Having trouble connecting to the internet

Question

Hi everybody for the last month or so my internet connection has been disconnecting from the internet. I’ll open Safari then a error message appears telling me that I am not connected to the internet. All 3 lights on my modem are green indicating that the Modem (2wire home portal) is working. I opened ND to try to fix the problem the status settings indicate that ISP failed, and server failed. I called Apple technical support for help but they blamed the modem for causing this to happen. I went out and bought another modem hoping that a new modem would fix the problem, but it did not, Same error message “ you are not connected to the internet.” I called my ISP about 10 times there are no server outages in my area. I ran numerous hardware test to see if the hardware was corrupted, all test came back negative.
I am using a 2wire home portal (Non wireless) I have a Intel i mac core duo maxed out. I have no software installed on this computer ( other then the software that shipped with the i mac. I never download anything off the internet (Not even a widget) I don’t what else to do... I don’t want to take the computer to a Apple store because I’m most cretin that nothing is wrong with the computer plus the nearest Apple store is almost 200 mile away from where I live.
Any suggestions on how to fix this problem would be appreciated.
I Mac Intel Core Duo   Mac OS X (10.4.5)  

Answer 1

This is frequently solved in the Network section of System Preferences. Assuming your "Location:" reads "Automatic" then verify your Network Port Configurations. I don't have a cable modem setup, but imagine "Built-in Ethernet" is what you're using, and if so, that should be primary. Be sure to "Apply Now" once a new setting is selected.
If you recall set-up, did your iMac discover the connection immediately, or was it necessary to add information to the Ethernet panel? Since your network was functioning before the iMac set-up, the iMac should have discovered it on its own and you should not have had to enter any info.
If that was not what happened, I'd scrap the Network settings, return all to defaults, and start over with the iMac discovering the connection on its own.
Edit-
One other thing that might be different from your PC's, check the Energy Saver's Sleep panel to see that you have unchecked the "Put the hard disk to sleep when possible" and see if that helps at all.