Cannot connect to Time Capsule via Ethernet

Question

Cannot connect to Time Capsule via Ethernet

I recently reinstalled OSX 10.11.2 after erasing my hard drive - time for a fresh start as everything was getting sluggish. All is good and blindingly fast again except my TC will not connect to my Mac anymore. I had it as a wired hard-drive for mainly storage (wireless is not an option where it is in the house) and it worked perfectly, but now I have problems.

Airport can see it, and I have the ethernet cable in. I have the wireless network turned off. Airport says there are three problems - the ethernet is unplugged (even though it can see it), that there is no Internet connection (correct) and there are no DNS Servers (so be it). However, my Mac cannot find it - not a sign of it in Finder or on my desktop, where it usually pops up. How can Airport Utility see it and the rest of my Mac cannot?

What basic steps have I missed here? I have tried the 5-second reset, which has done nothing except revert it back to the stage where Airport says it has the three problems outlined above. I also have a strange situation where my wireless internet does not work if the ethernet cable from the TC is plugged in. That never used to be the case at all. I have tried several ethernet cables, too.

Any advice please? I backed up most of my files to the TC before my reinstallation of OSX so somewhat stumped if I cannot access them through the TC.

Thanks for reading, and my apologies if I have done something dumb. I am in deepest darkest rural France so no option of calling for help and no Genius bar within 300 miles or so.

MacBook, OS X El Capitan (10.11.2)

Posted on Feb 15, 2018 2:14 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Tesserax

Level 10

158,424 points

Feb 20, 2018 9:59 AM in response to clonquehopper

Your Orange LiveBox is a combination modem and router. By default, it would be configured to provide routing functionality. With your TC connected to it by Ethernet, the TC must be reconfigured as a bridge.

To verify this:

Run the AirPort Utility, select the TC, and then, select Edit.
Select the Network tab.
Verify that Router Mode is set to: Off (Bridge Mode). If it is not, then change it to such.
Click on Update and allow the TC to restart.

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Answer 2

Tesserax

Level 10

158,424 points

Feb 15, 2018 10:50 AM in response to clonquehopper

Airport can see it, and I have the ethernet cable in. I have the wireless network turned off. Airport says there are three problems - the ethernet is unplugged (even though it can see it), that there is no Internet connection (correct) and there are no DNS Servers (so be it). However, my Mac cannot find it - not a sign of it in Finder or on my desktop, where it usually pops up. How can Airport Utility see it and the rest of my Mac cannot?

The AirPort Utility uses the IPv6 and Bonjour protocols to locate, and then, communicate with an AirPort base station. Because it can find the Time Capsule (TC), the Ethernet connection to the TC must be valid, but I would suggest that you double-check it using Ping.

First, using the AirPort Utility, find the LAN-side IP address of the TC.

To do so:

Run the AirPort Utility from your MacBook. Select the TC. On the pop-up window, note the value for LAN IP address. We will want to Ping this address to check for connectivity between your MacBook and the TC.
You can exit the AirPort Utility.
Click on the Apple icon on the macOS menu bar.
Hold down the <option> key, and then, click on System Information...
On the System Information menu bar, click Window > Network Utility
Click on the Ping tab.
In the Enter the network address to ping box, enter the IP address you found in the AirPort Utility for the TC.
Select the "Send only pings" option, and enter 3 in the box, then click on the Ping button.
A "successful" ping would show a result of: 3 packets transmitted, 3 packets received, 0.0% packet loss
I included an image of a successful ping result below.
Please report back your results.

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Answer 3

Tesserax

Level 10

158,424 points

Feb 16, 2018 8:20 AM in response to clonquehopper

Yes I did. At this point I would suggest that you perform a “factory default” reset on the TC and re-set it up for your network. This type of reset will not affect any of the data on its drive.

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Answer 4

Tesserax

Level 10

158,424 points

Feb 16, 2018 8:01 AM in response to clonquehopper

That ping result would indicate an issue between the devices, potentially a bad Ethernet cable.

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Answer 5

Feb 15, 2018 3:16 PM in response to Tesserax

Hi Tesserax,

I managed to find Network Utility eventually via Spotlight, it wasn't quite where you said it might be, but no problem 🙂 Here are the results:

Ping has started…

PING 10.0.1.1 (10.0.1.1): 56 data bytes

Request timeout for icmp_seq 0

64 bytes from 10.0.1.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=255 time=0.376 ms

64 bytes from 10.0.1.1: icmp_seq=2 ttl=255 time=0.467 ms

--- 10.0.1.1 ping statistics ---

3 packets transmitted, 2 packets received, 33.3% packet loss

round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 0.376/0.421/0.467/0.046 ms

Thank you for your interest and help with my problem, I hope to hear from you with a possible solution,

Roddy

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Answer 6

Feb 15, 2018 3:22 PM in response to clonquehopper

I do not know if it is of any interest but there is no Core Services folder anywhere on my system - should there be? Spotlight produced the Network Utility application but I have no idea where it is located. It is certainly not in Applications, nor Utilities.

