phantelope

Q: 2014 mac mini loosing internet connection

Hi, my relatively new mac mini with most current system suddenly started to loose it's internet connection. WiFi or wired makes no difference. It works for a bit then I get time outs, spinning balls and nothing works anymore. All other devices on the same wifi (iphone, ipad, macbook pro, chrom book, windows laptop, apple TV) work just fine, so it's not comcast or a modem issue.

 

I'm mostly connected with wifi, I moved wifi up in the priority list. I also deleted that particular wifi account and entered everything again, it's a comcast router with wifi built in. Nothing helps. If I run the network diagnostics all things come back with a green light, but even if I try to ping some site via terminal nothing happens. All other devices run great, but I need this compuer on the net. I might take it to the genius bar, but I can't bring my wifi with me, not sure how much that would help.

 

Any other ideas?

 

It started sporadically, just a hickup in a video file or a minute to refresh a page, I had comcast test everything too. Now - regardless of what browser I use) I mostly get nothing, if I'm lucky I get a connection for a couple minutes before it's over again. Wifi is connected, I did not change anything or install anything (though some things might have done so automatically) and I know nothing about networking, so I never touched any of those settings, since everything worked anyway.

 

Any help is greatly appreciated, I can't work without internet on that machine :-(

 

Thanks!

Mac mini, OS X Mavericks (10.9.3)

Posted on Jun 3, 2014 1:03 PM

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Q: 2014 mac mini loosing internet connection

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  • by BDAqua,

    BDAqua BDAqua Jun 3, 2014 2:47 PM in response to phantelope
    Level 10 (123,765 points)
    Jun 3, 2014 2:47 PM in response to phantelope

    Hi, this has worked for a few...

     

    Though all of these steps may or may not be needed, I'm including them all.

     

    Make a New Location, Using network locations in Mac OS X ...

     

    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2712

     

    10.5, 10.6, 10.7 & 10.8…

     

    System Preferences>Network, top of window>Locations>Edit Locations, little plus icon, give it a name.

     

     

    10.5.x/10.6.x/10.7.x/10.8.x instructions...

     

    System Preferences>Network, click on the little gear at the bottom next to the + & - icons, (unlock lock first if locked), choose Set Service Order.

     

    The interface that connects to the Internet should be dragged to the top of the list.

     

    If using Wifi/Airport...

     

    Instead of joining your Network from the list, click the WiFi icon at the top, and click join other network. Fill in everything as needed.

     

    For 10.5/10.6/10.7/10.8, System Preferences>Network, unlock the lock if need be, highlight the Interface you use to connect to Internet, click on the advanced button, click on the DNS tab, click on the little plus icon, then add these numbers...

     

    208.67.222.222

    208.67.220.220

     

    (There may be better or faster DNS numbers in your area, but these should be a good test).

    Click OK.

  • by phantelope,

    phantelope phantelope Jun 3, 2014 3:16 PM in response to phantelope
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 3, 2014 3:16 PM in response to phantelope

    thanks, I'll give these a try. I think 8.8.8.8 is google's dns server?

     

    but this also happens if I wire the router directly to the machine. Still worth a try, thans.

     

    I also decided to run a visrus scan just in case, that'll take a while to finish, after that I'll check out these steps.

     

    Just can't understand why the problem started to happen a bit here and there, then more, and now I only get a min or two before no browser or other program can access the net for a long while.

  • by lllaass,

    lllaass lllaass Jun 3, 2014 3:42 PM in response to phantelope
    Level 10 (189,440 points)
    Desktops
    Jun 3, 2014 3:42 PM in response to phantelope

    Yes, 8.8.8.8 is one of the Google DNSs

  • by BDAqua,

    BDAqua BDAqua Jun 3, 2014 4:38 PM in response to phantelope
    Level 10 (123,765 points)
    Jun 3, 2014 4:38 PM in response to phantelope

    I also decided to run a visrus scan just in case,...

    Wouldn't be the first time AV software was the whole cause of connection problems.

  • by phantelope,

    phantelope phantelope Jun 3, 2014 4:44 PM in response to BDAqua
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 3, 2014 4:44 PM in response to BDAqua

    first time I ran it and I'll take it off again, didn't find anything. used the one from avast.    

    on to these settings things here...

  • by BDAqua,

    BDAqua BDAqua Jun 3, 2014 5:52 PM in response to phantelope
    Level 10 (123,765 points)
    Jun 3, 2014 5:52 PM in response to phantelope

    I'm dealing with a person long distance that can't reliably, if at all get online, & it's likely becuase she was using Avast, tried to remove it but it's still there.

