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Campus Network (Mac OS X) - Connectivity Troubleshooting

Troubleshooting Mac OS X for campus network connectivity

Verify computer is getting a valid IP address by doing the following:
- Click on Spotlight Search in the upper right hand corner
- Type Network Utility into search field and select Network Utility application
- In the Network Utility window, make sure you are under Info tab and verify the IP address
Valid campus network IP addresses are 128.x.x.x, 146.x.x.x, or 144.x.x.x. A 169.x.x.x IP address is an automatically assigned IP address by the computer and means the machine is not communicating with the network.
Check to see if the computer is transmitting traffic:
- Verify the Transfer Statistics "sent packets and received packets", if received packets are zero with a valid IP address it may indicate a bad network card, bad network cable, and/or data jack.
Try pinging a server, click on Ping tab and do the following:
- Type "www.wisc.edu" If this doesn't work and the results bring back unknown host or unable to resolve error. Try typing "144.92.104.243" if this is successful it will identify a possible DNS issue
If you are getting a valid (or invalid) IP address and still unable to access the internet try renewing the IP address by doing the following:
- Click on the apple icon in the upper left hand corner and select System Preferences
- In the System Preferences window select Network
- In the Network window, make sure you have Ethernet selected in the left task pane and click on Advanced in the bottom right
- In the Advanced window, make sure you are under the TCP/IP tab and click on Renew DHCP Lease
Does the machine come back with the same IP address or different one? If it does come back with a valid IP, retry step #2. If you get an invalid address, Get Help from DoIT