CROWN


Macintosh PPP Troubleshooting

Troubleshooting Procedure

The four basic steps in diagnosing a Macintosh PPP problem.

Troubleshooting Scenarios

Problems are presented more or less in the order they would be encountered as a person goes through the process of trying to open a connection.

Supporting Version 5.1

KILLER PROBLEM from Version 5.0

Problem Index

KILLER PROBLEM from Version 5.0

This doesn't happen on all Macs. Symptoms include one or more of the following:

  1. Hard drive icon changes, most likely into a folder but a generic document icon has also been seen. Color may change as well.
  2. When you re-boot the Mac, an error dialog pops up indicating that File Sharing could not be enabled. This obviously only happens on Macs which had File Sharing turned on.
  3. The hard drive does not show up in any standard file dialog box (i.e., the box that appears when you select Open or Save As... from inside an application, or when an installer asks you where to install something).

    You may also see a box which says The disk is locked when trying to install something from a CD-ROM. (This is becasue the only volume available is the CD-ROM itself, which is read-only.) An easy way to test for this is to run SimpleText and select Save As... from the File menu. Click the Desktop button on the right, and see if the hard drive shows up in the list of volumes. If it does, you're OK; if it doesn't, you've been bitten by the bug.
  4. If you boot from a floppy disk or a CD-ROM, the hard drive will not appear on the Desktop.

 

SOLUTION

These steps will fix both the changed icon and the locked hard drive in some cases. THEY DO NOT WORK IN ALL CASES.

1. Click once on the hard drive to select it, and select Get Info from the File menu.

2. Click on the small icon in the upper left quadrant of the Get Info box.

3. Look at the Edit menu.

a. If the Cut option is available, select it. You may or may not see an error message.

b. If the Cut option is not available, select Copy instead. Then select Paste.

4. If it's your lucky day, everything is fixed. Check with SimpleText as described in symptom 3 above.

If these steps do not fix the problem, the only solution is to reformat the hard drive. (If the only symptom is the hard drive icon changing, the customer may choose to ignore it rather than going through the hassle of reformatting.)

Reformatting the Hard Drive

First, the customer should back up all their files. (This is possible because you can still open the hard drive icon and copy things off.)

They will then need to boot from their original CD-ROM or System Software floppies, run Drive Setup to reformat the hard drive, and then re-install the MacOS. Now they can copy the files they backed up back tot he hard drive.

Then they will need to re-install applications from original media or their backup. Obviously they should NOT re-install the AcIS Internet Software! Instead, THEY SHOULD BRING THE VERSION 5 CD-ROM BACK TO US AND TRADE IT IN FOR A COPY OF VERSION 5.1 when it is available. THIS IS FREE.

Troubleshooting Procedure

STEP 1.

Check the customer's Macintosh model, System Software version, and installed RAM against the system requirements listed below.

  • If the System Software is version 7.5.5, ask what version they were running before they upgraded. The 7.5.5 update can only be used on a Mac already running 7.5.3, NOT 7.5.2, 7.5.1, or anything else. If a customer has 7.5.1, it must first be upgraded to 7.5.3, and then to 7.5.5. Normally the Installer will give an error message if someone tries to use it on a System other than 7.5.3.

     

  • If the System Software is version 7.5.3 or 7.5.5, find out if the customer upgraded their System Software themselves, and if they turned off all their extensions (by holding the Shift key down while rebooting) before they did the upgrade. If they did, the upgrade did not install correctly, and they must go back and do it again. The reason for this is that only extensions which are loaded into memory (turned on) will be upgraded. The most common symptoms will be malfinctioning printing and/or networking. (The instructions for the upgrade state that the Mac should be rebooted with System 7.5 Extensions on before doing the upgrade. Our instructions are at http://www.columbia.edu/acis/tech/mac/sys753upd.html . The instructions for installing the 7.5.5 update are essentially the same as for installing the 7.5.3 upgrade. ) This is a very common problem.

STEP 2.

Get an exact description of the problem and any error messages, and see if it matches one of the scenarios below.

STEP 3.

Check the ConfigPPP settings the customer is using and make sure they are correct. The modem flow control/initialization string information from the User Guide is included later in this document.

STEP 4.

