How to Disable or Enable NIC on a Mac

Techwalla may earn compensation through affiliate links in this story. Learn more about our affiliate and product review process here.

If your Mac's Ethernet connection suddenly drops and you are unable to access the Internet, one of the troubleshooting steps that may resolve the issue is disabling and enabling the Network Interface Card (NIC). This causes Mac OS X to turn the hardware off and on, triggering the NIC to reconnect to the network and obtain a new IP address. Disable and enable the NIC through the "Network" pane of the System Preferences menu.

Advertisement

Step 1

Click the Apple icon in the upper-left corner of the screen, and select "System Preferences."

Video of the Day

Step 2

Click the "Network" icon to open the Network Preferences pane.

Step 3

Click "Ethernet" on the left side of the window.

Advertisement

Step 4

Click the gear-shaped button next to the minus sign in the lower-left corner of the window, then click "Make Service Inactive."

Advertisement

Step 5

Click the "Apply" button to disable the NIC.

Step 6

Click the gear-shaped button again, click "Make Service Active" and click "Apply" to enable the NIC.

Video of the Day

Advertisement

Advertisement

references