"Not connected to Internet" error message

Question

Level 1

10 points

"Not connected to Internet" error message

Hi Guys,

Safari keeps throwing me "you are not connected to the internet" error messages. I'm running 10.5.1 and I chose the "upgrade" option.

The errors are displayed randomly on sites and if I get the error upon visiting a site, I usually have to wait about a half hour before i reload the site and it works normally. This is happening to approximately 20% of the sites I visit. I can view the same exact site in Firefox, but I also get the same error in Mail, Aperture (flickr export) and twitterific.

If a site (like Flickr) pulls resources from multiple urls, even though the initial site loads, the resources may not. For instance, loading Flickr, the page may load, but since the images are on a separate server (or multiple separate servers), the images may not load or may load randomly.

I tested failing urls in Network Utility > Traceroute and urls that throw the error message get an "unknown host" message. I assume this bug has to do with Mac OS X as opposed to my ISP. and that web kit is probably the culprit, as I'm having this problem on apps that use web kit to access the internet (firefox does not).

This error is also happening on my powerbook G4 that was upgraded to 10.5 as well.

anyone else having this error? i don't seem to see anything in the forums.

Message was edited by: Ed Fladung

Message was edited by: Ed Fladung

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.5.1)

Posted on Nov 19, 2007 9:01 AM

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Answer 1

iBod

Level 7

29,351 points

Nov 19, 2007 9:23 AM in response to Ed Fladung

Hi,

This type of problem is usually caused by slow DNS servers. DNS servers are what converts a string name for a destination (i.e. www.apple.com is a string name) into it's IP address that computers can then talk to.

Try changing your DNS servers to those supplied by [OpenDNS|https://www.opendns.com/start] to see if that helps. If it does, we know your current settings are either incorrect or your ISPs DNS servers are simply responding too slowly.

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Answer 2

Nov 19, 2007 11:25 AM in response to iBod

I am having this IDENTICAL problem. My ISP is Cox Communications and at first I thought the problem was DNS related. It certainly appears to be, but I went and dusted off my old Windows laptop and internet access works very well, fast and snappy. Since upgrading to Leopard on my Mac Pro and MacBook Pro (oh yes, I was stupid to upgrade both at the same time) I have been so frustrated with this problem. Safari will tell me I'm "Not connected to Internet" while Firefox will happily load the same page. Mail will tell me it can't connect to the smtp server while tcpdump shows it not even trying. A half hour later it starts to work temporarily. I have tried using different DNS servers but it doesn't make a difference. The problem is definitely Apple Safari/Mail. Boo!
Please someone at Apple fix this problem quickly. This is extremely frustrating.

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Answer 3

Nov 19, 2007 11:35 AM in response to Ed Fladung

You're not alone. I have the exact same problem and it's driving me nuts!

I also upgraded my PowerBook at the same time as I bought a new iMac. They're now both running Leopard and both having this problem.

Any suggestions or answers very gratefully received...

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Answer 4

Ed Fladung Author

Level 1

10 points

Nov 19, 2007 11:46 AM in response to iBod

this is definitely not a DNS server problem. this is a problem with web kit or some other part of Leopard. it is reproducible and there are other people from other ISPs who are having the same problem. This problem happened after the upgrade to Leopard.

Just to be sure, I switched my router's DNS servers to point to openDNS and kept on getting openDNS' search page after going to google, homedepot.com and a host of other sites that openDNS says were not responding. So back to ISP provided DNS servers.

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Answer 5

Nov 19, 2007 5:02 PM in response to Ed Fladung

I get the same problems on both my machines, I thought it was my ISP as I have a 3G HSDPA wireless internet connection (Virgin Broadband com.au).

I have found that if I disconnect from my Airport momentarily, by turning off Airport on the machine in question and then back on again, the web page will automatically reload correctly, this so far has a 100% success rate. Unfortunately it doesn't fix the problem from reoccurring again.

It appears to be Safari caching the failed to load page and refusing reload it until a network change has occurred or a time has elapsed.

Frustrating!

Cheers
Marc

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Answer 6

Nov 19, 2007 7:00 PM in response to Ed Fladung

I've been having this same problem all day. I can only check some of my email accounts, can't access a number of websites inc. Google, yahoo, Engadget, etc, and Adium is pretty much a bust. On the other hand, I have perfectly fine internet access through XP in Parallels.

I've tried everything think of, but I'm out of ideas short of reinstalling Leopard and that just seems silly.

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Answer 7

Ed Fladung Author

Level 1

10 points

Nov 19, 2007 7:14 PM in response to FormerUltraBlond

yup, i'm pretty sure it's not mac os x itself, but rather web kit in particular.

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Answer 8

Nov 24, 2007 7:22 PM in response to Ed Fladung

I was having exactly the same problem and found a quick fix.
Open System Preferences. Click on Network. Click Advanced. Click TCP/IP tab. Set Configure IPv6 to Off.
This fix it for me!

Credit:
http://chroniclesofwynn.wordpress.com/2007/11/08/safari-internet-connection-prob lems-in-leopard/

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Answer 9

Nov 24, 2007 11:59 PM in response to Gomfucius

Ok I take that back. It's doing the same problem again.
For some reason, this problem happens a lot with apple.com. Maybe about the 3rd time since I bought Leopard.

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Answer 10

JulienBr

Level 1

0 points

Nov 27, 2007 8:07 PM in response to Gomfucius

Same problem here with Leopard, accessing apple or google websites most of the time it happens.
Very sporadic...
Let us know if you find a solution for this!!

I'm really happy there's firefox out there to save our lives...
But still, it's a pain.. Would rather use Safari only!

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Answer 11

Nov 29, 2007 1:22 AM in response to Ed Fladung

I suffer from the same problem as well, ...except even Firefox says i'm not connected to the internet when i go to Apple.com :P

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Answer 12

Nov 29, 2007 7:31 AM in response to Ed Fladung

Actually, the problem seems to be that the DNS cache gets corrupted. My temporary fix is to automatically flush it every 3 minutes.

If you have this problem you can verify that the DNS cache is corrupted using dscacheutil.

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Answer 13

Dec 1, 2007 5:33 PM in response to Magnus Nordlander

I came across another post of a similar problem. The problem is definitely DNS related and appears to occur with certain DNS servers. I've switched my DNS from my ISP (Cox Communications) to OpenDNS servers and the problem has gone away. I am back to using Safari and Mail without any more problems.

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Answer 14

Dec 2, 2007 9:26 AM in response to madcapdan

Well, if it would be DNS related, how come that another browser (camino, firefox) works fine at the same time ?

In Safari, I cannot access apple.com at this very moment. However, using Camino or Firefox, it works just fine. Otherwise I couldn't make this post 🙂

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Answer 15

Dec 4, 2007 4:03 AM in response to Ed Fladung

Same here. 10.5.1. This happens often. (MySpace is especially bad but any site can fail.)

Sleep/wake seems to help, but it's a Safari/Webkit issue for sure, since Firefox keeps working just fine.

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