Modern Vespa

I've had a long poke about on the apple support forums and mac help etc. etc. etc. but can't find an answer to this ...

the abovementioned message pops up on my screen repeatedly and i can't get rid of it. it's as though my computer is trying to connect to a remote device and not finding it. it doesn't seem to be interfering with my internet connection at all - it's just annoying. any ideas on how to make it go away?

Here's the Apple solution.

http://support.apple.com/kb/TA22287?viewlocale=en_US

Also ran across this..
Have you checked your active ports (System Preferences > Network > Show >
> Network Port Configurations) to make sure the right ports are active and are
> in your order of preference?
>
>
> ---------On 8/15/04 7:05 AM "Tony" wrote:
>
>> Add another one to this list. I have exactly the same issue, and the same
>> error message. "Could not open the communication device". Did anyone
>> get any answers?
>>
>>
>
Oh Yeah! This is the answer to the problem!!!!!

If you do not use a Bluetooth-compatible mobile phone for Internet access

1. Choose Apple Menu > System Preferences.
2. Choose View > Network.
3. Choose Network Port Configurations from the Show pop-up menu.
4. Deselect "USB Bluetooth Modem Adapter".
5. Click Apply Now.
6. Open Internet Connect (/Applications).
7. Choose Internal Modem from the Configure pop-up menu if it is not already chosen.


If you use both a Bluetooth-compatible mobile phone and the internal modem for Internet access

Be sure you first choose the appropriate device from the Internet Connect Configure pop-up menu.

or you could just show it your golden knob!

cheers for your speedy replies ... however, the first thing i need to figure out his how to get into 'network port configurations', as i don't seem to get the 'show' pop-up menu.

i don't use a bluetooth-enabled phone to connect to the internet but i do sometimes send pictures from my phone to the computer via bluetooth.

here's what my network prefs menu looks like:

Well under the latest OS X they've changed it all around. I don't think you can get to Network Port Configs anymore.

Take a look at this.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2712

I certainly can't find it and I've been working on Macs since 1984 !

One thing you might try is deleting the Bluetooth configurations and see if that solves the problem.

You can always add it back later.

Another thing I'd check is whether you need all the active network ports you have. What's the difference between "Bluetooth" and "Bluetooth PAN" (which I'm guessing stands for Personal Area Network)? Do you need both? Does your Mac actually have an internal modem, or is that a legacy port from an old machine? How about Ethernet, which is also inactive?

What model of Mac do you have, genie? And what Bluetooth devices other than your phone? That might help clarify things.

it's an imac 2.4 GHz Intel core 2 duo running OSX (10.5.7). I"m using wireless internet and my only bluetooth device is my phone.

one of the forums said something about deleting all inactive ports - i think i can do that by simply calling up the contextual menu from the network prefs menu ... hang on a sec .....

okay, bluetooth pan, built-in modem, and one other are now gone - all that's left is air port and bluetooth. let's see if that annoying message comes up again....

So no internal modem. You can get rid of that one. Maybe that's what it's looking for ?

.... so far so good .... it's like waiting for a case of hiccups to go away.... every second without one means you're closer to the cure ....

....




....

still good ..... fingers crossed .....

You may wish to re-enable Ethernet at some point - just because you never know when you'll want a wired connection. And I've never EVER seen that error with an active-but-disconnected Ethernet port.

Other than that, I think Bluetooth and Airport are the only options you want - definitely no internal modem. Sounds good!

dammit

<deletes post-in-progress>  What Ebongreen said.  yeah.

I am not a Mac user, but I found this. Might be a solution.

http://support.apple.com/kb/TA22287?viewlocale=en_US

That message icon is for a modem.. It's looking for a modem that you don't have. Did you delete the modem in the network connections ?

Agreed.

Try disabling Bluetooth in the Network System Preference without turning it off otherwise. In my limited experience, phones usually connect as serial devices, not as network devices, so that port shouldn't need to be on.

When did all this start happening? Any changes or updates made to your system shortly before it began?

I'm going to put my weight behind this one, and also suggest that you open up the Bluetooth pref pane, click "Advanced..." and take a look at what's in there. In particular, there's an option to "Share my internet connection with other Bluetooth devices" (which I think properly should be off) and a list of "Serial ports that devices use to connect to this computer". If there's anything listed there, delete it.

This seems to be a problem when upgrading from Tiger to Leopard. There are some left over networking bits that Leopard doesn't like.

Here's another fix from Apple Support Discussions.

Re: Internet Connect
Posted: Apr 28, 2008 11:09 AM in response to: chapkev

That's solved it! Except it was in "internal modem" panel I found the "Connect automatically" box checked, I unchecked it and haven't had the problem since. )

It's under PPP in the modem panel

In addition, there's this discussion, specifically related to Bluetooth and internet eff-ups. I think the post from chapkev may have it nailed.

it's been going on a few months. it started happening seemingly randomly but i think it must have been an OS update that the system didn't like. for a while my computer was randomly kicking me off the network and i kept having to re-enter my wifi key. that's all sorted now, the error message above is the only lingering symptom of the problem.

now as to the contents of the system folder.... there was a 'Bluetooth-PDA-synch' listed in the serial ports, i've deleted that. there were also a couple of unknown bluetooth devices listed in the bluetooth control panel, which i've also removed. off to read the links now ... cheers for your help so far everyone ...

nope. i removed the internal modem from the list of devices so PPP doesn't come up as an option any more.

If we can't figure it out this way, the next step would be to trash specific preferences dealing with your Mac's networking scheme and have you reset your WiFi et al from scratch. Specifically a selection of files from /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration, but we'll get to that later.

*Mac support = day-job, & sometimes night-job*

As an aside, you're better off manually downloading the 'combo update' and installing that, rather than the 'standard updates' from the mac update menu.
The Combo update installs all the 'fixes' to the system software, rather than just the 'new' fixes since the last upgrade version.

You could try that now - it may resolve the problem.

Harvey

I don't suppose you're using a program other than "Mail" as your primary e-mail client? (Like "Entourage" or "Thunderbird"?)

If so, you could be getting the error message because your email client is trying to pull data through a different port/connection. The program would still try to connect based on it's own preference settings, regardless of how you've configured your overall system settings.


- KeV_n

the bugger is back

harvey and kev, cheers for your suggestions ... i'll try the combo update, and yes i am using entourage as my primary email client

gah

I used to get that too, it was related to a PPP setting, a dial up internet connect thing. I will check the computer that is was happening on.
Is was set up to run windows as well as os x

It has nothing to do with Bluetooth settings. Those options will always appear on a Bluetooth enabled Mac, whether or not you have any Bluetooth devices set up. I notice on your screenshot that it says Bluetooth is off. I am sure that means it is definitely not a Bluetooth problem.

If you want to change the port configurations, open Network preferences in the System preferences. Select Airport. Click on "Advanced". Select "TCP/IP". You can then configure your port settings.

But do you know why and how you need to configure your settings? You could make things worse if you don't know what you're doing. Make a note of the current settings before you change anything, and at least you can always put things back how they were if you muck it up.

For some expert help, try http://www.macfixit.com/index.php

You may need to be a subscriber to access the forums, but you will get very knowledgeable advice.