Genius My Ass
The official title for the friendly tech folks at Apple is "Genius". I think they should opt for a title which doesn't lead to shattered expectations. How about "Genius in Training", or "Apple Automaton"?
I have been so flippin frustrated for the past few days with my internet connectivity situation and the way Apple handled it I've eaten two pints of BnJ's Karamel Sutra.
First point of annoyance:
They push the "Apple Care Protection Plan" on you, selling peace of mind. I'm getting ready to donate a piece of my own, and it won't be pretty.
Second point of annoyance:
Apple's paranoid proprietary information issues. I guess I would be paranoid too with the Microsoft Monolith looming over every technoligical breakthrough and progressive business practice adopted. I don't want Microsoft to rip off their ideas either, but sweet Jesus Christ!, if I need to get into my system files, I should be able to. (This particular annoyance stems from not being able to transfer music from my ipod to my computer. Eventually, I figured it out. More on this later.)
Anyway, I get home and boot up my new Mac Powerbook G4 with Airport Extreme Card. The thing shows the home network, shows great signal strength, but won't connect to the internet. At this point, I barely know how to turn the Mac on (being so used to tinkering with PC's and all) so I call the "Geniuses at Mac". They very helpfully advise me to powercycle all devices involved. (I had already done this, but I followed directions anyway). Still no connection.
The "Genius" tells me that since I have connected to other wireless networks flawlessly, the Linksys Wireless-B router we use must be defective. I tell him that it's working fine for the desktop (hardwired) and the laptop (wireless), oh and by the way, both of those machines are Windows.
He walked me through the network settings on the Mac. They were all correct. (Now I know how to tinker with Mac network settings... getting a little more comfortable).
He again determines that the issue is with the router.
Anyway, three long, painful and unproductive conversations later, the geniuses were stumped and I was left to fend for myself.
I noticed the Airport was pulling a 169.XX IP from the router. Weird. I set it to manual and entered the 192.XX. I was connected for a hot second. Weird. The settings reverted to 169.XX. I banged my head on the desk.
Anyway, with the help of my best friend Google, I found out that the 169.XX is the default DHCP server setting for Windows. I hate Windows. I'm beginning to hate Macs too.
This is driving me crazy. It works for a minute and then reverts. I've cleared all network locations, created new ones, manually entered IP, Subnet Mask, and DNS info, I've tried the "DHCP with manual address"... nothing is working.
I've reset the router and modem multiple times, I've upgraded firmware, I've changed and re-changed the settings on the stupid router. I'm at my wits end, and Apple can't help.
*pout
I have been so flippin frustrated for the past few days with my internet connectivity situation and the way Apple handled it I've eaten two pints of BnJ's Karamel Sutra.
First point of annoyance:
They push the "Apple Care Protection Plan" on you, selling peace of mind. I'm getting ready to donate a piece of my own, and it won't be pretty.
Second point of annoyance:
Apple's paranoid proprietary information issues. I guess I would be paranoid too with the Microsoft Monolith looming over every technoligical breakthrough and progressive business practice adopted. I don't want Microsoft to rip off their ideas either, but sweet Jesus Christ!, if I need to get into my system files, I should be able to. (This particular annoyance stems from not being able to transfer music from my ipod to my computer. Eventually, I figured it out. More on this later.)
Anyway, I get home and boot up my new Mac Powerbook G4 with Airport Extreme Card. The thing shows the home network, shows great signal strength, but won't connect to the internet. At this point, I barely know how to turn the Mac on (being so used to tinkering with PC's and all) so I call the "Geniuses at Mac". They very helpfully advise me to powercycle all devices involved. (I had already done this, but I followed directions anyway). Still no connection.
The "Genius" tells me that since I have connected to other wireless networks flawlessly, the Linksys Wireless-B router we use must be defective. I tell him that it's working fine for the desktop (hardwired) and the laptop (wireless), oh and by the way, both of those machines are Windows.
He walked me through the network settings on the Mac. They were all correct. (Now I know how to tinker with Mac network settings... getting a little more comfortable).
He again determines that the issue is with the router.
Anyway, three long, painful and unproductive conversations later, the geniuses were stumped and I was left to fend for myself.
I noticed the Airport was pulling a 169.XX IP from the router. Weird. I set it to manual and entered the 192.XX. I was connected for a hot second. Weird. The settings reverted to 169.XX. I banged my head on the desk.
Anyway, with the help of my best friend Google, I found out that the 169.XX is the default DHCP server setting for Windows. I hate Windows. I'm beginning to hate Macs too.
This is driving me crazy. It works for a minute and then reverts. I've cleared all network locations, created new ones, manually entered IP, Subnet Mask, and DNS info, I've tried the "DHCP with manual address"... nothing is working.
I've reset the router and modem multiple times, I've upgraded firmware, I've changed and re-changed the settings on the stupid router. I'm at my wits end, and Apple can't help.
*pout
posted by abbiapple at 10:29 AM
1 Comments:
*Update* If anyone cares, which I'm sure no one does, because according to Apple and Linksys, I'm the only person on the planet who has ever had this stupid issue.
I pinpointed the issue. It has to do with SNAP encapsulation. Basically the mac is fine until the windows machine boots up and sends a dns request in SNAP encapsulation. Mac doesn't use SNAP.
Whatever. Peace on that mess.
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