Network Connection - could not find a PPPoE server

Thanks for answering, Grant. I totally agree about the service call. But they're persuasive, and I'm not quite literate enough to argue. And I'm afraid I don't understand how to set the router for PPPoE. When I click connect, it says it cant't find the server. And although the Mac is already online with DHCP only, I can't surf or email. (But I can on Windows)

Hi Grant,

Got a different person at my ISP today, she says I have a dynamic IP address, so both my computers only need DHCP. We walked through my Windows machine network screen and it is definitely set up with just DHCP (just like the Mac). But she couldn't tell me why Windows was working and Mac wasn't. Which makes me wonder why the Apple shop told me to click on connect PPPoE!

She said when I took my Mac to the shop and both DHCP and PPPoE were showing as active, only the DHCP was needed and actually doing anything. And she couldn't tell me why I couldn't just take my Mac plus the router into the shop and get it set up there.

My UN and PW were 'admin', and I changed them long ago. Your instructions were identical to the router manual, but she couldn't tell me how to change them back to my chosen names if I followed those instructions. She also said a new router might fix the problem.

Everybody seems to have different ideas (in addition to the 2 sales pitches), and I'll admit that I'm concerned that if I re-set the router it might mess up Windows so it doesn't work either. So I'm frozen!

If I click the connect to PPPoE button on the Mac and it won't connect, and it throws up that error message, doesn't that mean it's already turned off?

The Mac network screen shows it's already connected by DHCP, and not PPPoE. Sorry if I'm misunderstanding you; if so, how would I turn it off?

I'm dying to click that green checkmark.

Thanks again. I clicked the minus sign, the PPPoE choice disappeared, I clicked Apply, now all I have left are Ethernet (connected), FireWire (not connected), AirPort (off). And it still doesn't work.

In looking at my Windows local area connection Support tab, it says 'Address Type: Assigned by DHCP', and then 3 addresses. No PPPoE to be seen. And it keeps working away.

Grant - Talked to another ISP rep today, who gave me slightly different info from the others; I learned that my router/modem is set up with a PPPoE connection to the ISP, so that's why the 2 computers use DHCP. And they don't support the modem since they didn't sell it to me.

I got part way through the Mac network setup assistant, to the "I have a DHCP Client ID". Called her to find out that my Client ID was my email address. Clicked continue and it said "Unable to establish a network connection." But in fact it's already connected! My network screen says so.

She says the modem is working, the connection is working to both computers, the modem is set up right, so it must be a computer problem. I'm starting to agree.

In the network setup assistant, when I get to "How do you connect?", I can choose either "I have a static IP" (which isn't correct), or "I have a DHCP Client ID". If I don't fill in an email, it stops, but if I do fill it in, I get the response above. So I can't get past that screen.

So if it worked at the Mac shop as soon as he plugged it in (which means the computer's fine after all), and I can't get past this screen, what else is there?

Thanks for all your patience... this one has to be one of your toughtest battles. When I selected the LAN and hit continue, it spent a minute 'configuring', then said it can't connect automatically, and took me to a page where it asked for 4 lines of IP details. Tried 3 times and it didn't work. And if I enter the details, it will be a static IP address (if it works at all), so I haven't tried it.