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ethernet stops working mac pro early 2009

Mac Pro Early 2009, 10.12.6, 16 G


Both ethernet ports stop functioning as well as wifi. Sometimes Wifi connects but doesn't communicate, sometimes it just hunts without connecting to any of three available channels. I tried connecting thru an iPad hotspot. It shows connected, but no communications. Diagnostics show all green most of the time. Sometimes "Network Settings" shows red, but will eventually turn green.


Router/modem are as provided by the cable company.


Other devices use the same Wifi channels with no problem.


Rebooting the computer re-establishes communications over both ethernet and/or Wifi. I've had to reboot twice to get around this problem, but I expect it to re-occur. I'm submitting this question using the same computer after reboot.


Rebooting the router doesn't seem to make much difference.


Can the network card go stupid but fool diagnostics? Is Airport on a separate card?



Posted on Sep 26, 2019 5:27 AM

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Posted on Sep 28, 2019 9:15 AM

Instead of "Playing 20 questions", download and run this little "discovery" Utility, written by a senior contributor here. The free/trial version will suffice. Change its internal Preferences to "Allow Full Disk Access" and run it. After a few minutes it will generate a report that can be "shared" into a reply on the forums, using the "additional text" icon in the reply window.


Using EtreCheck to Troubleshoot Potential… - Apple Community


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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Sep 28, 2019 9:15 AM in response to brianfromgeneva

Instead of "Playing 20 questions", download and run this little "discovery" Utility, written by a senior contributor here. The free/trial version will suffice. Change its internal Preferences to "Allow Full Disk Access" and run it. After a few minutes it will generate a report that can be "shared" into a reply on the forums, using the "additional text" icon in the reply window.


Using EtreCheck to Troubleshoot Potential… - Apple Community


.

Sep 26, 2019 7:59 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Thanks but that’s not it. Once communication stops this didn’t work. I had the cable company ping the modem. All good on their end.


I have have a cloned o.s. on another HDD so I went onto it to rule that out. Same issue.


I’m still trying to sort out whether this is related to on specific board that can be replaced, or even just re-seated. It still doesn’t make sense to me that it can stop working yet still indicate all’s well.

Sep 28, 2019 12:02 PM in response to brianfromgeneva

That goofy little string: *.local, 169.254/16 is correct. Leave it.


It says essentially "do not intervene in any local accesses, or with getting an IP address at startup, when a self-assigned IP address is used to identify this computer to the Router for the purpose of getting a "good" local IP address.


Once you have removed the malware, you can change Preferences in Etrecheck to "allow Full disk Access" and run again.


Then the new report will tell you whether the Proxies are still there.

Sep 26, 2019 10:51 AM in response to brianfromgeneva

From a hardware perspective, it makes no sense that your Wifi and Ethernet both stop working. They use wildly different hardware.


But the hint that both suffer the same problem leads into the 'software you added'. Standard Practice for debugging that is to boot into Safe Mode (hold shift at startup). Safe mode does a disk repair as it starts up, so it takes an additional about five minutes. then it requires your userid and password, even if you normally auto-login.


Screen refresh will be wonky and low, but ultimately correct, because no screen acceleration is loaded. NO third-party extensions are loaded. If your ethernet and wifi work in safe mode, but not in regular mode, "it's something you added".


Many users find that something is a so-called Virus scanner, that runs no stop reading your files checking for antique Windows Viruses, which is a complete SCAM on your already well-protected Macintosh, and should be removed.

Sep 27, 2019 4:34 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Thanks for that. I did have Avast on here. It's gone now. I'll test for a while and if it persists I'll do more digging.


My wife has an account on here & was getting unusual new stuff thanks to her insistence on using Farcebook. I took away her admin status for a while. I was happier, but she wasn't. We may have to go back to that.

Sep 27, 2019 5:13 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

I think I was mistaken about the same issue occurring on the cloned HDD.


I booted into a duplicate account on the same volume that my original complaint was on. It's been idle for a couple of years & I was hoping it was cleaner.


I made screen shots of all running processes then began opening web pages. After about 9 minutes network communication stopped. I made screen shots again and compared the process lists. Here are the additional:


audiosandboxhelper

cloudphotosconfiguration

codesigninghelper

curl

mdflagwriter (five were running at login, 14 were running after 9 minutes)

periodic-wrapper

WindowServer


There was an article that said AdBlocker might be involved. I uninstalled it but still no improvement.


I ran some diagnostics on the HDD, but nothing negative came back. Is it possible that a slowly failing HDD can cause something like this?

Sep 28, 2019 10:09 AM in response to brianfromgeneva

It is very unusual to have a non-corporate system using Proxy servers. If this is not deliberate, this is likely the source of your troubles:


Network:

Interface en3: Wi-Fi

802.11 a/b/g/n

Proxies: SOCKS

Interface en0: Ethernet 1

Proxies: SOCKS

Interface en3: Wi-Fi 2

802.11 a/b/g/n

Proxies: SOCKS

Interface en5: iPhone

Proxies: SOCKS

Interface en4: iPad

Proxies: SOCKS

Interface en1: Ethernet 2

Proxies: SOCKS

Interface fw0: FireWire

Proxies: SOCKS

Interface en2: Bluetooth PAN

Proxies: SOCKS


--------

Installing a 500-ish GB or larger SSD drive for your boot drive in a drive bay will speed up system disk access by about TEN times. The cost including a special sled, in the US is about US$100. Users who do this report, "It's like getting a whole new computer!"

Sep 28, 2019 11:42 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

I can't tell where SOCKS is coming from. In my network settings>Ethernet 1>Advanced...>Proxies no protocol is checked. "Under Bypass proxy settings for these Hosts & Domains:" *.local, 169.254/16 is in the box. I don't know why that's there, but I'll leave it alone for now. Also "Use Passive FTP Mode (PASV) is checked.


The same is true for Wifi.


And removing the suspect files seems to have made a positive difference. Ethernet is still communicating.


I'll wait for your reply. Then I think I'll click "Solved."

ethernet stops working mac pro early 2009

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