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Answer 7

Feb 15, 2018 3:26 PM in response to clonquehopper

Okay, I just retried the ping test with a different ethernet cable and got back this report:

Ping has started…

PING 10.0.1.1 (10.0.1.1): 56 data bytes

64 bytes from 10.0.1.1: icmp_seq=0 ttl=255 time=0.294 ms

64 bytes from 10.0.1.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=255 time=0.309 ms

64 bytes from 10.0.1.1: icmp_seq=2 ttl=255 time=0.362 ms

--- 10.0.1.1 ping statistics ---

3 packets transmitted, 3 packets received, 0.0% packet loss

round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 0.294/0.322/0.362/0.029 ms

So, reply to me on the assumption that I have this ethernet cable plugged in.... not the first one 😀

Thanks again!

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Answer 8

Feb 16, 2018 2:00 PM in response to clonquehopper

Okay, Tesserax - have done a reset, and set up a new network using the ethernet cable. The TC appears with a green dot alongside it on the Airport Utility window, and I have 'ignored' the 3 problems it keeps telling me I have with (1) the ethernet (2) the DNS servers and (3) the internet connection.

Still no sign of it anywhere on my system though. I have tested the ethernet connection on another machine withthe same results.

What do I do next to get to my files that are on the TC, please? Any suggestions?

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Answer 9

Feb 17, 2018 12:39 AM in response to Tesserax

There is no internet in the part of the house where the TC is. I have only ever connected it by a cable to my Macbook. During the reboot I clicked 'next' when it said I could continue and connect later. Is it not possible to re-install without connecting to the internet?

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Answer 10

Feb 17, 2018 7:29 AM in response to clonquehopper

Okay, I have taken the TC and Macbook into the internet zone, and tried a re-set in situ with connections to my router, following the steps outlined by Airport Utility.

I end up with the same situation as before - a Time Machine with three problems and no sign of it anywhere on my network. In addition, when the ethernet cable is plugged into my Mac from the TC, I still lose internet capabilities. Airport can see the TC via ethernet quite happily, and I have made new networks and reset old ones. Airport cannot see the TV via WiFi, which is bizarre. Nothing seems to get me any further, and I am tearing out the last of my hair (not that I had much before.....)

For the life of me I cannot understand how a simple reinstall of El Capitan can lead to this. All I want to do is go back to my ethernet-connected TC and get my data back. Is there not an easy way to do this?

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Answer 11

Tesserax

Level 10

158,424 points

Feb 17, 2018 11:19 AM in response to clonquehopper

There is no internet in the part of the house where the TC is.

Yes, I understand that ... and why you had the TC connected by Ethernet. What I am asking it what is the make & model of the modem or gateway device that the other end of this Ethernet cable is connected to in order for the TC to access the Internet?

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Answer 12

Feb 17, 2018 1:49 PM in response to Tesserax

It's an Orange LIveBox, Tesserax. Do you need any other details? It's worked wonderfully with my TC for the past four years.....when connected. Can I ask a silly question - do I need to reconfigure the TC via the router and internet? I did try that today, as above. Keen to hear your suggestions, and thanks for continuing to bear with me.

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Answer 13

Tesserax

Level 10

158,424 points

Mar 8, 2018 8:42 AM in response to clonquehopper

If you are still getting the same errors in the AirPort Utility as before, then the issue is either the LiveBox is not set up correctly or that the two devices are not compatible with each other. You should still be able to access the TC regardless. Is this not the case?

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Answer 14

Mar 12, 2018 12:14 AM in response to Tesserax

Hi Tesserax,

I have used this TC with this Mac for five years until the recent re-installation of El Capitan on the Mac. So I assume they are still compatible.

I am therefore obviously trying to get it set-up again without losing all the data I have on it, which is where I keep running into a brick wall as the re-set on the TC appears to do nothing, as outlined above. Am I doing something wrong?

Thank you for your continued help - it is much appreciated.

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Answer 15

Tesserax

Level 10

158,424 points

Mar 12, 2018 9:37 AM in response to clonquehopper

I think you may be better off if you can hire a local networking consultant to help you as there is really nothing else I can offer at this point. Maybe someone else seeing this post can join in and offer their advice on next steps. Good luck!

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Cannot connect to Time Capsule via Ethernet

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