Browsers Not Picking Up Live Ethernet On Mac

[Trevor25222]

2-year-old Macbook Pro connected via wired ethernet router ... suddenly unable to browse via Firefox or Safari -- which state a connection fault. I had not made any changes overnight.

Network preferences shows a clear signal with IP address. Diagnostics tells me I'm 'connected'. I tried reinstalling OSX 10.6.6 from disk, which didn't delete any files or settings, but it still wouldn't let me browse. Nor does the software updater function. The same ethernet cable works on my old Windows machine with excellent connectivity, so the problem is obviously internal to the Mac.

How can I get my Mac browsers to pick up the signal? Thanks.

[joncl]

Turn on DHCP in your modem/router and it will work again.

[Trevor25222]

Turn on DHCP in your modem/router and it will work again.

I cured the connection problem with a complete hard-drive wipe and reinstall of OSX. Re-installing OSX alone was not enough! At least I can get online with Safari now.

I then found the applications disk supplied with my Macbook Pro 2 years ago was faulty and will not run, despite being unused and unscratched. This contains iMovie, Garage Band etc. An Apple store will be able to install it from their hard drive free-of-charge.

[Trevor25222]

I even managed to solve the Applications Disk problem: clean it up with meths! Must have picked up some sort of coating in the factory which rendered it unreadable. Case closed. Probably not a bad idea to consolidate one's files and reinstall every couple of years.