Can't get network connectivity with Airport Express
 

I have both a wired network, and a wireless network at home. The wired network is provided by a DSL model connected to an EtherFast Cable/DSL router. The wireless network is provided by an Airport Express that is plugged into the the router.

A while back there was a software update for the Airport. After installing the update, I lost my wireless network, and I have been trying to restore it.

I performed a factory reset on the Airport Express. This allows me to see it when I run Airport Utility on my Power Mac system, which is connected to the wired network.

The router is set so that I specify IP addresses for each of my system rather than using something like DHCP. I tried messing around with the setup for the Airport Express, and nothing I tried would get it to work after it Airport Utility updated the base station and restarted it. I was finally able to make some headway with this by manually assigning the base station and IP address, and having it create a wireless network.

After resetting the base station, it came up, and now has a solid green light. I was able to join my iBook to the network it created. However the iBook cannot access the Internet nor any of the other systems on my wired network.

The base station shows up when I run Airport Utility from the iBook. Airport Utility from the Power Mac can no longer find it.

What can I try that will allow me to restore network connectivity to my wireless network?

Is the Airport Express in Bridge Mode? It should be.

Why are you not using DHCP? If you don't use DHCP, you need to explicitly enter the IP addresses of a couple of DNS Servers in System Preferences > Network, on each computer. Otherwise you will have an internet connection, but will only be able to connect by IP address and not by domain name. (In other words, you will be able to connect to http://70.42.185.231 but not to http://macosxhints.com even though the two point at exactly the same web page.)

Trevor

The base station was not in bridge mode. I set to bridge mode, and this is an improvement. The laptop can now ping the systems on the wired network. It still cannot access the Internet, so that's not the complete solution.

What could allow the base station to provide Internet access?

I think I was wrong when I said I was not using DHCP. I don't need to qualify web site by the IP address. I'm able to access sites like macosxhints using their URL.

I do have things set up though so that all systems on my local network are assigned static IP addresses. Then I just tell each computer on the network what the other systems are named and what their addresses are.

In bridge mode, the Airport Express is bridging the wired router to the wireless nodes on your network. So if the wired router has Internet access, then the wireless nodes on your network will receive that access.

I think there's a misunderstanding of what I said. DHCP is not required to access web sites by their domain name--a DNS server is. A DHCP server automatically shares DNS information with the client computers. What I'm saying is that if you're not using DHCP, then you have to manually enter the correct DNS Servers into each computer's System Preferences > Network.

Do you have a manually entered DNS server (preferably two) in System Preferences > Network of each of your computers connecting wirelessly to the Airport Express Base Station?

OK, then tell each computer on your network where to look for DNS as well.

Trevor

The systems on my wired network can access the Internet, so I don't know why the iBook on the wireless network cannot when the base station is in bridge mode.

I set all my system to access the wired router as the DNS. This seems to work. However even though I've set the Airport Express's DNS to the wired router, I cannot access the Internet.

I've tweaked some of my base station settings and I've made some more small progress. It used be when I tried to ping a web sites like Google or Apple, Network Utility would say it could not resolve the address name. Now it look like names are being resolved, yet no packets are being received during the ping.

What might I be doing wrong?

Can't access the Internet with Airport Express
 

I recently installed an update for my Airport Express that screwed up my wireless network.

I have slowly been making progress in restoring it, and basically have one major issue in that the base station won't access the Internet.

I have a wired network provided by a Linksys router connected to a DSL modem, and I assign static IP address to each system on the network.

I restored some functionality to the Airport by assigning it a static IP address on the router on setting it to bridge mode. This allows my iBook to talk to the other systems when it is on the wireless network.

However the iBook cannot access the Internet from the wireless network even though the computers on the wired network can.

As an example here is what happens when the iBook tries to ping www.google.com:

Ping has started ...

PING www.l.google.com (209.85.171.104): 56 data bytes

--- www.l.google.com ping statistics ---
5 packets transmitted, 0 packets received, 100% packet loss

The wireless network seems to resolve the address. I can ping 209.85.171.104 on one of my wired network system. For some reason the ping doesn't work from the laptop.

What could be preventing the Internet access using the Airport Express?

tron_thomas:
I merged your new thread with the existing one on the same topic. Why did you start a new thread?

Check the config on your LinkSys router - some routers have strange settings that disallow certain accesses from the wireless network.

Note that one way to narrow down the problem would be to disconnect your LinkSys and instead connect the Airport Express to the modem (with Ethernet). Then see if your Mac can access the Internet via the Airport Express.

I started a new thread because no one was responding to the previous one. I thought a new thread get notice where the old thread was being ignored because it was old.

is your airport express connected to a cable modem?

i had the exact same problem, and I was told that all I had to do was unplug my cable modem for about an hour. When that did work, I was told to call my ISP and ask them to restart my cable modem from their offices. They did. It worked.

