Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

help - sbc dsl and airport extreme connection issues.

r6girl

r6girl

Administrator/Project Manager
Original poster
Staff member
Sep 6, 2003
1,736
94
New England
hi there. any help would be appreciated on my issue. i tried calling sbc dsl tech support, but, as expected, they would not provide any help to set up my airport extreme base station. i re-read the airport extreme network setup manual again to see if i was missing anything as well, but didn't see what the problem could be.

the short version of the problem i'm having: my base station cannot get a pppoe connection to the dsl network.

when i open internet connect to see what's going on, i see a strong airport signal, and at the bottom it says "connected to the internet through pppoe..." and it shows me the length of time it's been connected. i have the pppoe icon in my menu bar, and that menu shows that it's "connecting" for a little while, then i get an error message that says a pppoe server could not be found. now here's a really odd part - if i open my browser for the 30 seconds or so while it's trying to connect (according to the pppoe menu), i can access web sites! it's only after i get that "can't connect" error message that it hangs and i've lost internet access.

i've got a rev A 12" powerbook w/ 640 mb ram running 10.2.8, fwiw. if i plug in the dsl cable straight to my pb, i can connect just fine. i don't think i have anything wrong with the configuration in that sense. it just doesn't work with my airport station. i reconfigured the base station using the airport setup assistant, and it seemed to set everything correctly as far as i can tell.

i'm sure there's something i'm missing in setting up my base station. if anyone has sbc dsl and could list what their base station settings are, i'd appreciate it! or if anyone has any other advice, that would be great as well. i'm not too knowledgeable about pppoe either, so any tips are welcome. we just moved and i had comcast cable internet at our last place, and had absolutely no problems getting that up and and running with my base station. as soon as cable internet becomes available in our neighborhood, i am canceling this dsl crap immediately... :p
thanks,
marianne
 
macLC40,

was your mac or other computer registered as the computer connected to the internet? i.e. were you using the sbc software to connect. if the answer was yes then you computers MAC address on the network card is registered to sbc. the unique MAC address contained on your ethernet card is used to regulate who logins into the network. obiviously, if you make address doesn't lock out it ain't going to function. i am not sure how to do it specifically on an airport,but it should support something called MAC address cloneing. to get your MAC address of your ethernet card its in perference, network, built-in ethernet, ethernet tab, and the ethernet ID is your MAC address. just clone those hex numbers. mind this is only if you were using previously the sbc software to connect.
 
Im not an expert, but as far as going wireless and having the signal showing your network settings are enabled and running fine, I have had some experience because I have had bad luck the same way in the past. Try this.

Leave your Airbase station on

Go to your modem- Unplug the cable running into the back of it and unplug your modem.

Count to 25, plug your modem back in and plug your cable into the back back in.

Wait, for it to reset itself (Let the lights blink back on)

Then try your wireless internet

Let me/us know if anything happens
 
thanks for the responses!

dudeami:
i'm at work and away from my base station. but i have my pb with me and looking at software update, i believe the last update i downloaded was airport software 3.1.1. does that help? i'll check it out when i get home and can access my base station's profile.

superbovine:
yes, i used the sbc installer disk (tried to get around this at first by using a connection guide on the sbc help site, but no luck! i was hoping to avoid installing any unnecessary stuff on my pb - oh well). it supposedly configured my location settings appropriately, but i'm not opening any specific program to connect to the internet. i've found my MAC address as you've described and will see what i can do to clone that address through my base station when i get home tonight. but here's another question - my husband can just plug his laptops (both dells - don't ask :rolleyes: ) directly into the dsl modem and have internet access without any problem. if he isn't cloning my MAC address (he hasn't done anything to his internet connection settings), how is he able to connect? i didn't mention that in my first post (i do my best to avoid mentioning pc's in this forum!) since i didn't think it was relevant, but maybe it is...

i think we need a smiley that demonstrates someone pulling out their hair. :D must....have.... wireless....internet....access...can't survive much longer... :eek:

marianne
 
macLC40,

Airport 3.1.1 is the latest version that will run on OS 10.2. 3.3.1 is the latest version of the Airport software, however it requires 10.3, so you can not use it on your machine unless you upgrade your OS. Airport software 3.1.1 includes the airport firmware 5.1.1. You did not mention the exact model of the base station so I'll include this quote from Apple's site

"This is a firmware update for the AirPort Extreme base station. This firmware revision is not for use with the original (Graphite) or the Dual Ethernet (Snow) base stations."