If all else fails, have the customer restart their Macintosh with System 7.5.x extensions (plus anything required for their modem to function) using the Extensions Manager control panel. (If they have System 7.1.x, they can get a public domain utility to manage their extensions (called, confusingly enough, Extnsions Manager) in the Support Center or from popular software download sites.) If their PPP connection works, it means there is a conflict between the networking software and one of the INITs that was turned off. You can point them to our Web page on solving INIT conflicts (http://www.columbia.edu/acis/tech/mac/conflicts.html ) but you are not reponsible for anything further than this.

If you encounter a problem/solution not included in this Troubleshooting Guide, please let Jill know!

Troubleshooting Scenarios

For the most part, the following troubleshooting tips are arranged by symptom. If you don't see what you need right away, check the index.

System Requirements

Memory error at boot-up

If you see an error when you start up the Mac which says something about not being able to load PPP (or LAP) because of insufficient memory, it means that PPP has not loaded properly, and if you open the ConfigPPP control panel you will see that the Open button is grayed out. Follow the instructions below to correct this. This procedure will have to be followed every time you start your Mac and want to open a PPP connection.

Note that this error has only been reported with System 7.1 and the cause is unknown. A fix that has been reported on the Net (to rename MacTCP to [space]MacTCP) has not been confirmed to work. Also note that on at least one system (my own at home) this problem suddenly went away by itself, without my doing anything at all.

ConfigPPP Control Panel Missing

If there is no ConfigPPP control panel, have the customer reinstall the AcIS Internet Software, being sure to choose network drivers for a dial-up connection and not for a direct connection.

Open Button in ConfigPPP Unavailable (Grayed Out)

Access Denied

A valid AcIS computer account with AcISdialupnet in the Affils field is required to use the Dial-Up Networking Service. The account must have a real password, i.e. it should not have the shell set to either ksh.first or ksh.create.

This error can obviously result from the person mistyping their account ID or their password. Make sure they are not adding the @columbia.edu to the end of the ID or typing their name instead of the account ID. If they have Kermit or some other terminal emulation software available, ask them to try to log in with an ordinary serial connection to make sure that they are using the correct password.

[Time delay.]

Network Control Panel

If your Mac is running System 7.1.x or System 7.5.1, check to make sure that it has a Network control panel. (Look in your Control Panels folder inside the System Folder for a file called Network.) You can get a copy of this file if necessary from the AcIS Computing Support Center in 102 Philosophy Hall. Macs running System 7.5.3 or 7.5.5 do not need a Network control panel.

MacOS Error 300

This error almost always means that MacTCP has not loaded correctly.

If the System was upgraded recently to 7.5.3 or 7.5.5, my first suspicion would be that the upgrade was not done correctly. See the instructions above to correct this problem.

Serial Port Already in Use

If ConfigPPP returns an error saying, "An error occurred while initializing the serial port. It may already be in use:"

PPP Timeout: Link Dead

Despite what the customer may claim, according to Network Systems there are no differences between the old terminal servers and the new ones that would cause this error.

When someone reports a problem like this, the important things to ask are how many times did it happen, and at what times of day. If a few of the modems are in a 'sick' state, a person could get through to a modem (thus NOT getting a busy signal) but then hang. If the modem pool is saturated, the only modems left free will be these flaky ones, so if the person calls back 10 times in the space of 10 minutes, they will always get one of the flaky modems because all of the other good modems are in use. Thus, in order to be sure that there is really something wrong (aside from a few flaky modems) we need to know that the problem re-occurred consistently on different days, at different times of day.

PPP Close Timed out. The connection may have dropped before PPP was closed.

This happens after the person enters username and password.

PPP Timeout: Waiting for OK

PPP Timeout: Waiting for >

If you get an error message that says, "PPP wait timeout while waiting for >," FreePPP has been able to communicate with your modem and dial the phone, but your modem is having trouble communicating with Columbia.

Clicking the Open Button Does Nothing

If nothing at all happens when you click the Open button in ConfigPPP, you may have a blank or incomplete connection script. Click ConfigPPP's Config... button and then the Connect Script... button. Compare the contents to the default script below.

Default Connection Script

page 28 of the User Guide

Automating the Connection Script

To change the default connection script so that entering the username and password are not required at every connection, replace the \a with the actual username and the \p with the actual password.

Warnings:

NCSA Telnet: DNS Errors

If you get an error reading, "The connection to cunix.cc.columbia.edu cannot be opened because there is no default name server," it means that the Domain Name Server information in MacTCP or TCP/IP may not be configured correctly.

MacTCP Control Panel Configuration

page 26 of the User Guide

By default, PPP is selected, and the IP address displays as 128.0.0.0.

