Duplicate Proxy Ethernet Network location error "your computer does not have an IP address"

Hello,

My Ethernet Network Location works perfectly.
I often have to access sites via a proxy (university library) which is obviously slower than the non proxy Ethernet location.
To quickly switch between my usual Ethernet location and the duplicate with proxy, I created a duplicate of my Ethernet Network Location and a Keyboard Maestro macro to quickly switch between 2 network locations.

My problem is an error message with the duplicate location (even before setting up the proxy) “cable for Ethernet 2 is connected, but your computer does not have an IP address”.

What I tried:

  • Renew DHCP lease of duplicate Ethernet location
  • turn off firewall
  • turn cable modem, router and mac off → on, many times
  • duplicate WiFi instead of Ethernet location
  • delete and recreate duplicate

thanks in advance for your time and help

2023-03-11_08-02-58

Hopefully some of the more network-savvy folks will give you a better answer, but from your description and from the screen shot you posted, there is no Router address associated with this location (field is blank), therefore there is no DHCP server to issue an IP address, so it would follow that you don’t have one. I believe the proxy server’s IP address should be in the Router field. Also, can we see the DNS tab and the Proxies tab for this location?

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I am perplexed because it is a duplicate of a fully functional network location, and the duplication process caused all those fields to be blank.
thank you for your reply.

So (and again, I’m no expert) the fundamental difference between the locations (if I understand your original post correctly), is that one uses a proxy server, and one does not. So you can’t copy the values over from one to the other. On the proxy location, you’ll need to enter the proxy’s IP address under Router on the TCP/IP tab. And on the Proxies tab, you should probably check Auto Proxy Discovery. The *.local exception in the “Bypass…” list makes sense, but not sure about the IP address in there since I can’t read it. Probably a local loopback address like 127.0.0.0, which should be fine. Once you get an IP address for your Mac from the Proxy server, the appropriate entries should auto-fill the DNS Servers list on the DNS tab, if I recall correctly.

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I will try all your suggestions. thanks very much for your time and advice.

unfortunately, does not work. thanks again

Yeah, I think I gave you the wrong advice, sorry. Been so long since I had to deal with proxies. So the DHCP server (the one giving you an IP address) should be the same in both locations. The proxy doesn’t fulfill that role. So put the same entry in “Router” in both locations, and in the second (proxy) location, all you should need to do is check the Auto Proxy Discover box on the Proxies tab, or possibly Automatic Proxy Configuration, or failing that, Web Proxy (HTTPS). I assume after that you’ll be prompted for the name of the proxy, which is often just “proxy.yourdomain.com”.

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OK. thanks VERY much

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