mac ethernet connection OK but no internet

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Level 1

12 points

mac ethernet connection OK but no internet

Spent hours troubleshooting an internet access problem and thought I would post for others who might have a similar experience. I benefited greatly from many of the suggestions in this support community but none of those posts identified the problem.

I have a Mac Mini, mid 2011, running OS X 10.10.3. Connected via ethernet to an Airport Extreme router. One morning I could not connect to the internet. The odd thing is that Network Diagnostics indicated green dots for Ethernet, Network Settings, and ISP but the Internet and Server dots were orange/yellow. Followed many suggestions in this support community to restart the Airport Extreme, renew DHCP lease on the Mac Mini, etc. with no success. However, if I turned Wi-Fi on in Network Preferences the Mac Mini connected to the internet without a problem. In addition, other devices connected via ethernet in other rooms connected to the Internet normally. So, there did not seem to be a problem with the Mac Mini or the Airport Extreme. I suspected the problem was with the ethernet network configuration on the Mac Mini but had no success trying different configurations.

I have an ethernet switch in between my Mac Mini and the Airport Extreme. I tried a power cycle on the ethernet switch but still had the problem. Finally, I connected the ethernet cable from the Airport Extreme directly to the Mac Mini without going through the ethernet switch and everything was back to normal. But I need to use the ethernet switch for other devices in the room. So I re-connected the ethernet switch in between the Mac Mini and the Airport Extreme and everything now works normally. Unplugging the ethernet cable from the Airport Extreme to the ethernet switch seems to have reset a connection even when a power cycle of the switch alone did not work.

The odd thing about this experience is that Network Diagnostics could not determine the cause of the problem and Network Preferences showed "Ethernet is currently active and has the IP address 10.0.1.XX".

Posted on Jun 17, 2015 9:51 PM

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Answer 1

iAlias

Level 1

30 points

Jun 30, 2015 7:12 AM in response to GeneLand

I have the same setup, but unfortunately this solution does not work for me, could I ask what switch you have?

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Answer 2

GeneLand Author

Level 1

12 points

Jun 30, 2015 10:00 AM in response to iAlias

iAlias: I have a TP-Link ethernet switch. I'm beginning to think that the switch may be the problem. I had the problem again and this time unplugging the ethernet cable from the router and reconnecting it fixed the problem. May be a bad connection. Will have to try another switch but as this is an intermittent problem it may take some time to figure it out.

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Answer 3

iAlias

Level 1

30 points

Jun 30, 2015 10:15 AM in response to GeneLand

I also have a TP-Link ethernet switch.

I updated to OS X 10.10.4 and they have removed discovered which may have been causing the problem, I've not had any issues since then, but it's not been a long time yet.

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Answer 4

GeneLand Author

Level 1

12 points

Jul 10, 2015 3:52 PM in response to iAlias

Updates: Upon returning from vacation I started having the problem with the TP-Link gigabit switch again but if I bypassed the switch and plugged ethernet cable directly into my Mac Mini I was able to access the internet. I tried changing out the TP-Link switch with another, new, TP-Link switch and again was unable to access the internet. Finally, I upgraded to OS X 10.10.4 and internet access through the TP-Link switch is working fine. These behaviors support your theory that Apple made changes to fix the problem. Will report back again if the problem recurs. What has been your experience since upgrading to OS X 10.10.4?

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Answer 5

Saway

Level 1

5 points

Jul 13, 2015 12:07 PM in response to GeneLand

I am experiencing the same issue with the Mac Mini after upgrading it to 10.10.4. in the morning, I am unable to access the internet from the Mac where the night before internet was accessible and the Mac is not set to sleep. I am able to access the local network and my other machines on the same switch have internet access.

I tried:

Unplug / Plug the Ethernet and did not work
Disable / Enable the Ethernet and did not work
Restart the Mac it works

It is annoying that I have to restart the Mac every morning to get internet access.

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Answer 6

iAlias

Level 1

30 points

Jul 13, 2015 12:29 PM in response to GeneLand

Since upgrading I have had no issues at all thankfully.

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Answer 7

GeneLand Author

Level 1

12 points

Jul 13, 2015 6:55 PM in response to Saway

Hi Saway. I've tried restarting my Mac Mini and that did not solve my problem. So it appears you may have a different problem. I think I've now localized the problem to a bad connector - see updated reply to iAlias.

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Answer 8

GeneLand Author

Level 1

12 points

Jul 13, 2015 7:07 PM in response to iAlias

Hi iAlias. Glad to hear you are not having problems since you upgraded.

I started having problems again and did some additional troubleshooting. Will try to explain here for others who may be having similar problems.

My Airport router is located about 75 feet away from my Mac Mini on the other side of the house. A couple of years ago I installed Cat5 cable under the house ending in wallplates with ethernet receptacles. I just found out that if I "jiggled" the ethernet cable plugged into the ethernet wall plate the Mac Mini was able to connect to the internet with the TP-Link switch in between. Haven't had a problem in two days since I did that.

Now, that leaves the question of why I was able to connect to the internet if the Mac Mini was plugged directly to the ethernet wall plate without going through the TP-Link switch but unable to connect to the internet if I was going through the TP-Link switch. I suspect this may have something to do with a difference between the Mac Mini and the TP-Link switch to handle a poor connection or noise on the line. By jiggling the connector and improving the connection either configuration works. This is just a hypothesis but I'm not going to fiddle with it unless it breaks again! Hope this might help others with similar symptoms.

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