Turn off fw0 / 165.xxx.xxx.xxx?

A

ATXP

Member
Under my System Preferences > Network panel, the built-in FireWire port has always been off. But after installing Parallels 3.0, the fw0 port appeared on my NetBarrier X4 monitoring panel. I need to turn this off as it causing problem with my HP printer.

How do I turn off the Firewire network thingy?

165.xxx.xxx.xxx addressing is hindering my HP printer's network utility.
 
In System Preferences->Network, select "Newtork Port Configurations" in the upper drop down menu, and uncheck Built-in Firewire.
 
That's what I did in the first place.

Didn't solve the problem. Even Intego couldn't figure out and ask me check with Parallels.

As usual, no response from Parallels tech support.
 
ATXP said:
That's what I did in the first place.

Didn't solve the problem. Even Intego couldn't figure out and ask me check with Parallels.

As usual, no response from Parallels tech support.
Click to expand...

I'm surprised that ifconfig fw0 unplumb doesn't work, either. That's a hardy little interface :)

If you run ifconfig fw0 does it show as active or inactive? If active you can try:

sudo ifconfig fw0 down <enter>
 
When you say "didn't solve the problem", does it re-enable autoamagically next time you launch parallels? If so then it sounds like Parallels is resetting the config itself, and there's not a lot you can do. WHy does 169.????? cause problems? It's normally a self-configured address when the DHCP server fails. You shouldn't normally be using it for real stuff.
 
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Ran ifconfig fw0 and it's inactive. Hmm...

No, it doesn't re-enable automatically.

For some reason, my HP printer is using the 165.xxx.xxx.xxx addressing. I can't run the printer utility because of this fw0 problem.

I could solve the problem by assigning the IP address of my printer to something else. But my HP printer is always on auto. Kinda irritating that Parallels 3.0 screwed the setting.
 
Your HP printer is on 169.x.x.x because it can't find a DHCP server. If you don't have a DHCP server on your LAN, such as an Internet router, then you *should* assign the printer address manually, to an address in the same range as the rest of your systems.

If the firewire port doesn't appear in your port list then it shouldn't be affecting routing for the rest of your system.

The reason you can't get to the HP printer in that address is that you haven't a port that knows how to reach it. That's not Parallels fault. Create a new port on your ethernet interface and give it an address one different from that of the HP. It should then talk to the HP and allow you to change its settings.
 
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I didn't have the problem until Parallels 3.0 installation. I uninstall Parallels and the problem goes away. It's a Parallels' issue.
 
There is an issue here ...

I'm not using a network printer, but I am seeing a similar issue with firewire since upgrading to Parallels 3.0. So I think ATXP has a point here.

In my case, despite having fw0 made "inactive", and "deleted" via ifconfig, and having removed it from the settings in my Network Preferences, fw0 is still getting a self-assigned IP number from somewhere (169.254.x.x - the last two numbers tend to vary after each reboot of my Mac).

There are three effects of this:

1. I get the following message: "mDNSResponder: getifaddrs ifa_netmask for fw0(7) Flags 8863 Family 2 169.254.195.248 has different family: 0" in the system log immediately after Parallels has completed initialisation (typically after it starts the DHCP/NAT daemon.

2. Browsing the Network from the Finder produces an incomplete list of Bonjour and SMB computers on my LAN.

3. NMAP now fails to work. It gives the following error message:
"getinterfaces: Failed to obtain MAC address for ethernet interface (fw0)" - it shouldn't even be trying to do this because fw0 is supposed to have been deleted/inactivated.

I have two other Macs which don't run Parallels and they don't see any of this behaviour.


So I do think there is an issue here.


MacBook Pro - 10.4.10 - Parallels 3.0
 
ATXP said:
I didn't have the problem until Parallels 3.0 installation. I uninstall Parallels and the problem goes away. It's a Parallels' issue.
Click to expand...

Do you mean when Parallels is running, or do you still have the problem when Parallels is installed but not running?

Try changing the networking mode of Parallels to Host only networking.

What might be happening is that Parallels creates some virtual interfaces "en2" and "en3" for the virtual machine - which are always there, even when you're not running parallels - and these could be acting as a DCHP for the network, or be assigning themselves to the same IP/subnet as the fw0 interface (even though it's inactive), so when the HP printer goes "auto" it's DHCP request is answered by Parallels (could be the "pvsso" process) and assigning the wrong IP to the printer.

In the System Network preferences, you'll see "Parallels-Host Guest" and "Parallels-NAT". Try turning on one these off and see if it fixes the problem. (albeit temporarily)

At least then you'll have more information about where the problem comes from, and that helps fix it faster.
 
I have turned off all the Parallels network ports in System Preferences I also have the Built-in Firewire turned off too. Even when Parallels is not running, I have this fw0 issue.
 
I am seeing this issue as well after the 3.0 upgrade. Problem for me is that it actually causes issues with VPN in conjunction with iPass connect (in the host OS). Cisco VPN does not see a valid interface to bind to (Error 51). iPass automatically sets its own location in the networking panel, and even if you disable it, it sees it as a new interface the next time. Saving the location with it disabled does no good. Deleting the location is useless as it recreates it upon starting the application.

However the "sudo ifconfig fw0 down" does repair this on a one time basis, so a good work around for me. But running that command every time is bothersome, so a permaanent fix from Parallels would be appreciated.
 
ATXP said:
I have turned off all the Parallels network ports in System Preferences I also have the Built-in Firewire turned off too. Even when Parallels is not running, I have this fw0 issue.
Click to expand...

Exactly the same for me.
 
I trust you have reported it via the proper email channel? There's no obligation on Parallels to create a bug ticket based on the contents of a thread here.
 
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