User profile for user: bbidlack
bbidlack Author
User level: Level 1
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Unable to resolve URLs or ping/dig hostnames

Hi everyone,

I've found a couple of similar threads on this and other Mac support sites, but I'm not sure how to or if I want to be mucking around in the etc/hosts or etc/resolv.conf files, as recommended on those site. Would appreciate any help!

Here's an overview:

I connect to the Internet on my PowerBook through a WEP-enabled wireless router. Everything worked perfectly last night, and today I'm unable to access any webpages in any browser (either by URL or IP address). My PC has no problem accessing the Internet, so it's something with the Mac settings. I connect through AirPort using DHCP.

Errors I'm experiencing:

When I type www.google.com in browser: "Server not found"

When I type 72.14.207.99 in browser: "The connection has timed out. The server at 72.14.207.99 is taking too long to respond."

When I ping www.google.com in Terminal: "ping: cannot resolve www.google.com: Unknown host"

When I ping 72.14.207.88 in Terminal:
PING 72.14.207.88 (72.14.207.88): 56 data bytes
ping: sendto: No route to host
ping: sendto: Host is down
---
11 packets transmitted, 0 packets received, 100% packet loss

When I dig www.google.com in Terminal:
; <<>> DiG 9.3.5-P2 <<>> www.google.com
;; global options: printcmd
;; connection timed out; no servers could be reached

When I dig 72.14.207.88 in Terminal:
same message as dig command above

In the course of various troubleshooting, I have gotten the pinging of the IP address to work, but never the hostname and have never been able to connect.

----

What additional info can I provide to help troubleshoot? I know just enough to be dangerous, so explicit steps to get you the info you need would be helpful.

Thanks in advance!
Brandon

Powerbook G4, Mac OS X (10.4.11)

Posted on Dec 4, 2008 5:34 PM

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9 replies
User profile for user: BDAqua
BDAqua
User level: Level 10
250,253 points

Dec 4, 2008 5:54 PM in response to bbidlack

Hi Brandon, and a warm welcome to the forums! 🙂

In the course of various troubleshooting, I have gotten the pinging of the IP address to work, but never the hostname and have never been able to connect.


Generally, when that part happens it no or bad DNS numbers, Try putting these numbers in Network>TCP/IP>DNS Servers, for the Airport Interface...

208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220

Then Apply

DNS Servers are a bit like Phone books where you look up a name and it gives you the phone number, in our case, you put in apple.com and it comes back with 17.254.3.183 behind the scenes. 🙂

But the rest, not being able to ping even numbers, sonds like either a Proxy is set, something is redirecting it, or the addy is not Ponging back.

Try this for...

IP address: 74.125.47.103
Host name: www.l.google.com

Though 72.14.207.99 Pings for me.

You may also want to purge the DNS cache for a try in Terminal...

Terminal commands to Flush DNS Cache Tiger to 10.5.1...

lookupd -flushcache

Leopard 10.5.2 or greater...

dscacheutil -flushcache

Reboot.
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User profile for user: bbidlack
bbidlack Author
User level: Level 1
0 points

Dec 4, 2008 6:18 PM in response to BDAqua

Thanks BD -

I put those IP addresses in the DNS section, in addition to the one which was already there, from the wireless router setup. I also flushed the cache.

However, still no URLs resolving in the browser and same error result when pinging either the hostname or the IP address.

What's the next level of troubleshooting?

Thanks,
Brandon
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User profile for user: BDAqua
BDAqua
User level: Level 10
250,253 points

Dec 4, 2008 6:31 PM in response to bbidlack

Did you check the Network>Proxies tab to see if something is set?

What is involved here... Router, Modem... what else?

What IP does your Mac say for the Mac & the Router?

If it's Aiport, put this in Terminal & report output...

/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Versions/Current/Resource s/airport -I
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User profile for user: bbidlack
bbidlack Author
User level: Level 1
0 points

Dec 4, 2008 6:40 PM in response to BDAqua

Checked proxies and nothing there.

I've got a 2Wire DSL Router and a Linksys Wireless Router - nothing else.

IP address on Network > TCP/IP: 169.254.9.161
IP address in Wireless Router setup screen: DHCP range 192.168.1.100 - 149

Note: As part of the troubleshooting, I changed the TCP/IP IP address to one in that DHCP range but it didn't help, so I let it auto-renew and select again.

Here's the output from the AirPort file:

commQuality: 67
rawQuality: 46
avgSignalLevel: -53
avgNoiseLevel: -89
linkStatus: ESS
portType: Client
lastTxRate: 11
maxRate: 11
lastAssocStatus: 1
BSSID: 00:0f:66:9b:98:af
SSID: myssid
Security: cipher: WEP 40
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User profile for user: bbidlack
bbidlack Author
User level: Level 1
0 points

Dec 4, 2008 6:54 PM in response to Jeff Kelleher

Thanks Jeff!

My other computer (PC) on the same wireless network works fine, and when I plug the ethernet cable directly into the PowerBook, it also works fine. So, I think it must be something related to the wireless settings. Are you recommending that I try to find a different WiFi network and see if that works with the PowerBook? Is there a way to check hardware functionality for the wireless connection without taking it somewhere else?

Also, FWIW, the AirPort says that it's connected to my wireless network fine, and I'm able to get into the router config tool without any problem.

OK - editing to say that I hopped on an open wireless network and everything seemed to work fine, so it's something specific to my wireless network as far as I can tell.

Thanks,
Brandon
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User profile for user: BDAqua
BDAqua
User level: Level 10
250,253 points

Dec 4, 2008 7:14 PM in response to bbidlack

IP address on Network > TCP/IP: 169.254.9.161


That shouldn't be at all, that's a self assigned IP when it can't get one via DHCP!?

Yet Terminal says it's workung!?

I'd reboot the Modem and Router even if the PC is working OK... power down Modem & Router for 2 minutes, power up Modem, wait 2 minutes, power up Router, wait two minutes & try to renew lease on the Mac.

If that doesn't work, try trashing these files & reboot...

Requires setting up Airport again.
/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/preferences.plist

/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.airport.preferences.plist
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Unable to resolve URLs or ping/dig hostnames

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