Safari issue on Telkom

[MrTan]

Ok, please bear with me while I explain my issue.

I'm in London and I like to think a bit of a mac expert. My mother in law, is in JHB, not really great with computers and shes just got a MacBook.

Now, the Telkom guy came round to install her Billion 400G router and after half an hour of explaining to him how to use Safari and the airport card. Anyway, he got it working, using ethernet and wirelessly.

My Mother in law gets back in later that day, and safari wont connect.

The router is showing green lights for everything, ADSL, internet, wifi. The MacBook is connecting over wifi to the router, Safari will connect straight to the router's web interface and all the status settings show it's on line and connected.

The Network preferences are all ok, the IP address is DHCP assigned and correct, DNS server is set as the router, I even googled a Telkom ADSL server ip and got her to enter that in.

Network Diagnostics are all coming up as ok, ISP, Internet, Server all green lit. So the mac is saying its connected to the net.

Apparently the mail app is not sending mail but I never set that up, someone else did.

All I know is that when you enter a URL to Safari, (i've tried google.com, .za, Telkom, default apple homepage) all it says is "Safari cannot open "http://xxxxxx" because it cannot connect to the server.

The Macbook is running OSX10.5 and Safari 3.

I'm running out of ways to talk her through stuff. I don't know an easy way of getting her to setup the router to find her ip address and allow me to remote access the Mac!

Any ideas?

 

[Shardie]

Has she tried another browser like Firefox?

Maybe restart the machine?
Reset Safari?
Repair Disk permissions?

 

[MrTan]

thanks for the reply.

She doesnt have Firefox on there, obviously with no connection to the net, she cant download it either.

Tried restarting the mac, rebooted the router, reset safari and nothing.

I have tried repairing disk permissions, you think that'll make a difference?

 

[paint_by_numbers]

Does she have a data package? The Telkom tech probably used a guest account to connect to the Internet so he/she could test it, but does your mother in law have a data package with a username and password etc?

 

[Sting]

Authentication on Telkom's side?

 

[paint_by_numbers]

Sounds like there is nothing wrong with the Mac to Router setup because you can access the routers interface. Probably a problem with Telkom or her ISP

 

[MrTan]

Thanks for the replies! Much appreciated

Paint: the router is showing that its connected, I've downloaded the manual and the lights to say its online are all green. When she logged into the router's interface she read out the stats including saying its connected and an IP address. All the boxes for connection were ticked.

She has a username and password but I dont want to risk talking her through setting up the router from scratch when it all seems to be working. To be honest, the tech guy wasn't the most clued up person, I think it was the first mac he'd ever seen but he managed to get on the Telkom site.

I thought Telkom was the ISP?!

Moggie: How would I get her to check the authentication?

Thanks again folks, you're helping make a nice old lady, and my wife, very happy!

 

[Sting]

http://www.telkom.co.za/verifyadsl

 

[paint_by_numbers]

The rules are different here in SA. She got Telkom to install ADSL and she pays them x amount per month for the ADSL line rental but that doesn't mean she can surf. She now has to buy a data package from either Telkom or from one of the many another ISPs. You can buy 500mb or 1gig, 2gig, 3 gig etc etc

I can have all the lights on my router and everything working fine but if I have no data in my account then I cannot use the internet.

I would try moggies suggestion first then you need to find out if there's a data bundle included in the Telkom ADSL account

 

[bwana]

Thanks for the replies! Much appreciated

Paint: the router is showing that its connected, I've downloaded the manual and the lights to say its online are all green. When she logged into the router's interface she read out the stats including saying its connected and an IP address. All the boxes for connection were ticked.

She has a username and password but I dont want to risk talking her through setting up the router from scratch when it all seems to be working. To be honest, the tech guy wasn't the most clued up person, I think it was the first mac he'd ever seen but he managed to get on the Telkom site.

I thought Telkom was the ISP?!

Moggie: How would I get her to check the authentication?