If you have not installed the Dial-Up option, you will not see a PPP icon. If you don't have Ethernet on your Mac, you will not see the Ethernet icon. The specific icons (and names) that you see depend on your Mac's configuration.

If the person has already opened a PPP connection, a complete IP address may show up in the IP Address: box. This address will change every time a new connection is changed.

Click on the More... button to see:

The only parts of this configuration that matter are that Obtain Address from Server is selected, and that the Domain Name Server Information be filled in correctly. By default the Gateway Address will display as 0.0.0.0; if a PPP connection has already been opened, a real address may appear here. Important Note: The settings in the panel entitled IP Address in the upper right quadrant of the window do not matter.

 

TCP/IP Control Panel Configuration (Open Transport 1.1)

page 27 of the User Guide

Netscape Freezes

If Netscape freezes when you try to navigate the Web, there are two things you can try.

Modem Settings

The table below lists settings for a selection of modems used commonly with Macintosh computers to help you configure FreePPP.

Speed

This column lists the speed that should be set in ConfigPPP, not the rated speed of your modem. (Using data compression allows modems to achieve actual speeds up to four times their rated speed. However, the capabilities of your computer's serial port, as well as other factors, can reduce this ideal maximum speed.)

Flow Control

Although in general a PPP connection requires the use of hardware flow control (CTS &RTS), some modems require special settings. These variations are noted in the table.

Modem Init String

A modem initialization string is a command that you send to your modem at the beginning of a communication session which sets certain parameters in the modem. You need to find the string appropriate for your modem and enter it into the box in ConfigPPP labeled Modem Init.

Experience has taught us that every Macintosh needs a modem initialization string in its ConfigPPP settings! However, I have yet to see a setup that requires more than AT&Fn.

Modem

Speed

Flow Control

Modem Init String

Apple Geoport

57,600

CTS & RTS

AT&F

Global Village Teleport

Silver

19,200

CTS Only

AT&F1

Gold

38,400

CTS Only

AT&F1

Gold II

38,400

CTS Only

AT&F1

Mercury

57,600

CTS Only

AT&F1

Platinum

57,600

CTS Only

AT&F1

Global Village PowerPort

Mercury in PB 1xx

 

57,600

 

CTS Only

 

AT&F1

Mercury in PB 2xx or 5xx

57,600

None

AT&F

Silver

19,200

CTS Only

AT&F1

Gold

38,400

CTS Only

AT&F1

Platinum

57,600

CTS Only

AT&F1

Megahertz CruiseCard 14.4

57,600

CTS & RTS

AT&F

Megahertz CruiseCard 28.8

57,600

CTS & RTS

AT&F

Supra 14.4 LC

57,600

CTS & RTS

AT&F1

SupraFAXModem v.32bis

57,600

CTS & RTS

AT&F1

SupraFAXModem 288

57,600

CTS & RTS

AT&F1

USRobotics Sportster 14.4

57,600

CTS & RTS

AT&F1

USRobotics Sportster 28.8

57,600

CTS & RTS

AT&F1

USRobotics Sportster V.34

57,600

CTS & RTS

 

AT&F

You can also find settings for a wide variety of modems at http://www.mcp.com/hayden/iskm/modems.html .

INIT Conflicts

When all else fails, restart the Macintosh with standard Apple extensions only plus anything needed to use the modem, e.g. PowerBook PC Card Extension, and try the connection again. (Use the Extensions Manager control panel in System 7.5 or later. In System 7.1, you will have to do this manually unless you are running a non-Apple utility which handles extensions.) If the connection works, it means that one of the turned-off extensions is incompatible with the Internet Software.

For more information about solving INIT conflicts, see http://www.columbia.edu/acis/tech/mac/conflicts.html .

Using the AcIS Internet Software with a NETCOM Account

The most common mistake people make when configuring their Internet software for use with a NETCOM account is forgetting to precede the NETCOM user ID with a # (e.g., #myAccountID).

The only application configuration change required if you are connecting to the Internet via NETCOM rather than Columbia is your netnews server. For NETCOM connections, the news server should be set to nntp.ix.netcom.com in whatever software yo use to read netnews, e.g. Netscape Navigator.

For information about the NETCOM program at Columbia, see http://www.columbia.edu/acis/networks/netcom .

Last update: 3 February 1997

Page maintained by: Jill Williams

Academic Information Systems
Help Line: 212.854.1919
Email: [email protected]

Copyright © 1996, Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York