This is refering to the firmware version 5.3, which is the latest. I am trying to verify wether or not it would be compatible with your software for administration of the base station. The firmware update can be downloaded seperately from the airport software. One thing I can caution you on for sure, is that if you do flash the firmware to version 5.3, do not enable WPA encryption because you will not be able to connect using WPA from OS 10.2. So only use WEP if you are configuring encryption.

Maybe someone else can chime in about the compatiblity of airport software 3.1.1 and AEBS firmware 5.3. It may already be loaded on your base station anyway.
 
macLC40 said:
thanks for the responses!

dudeami:
i'm at work and away from my base station. but i have my pb with me and looking at software update, i believe the last update i downloaded was airport software 3.1.1. does that help? i'll check it out when i get home and can access my base station's profile.

superbovine:
yes, i used the sbc installer disk (tried to get around this at first by using a connection guide on the sbc help site, but no luck! i was hoping to avoid installing any unnecessary stuff on my pb - oh well). it supposedly configured my location settings appropriately, but i'm not opening any specific program to connect to the internet. i've found my MAC address as you've described and will see what i can do to clone that address through my base station when i get home tonight. but here's another question - my husband can just plug his laptops (both dells - don't ask :rolleyes: ) directly into the dsl modem and have internet access without any problem. if he isn't cloning my MAC address (he hasn't done anything to his internet connection settings), how is he able to connect? i didn't mention that in my first post (i do my best to avoid mentioning pc's in this forum!) since i didn't think it was relevant, but maybe it is...

i think we need a smiley that demonstrates someone pulling out their hair. :D must....have.... wireless....internet....access...can't survive much longer... :eek:

marianne
Click to expand...
well if you have a base station you won't need the software, which is a good thing. i have never used the sbc software to connect. as for your husband and his two lappys that is weird cause it never worked for me :(
another good thing to do anyways is power cycle your modem and base station when things are acting to funky. generally speaking unplugging the power for the modem for about 1 minute will completely let the server loss track of your modem. after you power back on, the modem and reconnect to a fresh connection. the same goes for the base station. unplug it log enough for all the connection to drop then plug it back in.

fyi: using the the software with a base station won't work.

i would try and clone one of your hubsband mac address also.
 
You may also want to try uninstalling SBC's dsl software from your Mac, and/or making sure that none of you ports on the Mac are trying to connect using PPPoE. I don't think that SBC restricts you to only being able to use one MAC address ever. However you will probably be restricted to one connection at a time, so only one MAC address from your site at any particular time is more probable. I don't know much about SBC's dsl software. I use sbc but have never installed thier software. It could be that somehow it is tying into browsers, or somehow tries to connect from your MAC when you use it to connect to the internet. Maybe this connection attempt is causing your base station to lose its connection. Make sure the user name and password are correct to logon to sbc from the base station.
 
goodwill said:
Im not an expert, but as far as going wireless and having the signal showing your network settings are enabled and running fine, I have had some experience because I have had bad luck the same way in the past. Try this.

Leave your Airbase station on

Go to your modem- Unplug the cable running into the back of it and unplug your modem.

Count to 25, plug your modem back in and plug your cable into the back back in.

