[Ti] TiBook and powered ethernet

[John Pariseau]

Actually, when our computers switched to 10.2 (from 8.5-9.2.2), the 
DHCP issue was the same as described here. It all resolved itself, as 
the machines finally were able to get an IP, but it was a harrowing 
time. What sort of worked:

Select DHCP with manual IP. Enter a known free IP. Switch to DHCP. 
Then, it would occasionally get an IP. Once the computers had an IP, 
all was well. My PB occasionally had the problem, as I would take it 
with me. I use DHCP with manual IP, and just "guessed" an IP and it 
works. Not recommended depending on how the IP situation is, however.

> This is somewhat of a WAG, but have you tried connecting from OS9? 
> This "MAY" be an OSX issue. I have had a similar problem (though I did 
> not connect it to "powered ethernet"); every computer we hooked to the 
> switch connected fine, including the computer in question when booted 
> in OS9 (Win98, Win2000, OS9, OS8). But in OSX, the only way to get it 
> to work was using DHCP with manual IP. At the time, I just attributed 
> it to the funky way the Hughes/DirectPC kluged their internet stuff 
> together.

And get this - at another University, the ALL PC tech staff was telling 
a teacher friend that his mac (only OSX, this was not a problem in OS9) 
couldn't get an IP because of a timing issue. I really didn't look into 
this, as I wasn't really anything I had any control over. I guess Apple 
told them what to do, but it would require them reconfiguring their 
switches. This was told to me by a non-technical person, so the info 
may be a bit "garbled". I did show him how to switch the Network 
settings. The tech guys were showing him some terminal commands he had 
to type in, to get an IP. He said half the time the commands didn't fix 
the problem, but just by switching the Network setting around a few 
times, he was able to get a valid IP more often than not!

Another odd but true IP related thing:

I have an autosensing ethernet port in my Ti, which determines if the 
cable is plugged into a hub/switch or another computer. This means: I 
don't need a crossover cable to connect it to another computer. Well, 
this has worked for all computers (macs and PC's) I have hooked it up 
to except a beige Powermac G3 desktop machine, both the desktop and 
tower versions. For those, I had to use a switch to transfer files 
with. Odd.

John