Unable to browse the internet but other apps can access their data fine.

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Level 1

13 points

Unable to browse the internet but other apps can access their data fine.

Hi All,

I have a 13" Macbook Pro (Early 2015) running on macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 that has recently started to behave strangely. There are times when I boot up the Mac and when I try to browse the internet using Safari or Chrome, it is unable to open any web pages. On Safari, the load progress gets to about 15% and then it just sits there until it times out. Thinking that it was a problem with my internet connection, I checked the the other apps but they were connecting and getting their data from the internet without any issues. These apps like Outlook, OneDrive, Google Drive File Stream, and even messaging services like Viber for Desktop and Microsoft Teams are able to connect to the internet.

Furthermore, running traceroute and ping via a Terminal window shows that I can reach websites like www.apple.com without any problems. This seems to be isolated to browsing only.

Restarting the Mac can solve the problem but there are days where I have to reboot more than once before browsing using Safari and Chrome can work.

This is also happening regardless of whether I am connected to our office wifi or our wifi at home.

Things that I did to try and troubleshoot:

Specify the DNS servers explicitly (1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1).
Forget the wifi network and reconnect to it.
Created a new network profile.

Other things to note that might help:

I downgraded from Mojave to High Sierra a couple of months ago due to the battery drain issue with the "then" latest OS.

MacBook Pro Retina

Posted on Oct 10, 2019 6:52 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

rpacis Author

Level 1

13 points

Oct 10, 2019 7:41 PM in response to BDAqua

I am using the Sophos anti-virus and in one of the mornings that I experienced this weird behavior, I killed the daemon via the Activity Monitor but it did not restore the ability to use the browsers.

I will give the other items a try. Thank you!

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Answer 2

BDAqua

Level 10

238,913 points

Oct 10, 2019 7:29 PM in response to rpacis

Let's start with this...

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

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

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

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, 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.

System Preferences>Network>choose interface>Advanced>Proxies Tab, make sure none are set, like for HTTP & HTTPS.

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...

8.8.8.8

8.8.4.4

Apply.

Oh, are you running any Anti virus Apps?

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Answer 3

rpacis Author

Level 1

13 points

Oct 12, 2019 5:56 AM in response to rpacis

Ok, so I did the steps suggested and also uninstalled Sophos. I also installed Avast in its place and am now keeping an eye on whether the problem happens again on the next few boot ups. So far so good though!

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