Wait, for it to reset itself (Let the lights blink back on)

Then try your wireless internet

Let me/us know if anything happens
Click to expand...

i will definitely try that. my only issue will be to resist the temptation to throw the crappy modem against a wall once i've unplugged it. :D

marianne
 
dudeami said:
macLC40,

Airport 3.1.1 is the latest version that will run on OS 10.2. 3.3.1 is the latest version of the Airport software, however it requires 10.3, so you can not use it on your machine unless you upgrade your OS. Airport software 3.1.1 includes the airport firmware 5.1.1. You did not mention the exact model of the base station so I'll include this quote from Apple's site

"This is a firmware update for the AirPort Extreme base station. This firmware revision is not for use with the original (Graphite) or the Dual Ethernet (Snow) base stations."

This is refering to the firmware version 5.3, which is the latest. I am trying to verify wether or not it would be compatible with your software for administration of the base station. The firmware update can be downloaded seperately from the airport software. One thing I can caution you on for sure, is that if you do flash the firmware to version 5.3, do not enable WPA encryption because you will not be able to connect using WPA from OS 10.2. So only use WEP if you are configuring encryption.

Maybe someone else can chime in about the compatiblity of airport software 3.1.1 and AEBS firmware 5.3. It may already be loaded on your base station anyway.
Click to expand...

thanks for the description. update 3.3.1 is listed only for ox 10.3 and i'm running 10.2.8, so it never showed up as an option in software update and i never downloaded it. i assume then that i have the 5.1 version of the firmware, but can check when i get home tonight.

do you think the firmware on the extreme base station could be the issue here? i would be curious to hear if anyone has loaded the 5.3 firmware but operate it from the 3.1.1 software. i haven't purchased panther yet, but plan to do so in the next few months. just hadn't planned on it immediately to get my sbc dsl connection to work through airport!

marianne
 
I am using my AE base station with SBC Yahoo! DSL and the DSL modem acts as the PPPoE router. If you login to the DSL modem (192.168.0.1), you can verify that the DSL modem hosts the PPPoE connection.

I am at work right now so I am not sure of the brand of my DSL router, however if that doesn't work I found that forcing the AE base station into Full Duplex 100 mbps from Auto worked as well. I will check back later today after work to see if your still having a problem and then I can check my router type.
 
dudeami said:
You may also want to try uninstalling SBC's dsl software from your Mac, and/or making sure that none of you ports on the Mac are trying to connect using PPPoE. I don't think that SBC restricts you to only being able to use one MAC address ever. However you will probably be restricted to one connection at a time, so only one MAC address from your site at any particular time is more probable. I don't know much about SBC's dsl software. I use sbc but have never installed thier software. It could be that somehow it is tying into browsers, or somehow tries to connect from your MAC when you use it to connect to the internet. Maybe this connection attempt is causing your base station to lose its connection. Make sure the user name and password are correct to logon to sbc from the base station.
Click to expand...

uninstalling their software is now on my list to try if re-setting (by unplugging) my base station and dsl modem don't work. i've confirmed the username and password are correct for both my pc and my base station, but will probably re-check again as i troubleshoot some more. that's a good idea that the pppoe connection attempt is causing the base station to lose it's connection - i'll see if i can disable those attempts somehow.

out of curiosity, how are you connecting without using their software? i'd like to try that route once i uninstall their software from my pb...

thanks,
marianne
 
arrtewwx said:
I am using my AE base station with SBC Yahoo! DSL and the DSL modem acts as the PPPoE router. If you login to the DSL modem (192.168.0.1), you can verify that the DSL modem hosts the PPPoE connection.

I am at work right now so I am not sure of the brand of my DSL router, however if that doesn't work I found that forcing the AE base station into Full Duplex 100 mbps from Auto worked as well. I will check back later today after work to see if your still having a problem and then I can check my router type.
Click to expand...

thanks. i'll try logging into the modem as well to see what's up. i'll post again later once i get home this evening.

marianne
 
I have another router/switch that completes the PPPoE connection and connects to the internet. I use my AEBS as a bridge on the inside of my network. So my base station is not my gateway.

