.app (in the Applications > Utilities folder) and issue the following two commands:


$ dig +short -x 8.8.8.8

$ dig +short @8.8.8.8 -x 8.8.8.8


You should get some variation of "google-public-dns-a.google.com." as the response for both.


This thread is a reset sequence for the network connection, which might resolve this if something's gone wonky in the saved settings. Remove the settings and passwords, and re-add them.


I don't know how experienced you are with troubleshooting this stuff and (without posted data) I can't see what the configuration is showing here; what you've looked at here, and what you've already tested. Given you're not posting these details (and for whatever reason), you might want to ring up Apple support or your preferred OS X support provider and have them work through this with you.

Can't connect to internet - please help

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple ID.