Weird network issue with OSX

Hi all, has anyone run into this before? I post this here even though I have an iMac because I believe this is an OSX issue.

Here is the setup:
iMac is connected wirelessly to my network and connected via wired ethernet to my NAS. My NAS is connected to my network wirelessly. The wireless and wired (iMac directly to NAS) connections are on different networks. On my iMac my wireless is setup as primary and wired ethernet as secondary in the "service order".

Problem:
If I boot this way neither work. If I boot with the ethernet cable detached wireless works. If I reconnect the cable without rebooting then wired works although in my network properties it says that my ethernet cable is unplugged. I know it works because I connect to the NAS on a separate network and the lights are all lit.

So basically if I want to keep this config I have to disconnect the ethernet cable when shutting down and plug it in after booting up. Anyone know why??

 

Going to try to network the NAS with the Apple Airport Extreme. Maybe that will solve the problem.

 

If you are going to wire your NAS to your iMac, you can try a couple of things:

1. Set your iMac to act as a router so it hands out IP addresses on that interface.
OR
2a. Buy a cheap bridge and use it to connect the iMac and the NAS.
2b. Hard code a static IP address for each of those devices on that interface.

The problem you are having is that OS X is probably checking the wired network to get an IP address but since no one is handing out addresses (like your router would) the OS loops for a period and then fails to grab any addresses as a result for both wired and wireless networks(this is probably something funky with OS X's setup..not sure)

Connecting the NAS to your Airport Extreme will probably solve the issue because the Airport Extreme is a router and will hand both your devices an IP address so they can communicate with one another.

HTH

 

On the flip side to #1, I could set my iMac wireless connection to a static address and see if that works. So if neither interface has DHCP setup it shouldn't even trying to grab an address.

 

Problem is fixed after getting the AE router, basically the iMac has an issue having two nics on separate networks. Something I didn't have an issue with in Windows so I'm assuming I just didn't set it up correctly.

So basically I have my AE router hooked up to my cable modem and my Buffalo router (DD-WRT) setup as a wireless bridge connecting to that network. Both my iMac and NAS connected directly to the Buffalo router and my iMac is also connected directly with my wireless card but my wired ethernet connection is set as the "primary" service. The key is everything is on the same internal IP network. Now I need to figure out why my alias for my FTP server is not working and I'll be fully operational just like I was in my Windows environment.

 

You need a DNS for name resolution. Your AE should be able to do it and so should the Buffalo... i.e. resolve IP to a name. You could theoretically setup an internal domain and put all your machines in that domain. They would all see one another then since it wouldn't really be a workgroup/adhoc setup anymore....

 

I've narrowed the problem down to the AE router itself. If I use local host files I bypass any DNS issues but today connecting directly to my external IP has been hit or miss. Not leaving the network by using a local host file works 100% of the time. By doing this I only talk through the Buffalo router and never touch the AE router.

 

That's probably something that Apple locks down on the AE firmware. If you Buffalo is bridging your AE network, he only knows the names of the devices connected directly to him. That's why I thought a local DNS server would work. You could point all your machines to use it for name resolution. ....or leave well enough alone and just communicate on that local buffalo segment :S In any case, I'm glad you found a workable solution.