  • by phantelope,

    phantelope phantelope Jun 3, 2014 6:08 PM in response to phantelope
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 3, 2014 6:08 PM in response to phantelope

    well, I did these things (correctly I hope), the location setup did not stick though, it just went back to automatic and does not show my Home location for some reason. I did enter the wifi name and password by hand, not pick from the list, also removed other wifis that were brought over with migration assistant months ago. it seemed to help for a while, but now I get dropp outs and spinning wheels again :-(

     

    What else can I try? I restarted everything, router, computer, several times and the wifi works on all other machines I have here. And it worked great for months, I got very fast speeds on speed tests, just recently things started to act up. I did not install anything new aside of adblocker, but only in firefox and all browsers and thunderbird are affected, as well as terminal ping etc.

     

    Could the network card in the computer be defective? I have an appointment with the genius bar on Friday, not sure it'll get me anything though. I'll probably bring the mini with me, but without it being at my home location it might work just fine for those 15 min they give me.

     

    Any other ideas? This is my work machine, I really need it online and it worked fantastic for a good while :-(

  • by BDAqua,

    BDAqua BDAqua Jun 3, 2014 6:13 PM in response to phantelope
    Level 10 (123,765 points)
    Jun 3, 2014 6:13 PM in response to phantelope

    ˇCould the network card in the computer be defective?

    It could be, but both Wifi & Ethernet at the same time doesn't seem plausible unless there was a big electrical storm.

     

    Are you saying the New Location you made is not a choice under Locations now?

  • by phantelope,

    phantelope phantelope Jun 4, 2014 9:12 AM in response to phantelope
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 4, 2014 9:12 AM in response to phantelope

    yes, it's not there. I'm on system 10.9.3, maybe it works a bit different there and I did something wrong, I'll google. I really don't know much about networking and what this Locations thing means.

    At first it seemed the things I did helped, but that only lasted 10 min or so, then I was back to no connection on that computer. Since wifi works on all other devices and used to work great on the mac mini, I'm starting to wonder if it's a hardware thing? I don't quite see how some settings could change themselves and suddenly cause this drop out. I'll uninstall the virus software too, but I only installed it yesterday during one of those moments wen I had a connection. Other than automatic system (and software) updates I have not made any changes on the mini since I got it and moved everything over from my macbook pro with migration assistant.

     

    Any other ideas? I'll take it to the Genius bar on Friday, but somewhat doubt they can help in 15 min. But I need to fix this somehow, otherwise the whole computer is a paper weight, I need to be online for my work :-(

  • by BDAqua,

    BDAqua BDAqua Jun 4, 2014 10:05 AM in response to phantelope
    Level 10 (123,765 points)
    Jun 4, 2014 10:05 AM in response to phantelope

    Open Console in Applications>Utilities & see if there are any clues or repeating messages when this happens.

     

    Click on the top line we want, Shift plus click on the bottom line we want, CMD+c to copy, then paste the text in a reply with CMD+v

    A few dozen lines should be about right, hundreds or thousands won't likely be readable.

  • by phantelope,

    phantelope phantelope Jun 4, 2014 10:39 AM in response to phantelope
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 4, 2014 10:39 AM in response to phantelope

    ah, I think I found one mistake I made, I did not add the DNS servers to my Home location, I did that now and it kept the location. Does not help though, I got internet for less than a minute, then just "connecting" and spinning balls in Firefox and Thunderbird can't get my mails either. I'll try hardwired once more, I have to move the router for that and it can't stay in my office, but at least I can find out if it's now only wifi related, maybe the card is overheating quickly or something? Fan in the mini hardly ever comes on though.

  • by phantelope,

    phantelope phantelope Jun 4, 2014 10:51 AM in response to phantelope
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 4, 2014 10:51 AM in response to phantelope

    looking at the console now, not much I understand but I'll see what I can find. I'll have to wait for connection to copy/paste things here. some things about excessive wakeups in firefox, something about an unreconized leaf certificate and lots of other things. Maybe I'll do a restart and then look again, hopefully I'll also have a connection then for a moment.

     

    ETA: anything in particular I should look for?

  • by BDAqua,

    BDAqua BDAqua Jun 4, 2014 11:32 AM in response to phantelope
    Level 10 (123,765 points)
    Jun 4, 2014 11:32 AM in response to phantelope

    The most important would be at the moment it looses connection, but mifgt repeated transitions, file or folder not found, failure, error, etc.

  • by phantelope,

    phantelope phantelope Jun 4, 2014 7:05 PM in response to phantelope
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 4, 2014 7:05 PM in response to phantelope

    even just after startup there are over 4000 lines, yikes! I'll have to give this an other look tomorrow, I'll look for repeats and errors.

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