Planning to upgrade from Leopard or Snow Leopard to Mountain Lion? First and foremost, be sure you have enough RAM, at least 4GB. My second Mac tip comes from recent experience — reset your Mac’s SMC (system management controller), a neat little trick that can resolve the nettlesome “you are not connected to the internet” issue.

After upgrading a customer’s iMac from Leopard to Mountain Lion, it started having trouble maintaining an internet connection. Specifically, it kept displaying “you are connected to the internet” and my usual bag of tricks — reset PRAM (Command + Option + P + R), rebuilding permissions (Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility) and resetting Safari (Safari > Reset Safari) — weren’t of any help.

Resetting the system management controller (SMC), however, did help.

For desktop Macs
1. Shut down the computer
2. Unplug the computer’s power cord
3. Wait 15 seconds
4. Attach the computer’s power cord
5. Wait five seconds, then press the power button to turn on the computer

For portable Macs without removable batteries
1. Shut down the computer.
2. Plug in the MagSafe power adapter to a power source, connecting it to the Mac if its not already connected.
3. On the built-in keyboard, press the (left side) Shift-Control-Option keys and the power button at the same time.
4. Release all the keys and the power button at the same time
5. Press the power button to turn on the computer

Seem like just so much digital voodoo? Perhaps, but it has worked more than once for me in resolving the nettlesome “you are not connected to the internet” issue where other methods failed.

Have comment about this Mac tip or have a trick of your own to share? Pop us a note in the comments section below…

via Apple Support Forums, image Tech Radar

Related posts:
— Mac Tips: Change Screen Cap Format to JPG
— Replace an Internal SuperDrive? Don’t. Here’s Why
— Mac Tips: Preview Image, Video, Document, etc. Files Fullscreen
— 2013 Retina MacBook Pro Benchmarks: Bang for the Buck?
— Mac Tips: Sleep My Mac NOW Keyboard Shortcut