If you are configuring your base station as a router it can NAT your internal addresses, which will make it appear to the internet as if there is one device on your end of the DSL Modem, so you really don't need their client, unless there is some special feature in it, which I wouldn't know anything about.
 
I have sbc dsl and ape base station...I have two airport base stations bridged together on the top floor of my house and one on the bottom...I just upgraded to panther and was on jaguar before...I had a similar problem when I first got dsl....and basically....I had a lot of interference in the house...a 2.4 ghz phone....alarm system...and walls and tv's....basically I bought another basestation to cover the bottom floor of my house....so my question to you is when you're setting up the base station how far away are you from it...?? if you are more then a couple of feet..?? above 10, and in another room ?? or something of that sort or if you have 2.4 ghz phones?? that may be an issue....although....connecting to the sbc network may be where your problem lies. I had this problem too. do you have a filter on your dsl line that is going to your modem?? are your phone lines in good shape...my problem was that one of the phone lines that my dsl was on what about to break and that caused the signal to come and go (so to speak.) one way to test is to hardwire your computer to the modem without the airport and go to system prefs and set your network to ethernet>automatic configure using ppp then make pppoe active...user password...bla bla bla....then see if your signal is going in and out...if it is ...its the inside wiring...if you have wire pro...I see you live in california...and assuming that you have sbc for your phone company ....I called up sbc...and they came and fixed it.....took 15 min....kinda felt stupid after that....but not to worry at least you have blazing fast dsl...(oh...by the way...I'd take dsl over cable anyday....at least in my area..) if you try that at least you can tell weather or not its your airport or dsl....then ....if its not your dsl....my cousin had this problem...same as yours....and simply put....it was his base station....there are alot of bum ones out there.....he exchanged his and it works fine now...ohh ....and in the airport admin utility you can change the channel that you are using to see if that help....Sorry my thoughts are so scrambled...but if you have any more questions please ask.....ohh...and try what all those other guys said too....i've gotten much help from macrumors people....great buch of folks....I got 98% of my answers here!@!
 
I'm sorry man. I've been having the same issues with SBC myself. I've spoken to apple, sbc, and linksys and they don't have a clue.
 
I am assuming you have the 5100b with the 5 available lights. If you do make a direct ethernet connection with the dsl modem. you will have to turn off pppoe on network preferences and maybe set tcp/ip to use dhcp. then open safari and enter in the address bar 192.168.0.1
that will take you to the gui for the modem. you may have to log in to the modem with your sbcglobal.net email address. then to the left should be a menu, one of the areas will say advanced. click there and when you get in click bridged mode. this will make the modem passive and should allow the airport to connect you using pppoe. if you for some reason need an access code it should be on the bottom of your modem on a sticker.
if you do not have the modem with 5 lights this info will be worthless

phonemonkey
 
thank you all for your comments and suggestions!

i got home and tried a few things - unplugging the modem and base station, going through the airport setup assistant again to see if i'd missed anything and to double-check the password and username. i tried to log in to the modem through the 192.168.0.1 (or whatever it is) ip address to get to the gui, but that wasn't working for some reason. then i was thinking about how i always get these "cannot connect to pppoe server" error messages. so, i went to my network preferences and de-selected the "connect using pppoe" option, and voila, it's working! i'm now accessing this site while sitting on my couch. ah, wireless is a beautiful thing! :p

i think my problem was related to something dudeami said - i set up both my base station and my pb to connect using pppoe. they must have been conflicting with each other, so disabling it on my pb now allows my base station to complete the pppoe connection on its own.

thanks again to everyone! i was getting a little frustrated - i always tell my husband how easy it is to work with a mac and this wasn't setting a good example of that. guess i'll claim user error (which it was) to avoid tarnishing the apple reputation within our household. my next challenge will be setting up his two yucky dell laptops to access the internet wirelessly through my base station, and the fact that my base station is doing the pppoe connection thing should make it easier. ooooh, i'm sure that will be just so much fun. ;)

marianne
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back