A quandary: what happens if you can connect to your Airport Base Station (or other third-party wireless access point), but can’t connect to the Internet? I hate when stuff like that happens. As it turns out, Apple Support has a Knowledge Base article about this very problem. The instructions may have been written with 10.2 (Jaguar) in mind but don’t let that automatically put you off. This problem occasionally came up for me as I traveled the road from 10.1 to 10.5 (and I bypassed 10.2 entirely so there you go).
Onto the situation at hand: your computer is connected to the base station but it can’t pick up the Internet on your local network. Or, perhaps you check the “Network” preference pane and the IP address for “Built-in Ethernet port” says 10.64.64.64. According to Apple Support, “this typically occurs after adding an AirPort Base Station or third-party wireless access point where wired Ethernet was previously used to connect to a PPPoE DSL or cable modem service.” The computer still thinks a wired Ethernet connection exists and tries to access the Internet thusly. Here be the solution:
1. Choose Apple menu > System Preferences.
2. Choose View > Network.
3. Choose Built-in Ethernet from the Show pop-up menu.
4. Click the PPPoE tab.
5. Click the PPPoE Options button.
6. Deselect the “Connect automatically when needed” option.
7. Click OK.
8. Click Apply Now.
Off we are then. Now I’m off to get more coffee.
