Comcast, Airport, and IP Addresses

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I've had comcast and my airport working well for almost a year. Today I upgraded through comcast to a cable modem with cable telephone capability and now none of the four computers in the apartment will connect wirelessly to the internet. My laptop will connect to the internet through the ethernet cable directly from the modem.

When I plug the ethernet cable into the airport it does broadcast my signal. My airport card will also pick up the signal and even registers an IP address. However it will not make the final step and connect. Network diagnostics through the preferences have not helped.

I talked to comcast tech support. Completed a power down/power up of the modem/airport/computers. They were helpful but once it was clear it was not a problem with the cable modem they could offer no more solutions.

It was working 12 hours ago before the upgrade. Not sure what else to do.

Any help would be welcome.
 
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Hello Absentthee and Welcome!!

I had the exact same problem as you!!! It is really a pain to try and fix because it is trial and error. First off, What airport do you have? Do you have the newer one that looks like a Mac-Mini or do you have the one that looks like the UFO? Try this...on the back of the Airport, there is a little hole where you can stick a stretched out paper clip. That hole is where you reset the Airport to the factory defaults. Hold the paperclip in there for about 30 seconds making sure you are pushing on that little rubber stopper thing, otherwise the reset will be no good. After that, see if your computers pick up the signal. Then try loading up Safari or Firefox. If you get the web, then you are set. If that did not work, unplug the Airport, reset it again with the aforementioned paperclip for the same time as above. Then plug it back in and see if the computers pick up your signal and load up Safari or Firefox. It should now work. NOTE: You will have to re-due all of your Airport settings, so it may be a good idea to write them down. ANOTHER NOTE: By checking, unchecking things in your settings, you may lose your connection again. It is IMPORTANT to remember what settings you changed if you lose your signal. Unfortunately, it varies from case to case as to what options are causing your problems. I hope this helps you out a little.

I, along with others, will try to assist you as best as we can. Please, let us know if you need further help.

Best of luck

Searay
 
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Thanks Searay. I appreciate the detailed help that you left. Unfortunately, it is still not working.

I have reset my (UFO) Airport twice. Powered down the cable modem, airport, and computer. Have renamed/removed all traces of previous network during reset as well. Then powered everything back up (modem, airport, computer in that order).

The Modem is putting out good signal. The Airport is broadcasting a very strong signal. My computer can pick up other wireless networks (which is how I'm able to reply to your message), even those broadcast from other Airport networks. My computer can even find this new signal and connect to it. But my browsers and mail programs can not make the connection to the internet. The Apple Network Diagnostic even gives green lights for the first four steps (airport, airport settings, network settings, ISP ) and red lights for the last two (Internet and Server).

I have to say that between my wife and I we've put in close to 12 hours trying to solve this. It seems like we are so close and yet nothing is working. Perhaps we need another router. Does anyone know if the new Airports work better with Comcast? Is there a non-apple wireless router option? Does anyone have suggestions for one that plays nice with Comcast and Macs?


Hello Absentthee and Welcome!!

I had the exact same problem as you!!! It is really a pain to try and fix because it is trial and error. First off, What airport do you have? Do you have the newer one that looks like a Mac-Mini or do you have the one that looks like the UFO? Try this...on the back of the Airport, there is a little hole where you can stick a stretched out paper clip. That hole is where you reset the Airport to the factory defaults. Hold the paperclip in there for about 30 seconds making sure you are pushing on that little rubber stopper thing, otherwise the reset will be no good. After that, see if your computers pick up the signal. Then try loading up Safari or Firefox. If you get the web, then you are set. If that did not work, unplug the Airport, reset it again with the aforementioned paperclip for the same time as above. Then plug it back in and see if the computers pick up your signal and load up Safari or Firefox. It should now work. NOTE: You will have to re-due all of your Airport settings, so it may be a good idea to write them down. ANOTHER NOTE: By checking, unchecking things in your settings, you may lose your connection again. It is IMPORTANT to remember what settings you changed if you lose your signal. Unfortunately, it varies from case to case as to what options are causing your problems. I hope this helps you out a little.

I, along with others, will try to assist you as best as we can. Please, let us know if you need further help.

Best of luck

Searay
 
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Hello again Absentthee

Sorry to hear that the solution did not work. Maybe I should have clarified that I have the new Airport Extreme Base station that looks like a Mac-Mini that features the new 802.11n Draft protocol. I am also using a MacBook Pro (wirelessly) to connect to the Airport. The solution I presented worked on my newer Airport. It is really hard to figure out. However, I have one more thing you can try. Take a look at this post. I realize this is for newer Airports, and I am not sure if this will work for you or not, but it may work. I am not sure if you have even have the options listed in your Airport Utility. But, it's worth a shot.

Let me know how this works for you and please post your results regardless if it works or not. If it doesn't work, then I will try to do some more research.

Best of luck

Searay
 
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Again, Searay, thanks for your post. After spending two more hours this afternoon trying various reconfigurations I called Comcast again. At first the person I spoke to was very aggressive. "We don't support Third Party components, etc, etc" But one I talked through the shell and said "I'm not blaming you, I'm just trying to solve the problem" he suggested reseting the modem, not by using the power cable but doing a hard reset on the back of the cable modem. Inserted pin, held for 5 seconds, and after 60 seconds of coming back up, the computers started picking up the signal. Seems like everything is now working. All 4 computers (3 Mac, 1 PC) are all online. Strong signal.
Anyway, thanks so much for your help.


Hello again Absentthee

Sorry to hear that the solution did not work. Maybe I should have clarified that I have the new Airport Extreme Base station that looks like a Mac-Mini that features the new 802.11n Draft protocol. I am also using a MacBook Pro (wirelessly) to connect to the Airport. The solution I presented worked on my newer Airport. It is really hard to figure out. However, I have one more thing you can try. Take a look at this post. I realize this is for newer Airports, and I am not sure if this will work for you or not, but it may work. I am not sure if you have even have the options listed in your Airport Utility. But, it's worth a shot.

Let me know how this works for you and please post your results regardless if it works or not. If it doesn't work, then I will try to do some more research.

Best of luck

Searay
 
Joined
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Glad to hear it's working again!

Let us know if you need further help in the future!

Enjoy your net again :)

Cheerio
Searay
 

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