I looked at my LinkSys router, and I couldn't see anything that looked like it would help solve the problem.

I disconnected the LinkSys router and hooked the Airport Express directly up to the modem. I tried to configure it to access the Internet, and could not get it to work. Here are the steps I took in the Airport Utility setup:

Named the Airport Express
Set a password for the Airport Express (checked to remember the password in my keychain)
Selected "I don't have a wireless network and I want to create one"
Set the name for the network
Selected WPA/WPA2 Personal
Set the wireless password
Selected "Share a single IP address using DHCP and NAT"
Selected "I use a DSL or cable modem with a static IP address or DHCP"
Entered TCP/IP information
Configure IPv4: Using DHCP
IP Address: 192.168.1.46
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Router Address:192.168.1.1
DNS Server(s): 192.168.1.1
Domain Name: myhome.westell.com

What other steps could I try to would configure the Internet on the base station?

A new post on an old thread brings the thread to the top of the "new" list just the same as a new thread. And a new thread loses the context and responses made on the previous thread.

Does your Internet connection require you to use PPPoE ?
(this is usual for DSL connections, less so for cable connections)
If so, you may need to configure the Airport Express to do the PPPoE (if your modem doesn't do it)

I was never aware of the need to use PPPoE for DSL. As far as I know it is not required. I don't ever remember using it when I originally go the base station working properly. I can try using PPPoE and see what kind of difference that makes.

No - don't try it. You need to read the docs that your ISP supplied about what is required for your Internet connection. You need to know if you are supposed to use PPPoE or not and whether the modem does PPPoE for you. If the modem does PPPoE, you don't want to do it anywhere else.

I tried to configure the base station using PPPoE and I still get this type of result when I try to ping a site on the Internet:

ping: cannot resolve <web site>: Unknown host

What else can I try?

"cannot resolve" messages indicate a problem with DNS - in such cases, you should try again using the IP address instead of the name.

But see my previous post about PPPoE.

Well, since I've never had to deal with PPPoE before to get my Internet working, I don't think it is needed.

When you say I should try using the IP address instead of the name, I'm not sure what you are referring to. I don't know if you mean I should try to specify my DNS server by IP address. I already did that. I set it to 192.168.1.1 which is the address of my modem. I also set my router IP address to that. I'm not sure that is correct either.

I don't believe you are saying that I should try pinging the web site by its IP address. I have no idea how to determine the addresses for sites like Google, or Apple, or whatever.

That is exactly what I was recommending (as a test to see if your problem is merely a DNS problem).

Usually when you do a 'ping' by name, it shows you the IP address:
Of course you need to do this from a machine that has working Internet connectivity (including DNS).

I tried pinging www.google.com by IP address. I decided to try it in the current configuration with PPPoE enabled and then switch back to DHCP if that didn't work.

With PPPoE enabled, here are the ping results:

Ping has started ...

ping: sendto: No route to host
ping: sendto: No route to host
ping: sendto: No route to host
ping: sendto: No route to host
ping: sendto: No route to host
PING 72.14.207.99 (72.14.207.99): 56 data bytes

--- 72.14.207.99 ping statistics ---
5 packets transmitted, 0 packets received, 100% packet loss

Switching back to static IP address or DHCP, here are the ping results:

Ping has started ...

PING 72.14.207.99 (72.14.207.99): 56 data bytes

--- 72.14.207.99 ping statistics ---
5 packets transmitted, 0 packets received, 100% packet loss

Based on these results what should I consider next?

Step 1:
Connect your computer directly to the modem. Set it to use dhcp on the wired interface.
Press "Renew dhcp lease" and tell us what you get.
If you don't get anything or an address like 169.254.xxx.xxx then dhcp is not working. If so try entering what you beleive is right.

If you got connected.
Step 2:
Reconnect the linksys. Connect your computer with cable to the linksys and see if it works.
Test with both the number you have and enter them manually. Then test with DHCP.
Try to open http://72.14.207.99

Then tell us the results of these tests and exactly which numbers you entered or got via dhcp.

I was able to get the computer to access the Internet when I connected it directly to the modem and enabled DHCP.

I then connected it to the router. I could not get the computer to access the Internet with DHCP. Instead, I used the following in Network settings to get the Internet to work again:

Configure: Manually
IP Address: 192.168.200.102
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Router: 192.168.200.1
DNS Server: 192.168.200.1

192.168.200.1 is the address assigned to the router.

What insight does this offer for how the Airport Express should be configured to allow access to the Internet?

I'm really stuck here. I've done what people have suggested and still don't know what to try to get my Airport base station working again.

