Some websites won't load

I have exactly the same problem - started out of the blue today. I can't load Facebook, mobileme or Yahoo (though Facebook and Yahoo load through proxy servers such as hidemyass.com)

I get the following message:

Safari can’t find the server.
Safari can’t open the page “ http://www.yahoo.com/” because Safari can’t find the server “www.yahoo.com”.

In order to fix this I first reset Safari - that didn't help. Then I reinstalled Safari - that didn't help either. I installed Firefox, only to find the same sites still don't load! Convinced I had a virus, I ran VirusBarrier - nothing found. My net connection (and speed) are otherwise fine. Only these sites are affected. My software update app tells me I am up to date - I am at a complete loss as to what I can do.

Also, my Yahoo IM program will not load (it just freezes and I need to force quit it every time).

I have no where else to turn and would be very grateful for any suggestions.

Paul

Well I can't believe this. Almost immediately after pressing send on my previous post, these sites are now working (they didn't for nearly 6 hours) and everything seems to be back to normal. I'm still at a complete loss as to what happened....

Ok, just found out the cause of the problem. I was told today that a fibre optic cable had been damaged between Hong Kong and Taiwan, as a result of this my ISP was restricting traffic to several sites. Wish I had known, it would have saved me hours of messing around...

I wish I could have an explanation to my problem.

I am not able to ping certain websites like Apple.com or Me.com but when I try to connect directly through the terminal, I get a response and everything looks fine.

If I open the Activity window on Safari, and then try to go to Apple.com, nothing happens. Sometimes it just puts a ? next to it but most of the times it doesn't even show www.apple.com.

When I reset Safari, I am able to browse to Apple.com two or three times and then it times out. Me.com doesn't work at all even after reset.

I have verified my settings several times but it looks like it's specific to my Ethernet card, the funny thing is that it can't be a Hardware problem because I got it replaced for a brand new card and again, the connection computer to computer is perfect, I can also connect remotely without problem.

Anybody else has any other ideas? The other thing I haven;'t been able to test is bring my Power Mac to another network and see if is still happening.

I'll be in touch but I'll appreciate any other suggestion.

I'm having the same problem, but with different websites. Like the original poster, this popped up out of the blue about a week ago. My problems sites are www.signonsandiego.com and www.washingtonpost.com. I'm gonna try resetting disk permissions; I've tried most of the other suggestions that have been offered. I can reach these same websites from my PC on my home LAN, but not from my Mac. Weird!

I did "repair permissions" and it didn't help. In FF, I have two plug-ins: AdBlock Plus and NoScript. I disabled these to no avail. Anyway, the problem persists both in FF & Safari so I didn't expect it to be a browser-unique problem.

Two other websites aren't getting through: Breitbart, and open DNS. The second is unfortunate since posters have recommended that site for further troubleshooting, but I can't read it. Actually, opendns.com gets as far as "connected" and "transferring data" but no data gets through. The other websites get hung up on "waiting for..." until they time out.

BTW, my profile says I"m in California but I'm actually in Japan. When I set my profile to Japan, the web pages all came up in Japanese even though I specified my language as English. My wife could read enough Japanese to reset the location to the US which fixed the language problem so whatever...

I am having twisted version of similar problem.

From work, I can access everything

From home, I cannot secure sites. For example, I can go to my.yahoo.com but it won't work after I give my credentials. After that the browser times out. The twist is that if I turn on VPN, then even secure sites start working. My version of problem is posted @ http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2126120

I have not tried with another browser.

I have tried with different tool and it would work. For example, mail.yahoo.com would time out but I can access mail using Apple Mail.

DJ

Mhar, I just solved my problem which sounds virtually identical to yours.

I found a 4-year-old post at www.velocityreviews.com/forums/t37321-another-linksys-router-blocking-some-site s.html

This guy mentions the MTU size being set too high and talks about a web-based tool to test it. I ran the test and it suggested my MTU was set too high. My MTU was at the default of 1492 which normally ought to be ok. Still, I reduced it to 1400 and instantly the websites I couldn't view became accessible.

The MTU setting is in your router. It's not your Mac nor your ISP. Try it out and good luck!

Wow! I just set my MTU to 1400 and it fixed my problem too. The only way I could explain this is that when I used VPN, VPN created a virtual adapter and set MTU for that adapter dynamically.

I set MTU=1400 in Macbook. That worked.

I set it to 1400 on my wireless router (that time Macbook MTU was default 1500). That one worked too.

Thanks a ton!

Resetting the MTU to 1400 or 1300 or 1000 or even putting it on Jumbo didn't change a thing for me.

I don't know if you restart the computer or something?

I clicked Apply and closed and reopen a Safari window.

Thank you for the help anyway.

Hi Moises, it sounds like you're changing a setting in your Mac. I'm talking about the MTU setting of the router. I have a dlink router, I can change settings through a web interface to my computer. For the dlink, I had to go back to the Manual Setup page and set it there. Each router will be different so you might need the manual. Reduce the MTU setting of the router and reboot the router. If this solves your problem, I would restore the default MTU setting of your Macbook or set it to 1492.

Thank you for your response.

I have a Time Capsule and I quick google said that you can't change this on the Apple Routers.

Any help?

Bummer. No cable model/DSL modem upstream of the TC?

Well I am connected to a cable modem but I don't think I have access to the modem settings.
Should I try to ask my ISP?