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Something weird that I think I've narrowed down to OS X. Everytime I fire up my MB Pro it kills internet access for all devices (including OS X) for about 5 minutes. Ping and DNS works fine but actually pulling content times out usually.

Reason I've narrowed it down to my MBP is that it only happens when I open up my laptop to work. My home PC is Win7 and will be chugging along nicely until my laptop comes online then it dies.

Anyone else have this problem? Did some general 'net searches and found some similar issues with older versions of OS X but not with Snow Leopard.

My home network is cable via a Motorola modem to a Netgear router. MBP is connecting via WiFi to the network.

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2 Answers

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Hard to say without being able to look at your network settings in your Mac and in your house in general, but I imagine your MB is creating a network conflict with your internet Router and therefore the other machines (and itself) end up sending the packages to the wrong place.

The first thing that came to my mind was that your MB Pro is not using DHCP and it's using the same IP Address as your Netgear router or Motorola Modem.

Things to diagnose:

  1. Before even turning on your MB Pro, in your Windows machine, check your network settings. Write down your IPAddress, Your Subnet Mask, your Router and DNS Servers if any. Also note if you have DHCP Enabled or you're manually setting your IP.

  2. With the above settings safely saved (on a piece of paper) turn on your MB Pro and check your network settings for your "Airport" -wifi- network: Go to System Preferences, Network and you will see your Airport. Note the numbers and post them back so we can try to see if the problem is this easy or there's something else involved.

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So far no IP conflicts. One thing I did kill was my VMWare instance. Seems to be a little more responsive after that. Next time it happens I'm going to diagnose it a little more. Might throw some ethereal on the network as well and sniff some packets. – Valien Apr 24 '11 at 0:26
If you had VMware then your VMware network settings might be causing trouble. Either try removing VMware and/or reinstalling it or changing its network preferences. It wouldn't be the first time VMware causes network conflicts (there were quite a few questions about this on this site). Let us know how it goes. – Martín Marconcini Apr 24 '11 at 13:42
Well, still having the issues sporadically. I've killed my VMWare instances and still had the issues somewhat. But again, VMWare works flawlessly at my office on our LAN so not sure why it would hose my home connection. Will keep this thread updated... – Valien Apr 27 '11 at 3:34
Well, fixed the issue. Somehow it looks like my Airport Express connection kills it when I leave it on and then put my laptop to sleep. So if I just disable the WiFi then put it to sleep it works great the next time I logon and re-enable WiFi. Weird. – Valien May 9 '11 at 20:39
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I am having the same problem with torrent client. Whenever I start it, all browsers give time-out error.

Warner came and installed a new modem and upped my band from 10 to 20Mbps, but the Internet sagged after that. On both MacBook and MacBookPro. All the usual tv programs I normally watch load slower, the meters show traffic jumps from 100-20K to zero constantly.

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What torrent client? - usually the issue is the router or ISP – Mark May 6 '11 at 23:17
For some torrent clients it's a known fact that they will cause your 'net connection to time out. Google your torrent client name and something like 'killing outbound internet activity' and you'll probably see a number of threads on it. I use uTorrent and it routinely kills my outbound connectivity until I shut it down. – Valien May 9 '11 at 20:24

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