DHCP broken for Mac OS catalina

try to confirm if SOCKS proxy turned on. You can check that by going system preferences>network> wi-fi (or ethernet)> advanced> proxies > and untick SOCKS proxy.

I also would advise you to try:

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT202663

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201974

and last but not least to try to do safe mode and to reset smc, here's the articles for that:

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201262

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201295

In last resort create a test user and see if it works on the test acc:

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT204443

Have you tried removing the add-on firewall and that and any other add-in security, rebooting, and testing?

Failing DHCP is a pretty big gap in Apple testing.

Certainly possible, but a big gap given most Macs are configured with that.

Add-on firewalls and add-on security causing problems, not so much.

I had this same problem pop up out of the blue the other day . I tried everything with no cure.

I ended up doing a time machine restore back a couple of days and the problem went away .

No help but not sure what broke . Before that I got a message that the Mac mini restarted itself because of a problem , with no hint to what that problem was .

Please download and run EtreCheck, then open a new reply here and then press the button that looks like a printed page to open up a text input box big enough to paste the entire EtreCheck hardware and software configuration report into the new reply here. From the EtreCheck report, we’ll get details on your hardware and software configuration, and maybe also some indication of what’s (not) going on here.

Socks proxies are only typical in corporate and organizational environments, or when otherwise looking to re-route and to centralize HTTP/HTTPS network access... unusually.

There seems to be a VPN in play here, based on NEIKEv2Provider.

There’s also some WebKit or Safari bits that are busy.

And in general, remove Flash, unless you really need that.

Thanks for the response. A piece of it worked. Sort of...

I turned off firewall and confirmed firewall was "off" on both existing profiles. Still no access.

SOCKS Proxy was not active on either profile.

I found this article and did this before posting problem: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT202663

I found this article and did this before posting problem: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201974

As for safe mode... I also did that before posting problem. Since the article said Wireless Networking would be limited or unavailable, I didn't expect much. https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201262

I did not reset SMC.

I then created a Test user profile (firewall off, no password). It worked and then it didn't, then it did, and then it didn't. I accessed the test account, opened Safari and clicked on the Weather Channel link. The page opened. I closed the browser and then logged out of the profile. When I logged back in to take screen shots of the WiFi settings, the browser hung for a few minutes--the progress bar showed about 1/8 th progress and stopped. After waiting about 3 minutes, I clicked on the Weather Channel link again and this time I got the "Safari Can't Connect to the Server" message. I realized that I was still logged into my primary profile so I logged out of the primary and then back into the test without shutting down. No change. Safari still hung. SO... I shut down and started back up in the test account. It worked! I even surfed a bit!

I took screen shots of wifi configs and also checked login items (there were none). I stepped away and the monitor went into sleep mode. When I woke it, I could no longer connect. I powered down, powered up, accessed the test profile and launched safari and all was working gain. Note that this was not a restart. I did not test that.

Thoughts?

I tried a few things and remembered a few things since my last post. I deleted my other profile so now all I have are my primary and my test profiles. I downloaded and ran etrecheck and noticed my BootCamp drive. I restarted in Windows and had no short term internet connectivity issues. I say short term because I just checked a few sites and logged out. Today I noticed that if I continued to browse in the test profile, the internet would drop after a bit of surfing. Once it dropped in about 20 or 30 minutes, another time it took an hour. I did the etrecheck before and after the drop. Here are the full Working and Nonworking logs:

A few things... I went to the Nord VPN site and their answer to removal was "Look at the Apple Support page that covers uninstalling software." Basically, go to the Applications folder and delete the application (Which is what I did.)

As for Flash, I had to watch a video for school. I downloaded flash, watched the video and deleted Flash.

I'm at the point where I'm about to make sure all my photos and files are backed up and then do a clean install. That would really upset me.

How to back up your Mac - Official Apple Support

I’ve also used Carbon Copy Cloner to generate storage clones, and have used those for backups.

I’ve previously used Disk Utility for backups, but have had a few (arcane) issues with that in recent efforts. I was able to restore those.

I have photos stored locally on the Mac and not in iCloud. Your usage and settings may differ.

I'm not sure where my last post went. I ended up doing a clean install to get everything working again.

I tried reaching out to Nord VPN to troubleshoot before I did that but it was after hours. I needed my laptop to I just did a clean install.

Issue resolved (ish). Kinda upset.

Ah, thanks. Should probably add “VPN clients” to the usual litany of add-on stuff that breaks other stuff.

I have the same issue on my mid 2015 MBP 15 Retina (MacBookPro11,5). I installed Catalina on 10/13. Since then, I can connect to wifi (I tried 2 different networks), get Apple Software Updates, News notifications, Weather updates and Messages but no DHCP. Installed browsers (Safari, Chrome, Firefox) cannot access any network. I tried to submit feedback through the Feedback Assistant but it hangs up on login--"There was a problem connecting to the server." Which reminds me, I am also unable to connect to my Apple ID in System Preferences.

In troubleshooting, I have tried:

• Deleting and Re-adding WiFi settings in Network. (Yes, I applied changes after deleting.)
  • Unable to add a new DNS server.
• Installing all (one) 'Software Updates' that have been made available.
• Uninstalling (deleting) Virus software
• Uninstalling (deleting) VPN software
• Moving LaunchDaemons and LaunchAgents to a temporary location and restarting
• Zapping the PRAM
• And probably one or two more items I don't remember.

I don't have an rj45 adapter to try Ethernet vs Wifi but according to this post, that won't work either.

For the time being, I own a $2k paperweight. I looked to Apple for support but they wanted to charge me for their mistake. That's not something I'm prepared to do.

Help?

Try to create a test user account with administrator rights, try to see as well if you have login items, its strange that apple firewall is causing that.

Can you try to go into Recovery and test your wi-fi there?

just hold cmd+r while Mac is starting and try to connect to wi-fi then click on "get help online" and see if it shows and results