What do people think will fix this problem?

I still have not been able to fix the problem with my Airport Express base station. I am posting again to see if anyone can come up with some solution.

Here is what is going on:

I have home network that consists of a DSL modem connected to a Cisco Linksys router. I have two desktop system that are connected to that router. They can both access the Internet just fine. Both system are set with manually assigned IP address from my private network.

Up until recently I also had my Airport Express connected to the router and that provided a wireless connection to the Internet for my iBook, which I also manually assigned an IP address on the network.

Everything was working great, until one day I received and notice there was an update for the Airport base station. I installed the update, and since then I can not get the Airport Express working properly.

I can reset the base station, hook it directly to the DSL modem, set up a wireless network, and everything is fine for the laptop. This of course prevents the Linksys router and the two systems attached to it from accessing the Internet.

If I connect the base station to the Linksys router, and set it to bridge mode, it will continue to flash amber. Thus I cannot access anything from the laptop when the other two systems and the Linksys router have Internet connectivity.

If I keep the base station in bridge mode and assign a manual IP address to the base station that is similar to the addresses I've given to my computer systems, then the base station will display a green light. I can use the iBook to access the other computers on the network. However, it still cannot access the Internet.

What can I try that will get my wireless network working properly again?

First off, you need to distinguish between being able to access the Internet and being able to access web servers etc by name.

As a test, try accessing some web site by IP address instead of by name to check if your problem is merely a DNS problem (where you do have Internet access but your computer doesn't know how to translate from the names (e.g. www.apple.com) that you give it and the IP addresses that it actually uses).

To do that test, first find out what the IP address of some site (e.g. www.apple.com) is by running one of the following commands on a Mac that is working properly:

host www.apple.com
OR
ping www.apple.com

Then use that IP address instead of the name on the Mac that isn't working properly. Does it work with the IP address? If so, you have a DNS problem.

Neither pinging by name or IP address work. However, they fail in different ways. Here are the results of trying to ping Google:

ping www.google.com

Ping has started ...

ping: cannot resolve www.google.com: Unknown host

ping 209.85.171.103

Ping has started ...

PING (209.85.171.103): 56 data bytes

--- 209.85.171.103 ping statistics ---
5 packets transmitted, 0 packets received, 100% packet loss

What do these results indicate?

The second result (ping with an IP address) is more important. It indicates that although your Mac "thinks" that it can send packets to that address, nothing is getting through - or maybe it's getting through but nothing is getting back.

Hard to diagnose these things from a distance. You need to eliminate each variable in turn by trying different things.
- try a different Ethernet cable (between the Airport base station and the router - and maybe other places that you can think of ?)
- try your Mac via an Airport (wireless) connection at some other location - i.e. someone else's wireless network - e.g. a friend's, an Apple Store, a Starbucks, etc.
- try a different Airport basestation connected to your router (e.g. borrow a friend's, etc - might be difficult to arrange I know)

Looking back at your previous posts I see that it worked fine if you connect the Airport base station to the modem directly. So maybe the problem is with the router or its configuration (some routers have a weird setting that isolates the wireless and wired networks). So try a different router or just look around in the config of the router.

I'm pretty sure the Ethernet cable is fine as I attach it to the iBook when I need to use it on the Internet.
I've had my iBook at a coffee shop lately and was able to access the Internet there.
I don't know anyone that has another Airport Express.

It seems that maybe the Airport Express is damaged, and won't work properly with the router. I don't know if I should consider replacing it.

Don't neglect the possibility (as pointed out above) that the problem is with your router or its configuration.

As far as I know, nothing has changed for the Linksys router. It is using the same configuration it always was when the Airport base station was working fine.

It is a Etherfast Cable/DSL Router with 4-port switch, Model BEFSR41
What things should I check or change in the Linksys configuration?

I realized that when I connected to my wireless network after resetting by base station, that the system had changed some of my network settings. I reset it to assign an IP address manually, and specified the Linksys router as the router.

After doing this, I can ping www.google.com by IP address. I still cannot ping it by name.

So, it looks like I might have a DNS problem. What should I do to troubleshoot this issue?

You could put the addresses of the DNS servers that your ISP told you to use in the Network preferences on your Mac

I set the DNS server to my Linksys router in the network settings for the iBook and now it is resolving by name.

Thanks for your help.

I agree. I also have westsell and use verizon dsl. It is ppoe but I dont have a problem accessing net with my MBP, but seeing other computers is prob. If I understand that is also your problem? Yeah I can use either Dynamic pr PPoE, but I pull in net fine. In fact I can access the mac from my windows desktops, but the mac is blind.

My problems are resolved now. My wireless network is working like it did before the Airport update screwed everything up. I'm not sure what your problem is.