edited: internet decided to work again, hopefully long enough to get this piece of junk OS obviously designed by Microsoft infiltrators off my system. Crossing my fingers Lion is better.

Rae

^^^ about to be sadly disappointed

^^^ about to be sadly disappointed

Well, Mail is dead, but so far I haven't wasted days and days* on Lion, so it's off to a qualified good start. There's a few apps I want that only run on Lion, so it felt like it was time to make the switch.

Rae

(*spent that much time on a friend's computer trying to get Snow Leopard to work, hence my hatred for that OS)

Your experience aside, 10.6 is almost universally regarded as one of the most rock solid and stable OSes apple has released in god knows how long. There were very, by few speed bumps when it launched and even fewer along the way. Every machine I own that currently runs lion ran 10.6 at some point and every single one of them performed just as well, if not better, running 10.6.

I'd be curious to know, hyperbole aside, exactly what your issues were and what you did to resolve them

I can't remember exactly what Snow Leopard did to my friend's system, but it completely messed it up. Like me, she lost her internet connection, there was a problem with her iLife libraries, folders of documents were missing, the system kept seizing up and crashing. It wasn't pretty. I wound up completely wiping her drive and bringing her back to Leopard.

In my case, the internet stopped working then it started working then it stopped working again then it started working again without my doing anything other than rebooting a couple of times. So saying that Snow Leopard makes Macs act like they were designed by the folks at Microsoft isn't hyperbole, it's a factual observation based on my experience. ;)

Anyway, I've got Lion running right now and except for the Mail issue (which looks like it could be an easy fix but isn't high priority right now), everything is running normally.

Rae

Your experience aside, 10.6 is almost universally regarded as one of the most rock solid and stable OSes apple has released in god knows how long. There were very, by few speed bumps when it launched and even fewer along the way. Every machine I own that currently runs lion ran 10.6 at some point and every single one of them performed just as well, if not better, running 10.6.

I'd be curious to know, hyperbole aside, exactly what your issues were and what you did to resolve them

+1. 10.6 is rock solid. Anything else is an anomaly, or user error.

"Stopped working" doesn't give us enough information to go on.
It may not be related to the Mac OSX either - it could be modem, router, cable or ISP issues.

One needs to take a methodical approach to diagnosing "Internet" problems (it is almost certainly not a problem with 'the internet', it will be a problem with ethernet connections, ISP connections, Domain name server (DNS) settings, or something else.)

Troubleshoot with wired connection to the router first, then progress to wireless.

The first step is to check System Preferences ; Network ; (Wired) Ethernet ; TCP/IP
Does it say Connected? If not check your router is on and unplug and replug all the Ethernet cables. Bad connections account for about 50% of problems.

Now, turn off your broadband modem, your router and your computer. Turn on the modem, wait 30 seconds, turn on the router, wait 30 seconds, and then restart your Mac.

Typically you should see that Configure IPv4 is set to Using DHCP
There should be an IP address listed. What is it? It would typically be 192.168.something, 172. something or 10.0. something which is the internal address assigned to the Mac by the router.

If it is 169.254. anything that means that your Mac has not successfully communicated with the router and received an IP address.

If there is a 169 number or no number at all, hit the Advanced button, make sure you are on the TCP/IP tab and that Using DHCP is selected. Now hit Renew DHCP lease- this will go and query the router again for the IP numbers your machine needs. If it doesn't get any or remains at 169, then you do not have a connection with the router, or the router is not set to serve DHCP.

If you have a valid number (typically in the 192. series or 10. series) that means your machine has connected to the router. There are two questions now -

1) has the router connected to the broadband modem? If other devices in the house successfully use the Internet through the router, then it is connected to the modem OK. If it is not, call your ISP to walk you through troubleshooting.

You can log into the administration interface of the router to check that it is set to serve DHCP and it is receiving a WAN address from the modem. The instructions vary by router model, refer to the owners manual. The address of the router (sometimes called gateway address) is most often the .1 address of the subnet your machine is in -- so if the machine is 192.168.1.24 then the router is probably 192.168.1.1.

2) is your machine using a valid DNS server? The Domain Name system is what connects the domain name you type in (like www.ehmac(dot)ca) to the actual numeric address of the server that hosts that site. Without DNS, you can reach websites only by typing in their numeric address, but not by name.

If you click on the DNS tab in the advanced Network Settings, there should be one or more DNS servers IP addresses listed. Normally these would be handed to your machine by the router. To test, you can manually add the OpenDNS numbers by using the + button at the bottom of the window. The first OpenDNS IP address 208.67.222.222 and the second DNS IP is 208.77.220.220

OK that, and close System Preferences.
Try opening Safari or Firefox and going to a web address that you haven't visited lately. Does it work?

One hint that DNS is the problem is if there is a valid connection, and getting mail may even work, but all websites come up "server not found" in the browser (this is not an infallible test, however)

If it is 169- anything that means that your Mac has not successfully communicated with the router and received an IP address.



That's not completely accurate. The 169.0.0.1/8 subnet isn't entirely allocated for link local use. Only 169.254.0.0/16 is allocated as link-local.

Every other 169.0.0.0 IP is a valid and usable public address.

All I know for sure is that network diagnostics claimed that my wifi connection was working fine but I wasn't able to get anything to load. My iPad and iPod Touch were connecting fine.

Rae

In my case, the internet stopped working then it started working then it stopped working again then it started working again without my doing anything other than rebooting a couple of times. So saying that Snow Leopard makes Macs act like they were designed by the folks at Microsoft isn't hyperbole, it's a factual observation based on my experience. ;)

well, with all due respect the two instances you're talking about are literally dwarfed by the tens/hundreds/thousands of unique machines that a good chunk of us on this board have seen/owned/worked on/used since 09 when 10.6 came out.

keep in mind that just because its raining where you live, it doesn't necessarily mean its raining all over the country. ;)

Well, the only experience that counts is my own. I have had a 100% failure rate with Snow Leopard and I'm completely soured on it.

Rae

And there's a 99% chance that your problems are not solely caused by the OSX 10.6.8 but are a combination of other factors.
However, without any details we can't help you any further.
What router?
Have you tried direct cabling instead of WiFi?
Define in specific what is meant by "Couldn't get anything to load" - in a Web browser? Which one?

Well, the only experience that counts is my own. I have had a 100% failure rate with Snow Leopard and I'm completely soured on it.

Rae

Lol life is going to be tough for you then.

Best of luck