Thanks again folks, you're helping make a nice old lady, and my wife, very happy!

You might want to do this. The technician would have use the default guest/guest account to make sure the line was working but that's as far as that account will get.

 

[GreGorGy]

HAve you considered it may just be DNS?
In Mac OS X Terminal:
ping www.telkom.net
if it fails, try it on the IP No:
ping 203.130.196.201

if it works then maybe its just DNS. Tell her to add OpenDNS's servers to her network setup.

If it still fails then I have no idea - blame telkom.

 

[paint_by_numbers]

http://www.telkom.co.za/verifyadsl

I would have thought that the Telkom techie would have done this for her

 

[MrTan]

The rules are different here in SA. She got Telkom to install ADSL and she pays them x amount per month for the ADSL line rental but that doesn't mean she can surf. She now has to buy a data package from either Telkom or from one of the many another ISPs. You can buy 500mb or 1gig, 2gig, 3 gig etc etc

I can have all the lights on my router and everything working fine but if I have no data in my account then I cannot use the internet.

I would try moggies suggestion first then you need to find out if there's a data bundle included in the Telkom ADSL account

As far as I knew she got a bundle from Telkom and that has a data allowance in there.

Wouldnt it at least direct you to a site to let you know you need some or more data?

I'll get her to dig up the details so I can do the on line authentication, because obviously she can't!

Thanks again folks

 

[MrTan]

HAve you considered it may just be DNS?
In Mac OS X Terminal:
ping www.telkom.net
if it fails, try it on the IP No:
ping 203.130.196.201

if it works then maybe its just DNS. Tell her to add OpenDNS's servers to her network setup.

If it still fails then I have no idea - blame telkom.

Thanks Greg, one of my next steps was to get her to use the ping on the network utils.

Do you know what the OpenDNS servers IP's are?

 

[MrTan]

You might want to do this. The technician would have use the default guest/guest account to make sure the line was working but that's as far as that account will get.

As far as I know, he entered all her login details, the only ones he didnt touch were the email ones because he said he wasnt allowed to see those.

Again, if she wasn't logged in, would the router still show it was connected?

Thanks

 

[paint_by_numbers]

As far as I knew she got a bundle from Telkom and that has a data allowance in there.

Wouldnt it at least direct you to a site to let you know you need some or more data?

I'll get her to dig up the details so I can do the on line authentication, because obviously she can't!

Thanks again folks

If she got data bundled with it then she needs to check that the username and password are the ones she was given by Telkom, and not the guest account used by the technician. Surely the Telkom technician should have done all this for her - that's why you pay the R400+ for a technician

 

[GreGorGy]

Thanks Greg, one of my next steps was to get her to use the ping on the network utils.

Do you know what the OpenDNS servers IPs are?

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=opendns+servers

(208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220)

 

[paint_by_numbers]

Again, if she wasn't logged in, would the router still show it was connected?

Thanks

Maybe she is logged into her Telkom account, but Telkom has not activated the data - they could be waiting for the beginning of August! She needs to contact Telkom to find out

 

[paint_by_numbers]

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=opendns+servers

(208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220)

 

[MidnightWizard]

Basics ?

I remember seeing a thread somewhere where people were having problems with specifically Safari.

Cannot remember where I saw it now.

From my perspective

You need to first find out if there is any sort of connectivity

Ping 127.0.0.1

Try and find out if the Mac has a valid IP

"ipconfig/all"


Ping that IP

Ping the IP of the inside interface of the modem / router

Ping www.telkom.co.za

Ping a DNS server

Try using an IP instead of a FQDN

If you can get to Telkom try downloading something ( Instruction sheet )

( Must be some sort of basic CLI FTP in the OS ???? )

Ping on Port 80

IF that all works then the problem is with the browser.


"It is a matter of deduction my Dear Watson"


( Sounds like the person with the problem is in need of a visit by a friendly Mac person )


MW