On my MacBook I cannot access the above uk website. I just thought that during the current situation it was probably busy all the time but it fires up quickly enough on my iPhone 5s. My MacBook is running on Catalina 10.15.5 and I use Safari as my browser.
Any suggestion as to what may be wrong?
MacBook Air 13″, macOS 10.15
Are you running any anti - virus programs? Using a VPN?
Try setting up another admin user account in System Preferences/Users & Groups to see if the same problem continues. Please post back on whether or not this worked. Also try the Safe Mode. Please post back on whether or not this worked.
Isolating an issue by using another user account
If it works in the Safe Mode, try running this program when booted normally and then copy and paste the output in a reply. The program was created by Etresoft, a frequent contributor. Please use copy and paste as screen shots can be hard to read. Click “Share Report” button in the toolbar, select “Copy to Clipboard” and then paste into a reply. This will show what is running on your computer. No personal information is shown. If the log won’t post, try posting it in Pastebin and provide a link in a reply. After pasting the report in a PasteBin page, go to the top of the page, and copy the address in the URL bar. Paste that in a new reply. Pastebin.
Etrecheck – System Information.
Web site version if required. https://etrecheck.com
Are you running any anti - virus programs? Using a VPN?
Try setting up another admin user account in System Preferences/Users & Groups to see if the same problem continues. Please post back on whether or not this worked. Also try the Safe Mode. Please post back on whether or not this worked.
Isolating an issue by using another user account
If it works in the Safe Mode, try running this program when booted normally and then copy and paste the output in a reply. The program was created by Etresoft, a frequent contributor. Please use copy and paste as screen shots can be hard to read. Click “Share Report” button in the toolbar, select “Copy to Clipboard” and then paste into a reply. This will show what is running on your computer. No personal information is shown. If the log won’t post, try posting it in Pastebin and provide a link in a reply. After pasting the report in a PasteBin page, go to the top of the page, and copy the address in the URL bar. Paste that in a new reply. Pastebin.
Etrecheck – System Information.
Web site version if required. https://etrecheck.com
I recommend changing it to 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4.
Does that work?
If not, you may wish to put it back to 192.168.0.14
On your Mac, choose Apple menu > System Preference > Network.
Under DNS, what DNS is showing? (eg. 192,168,4,8)
Power down the following devices (in this order):
After about 15 seconds, power the above back on in the reverse order.
Launch Safari while holding down the shift key. Safari Preferences : Advanced panel [√] Show develop menu in menu bar. Press option+command+e to clear your browser cache, and from the Safari menu : Clear History… [all history] [ Clear History ]. Quit and relaunch Safari normally. Now try the the UK Gov site again.
That .14 address may be your router's address, and the source of your DNS resolution. I have never needed to use Google DNS addresses to solve Safari issues, and if the preceding works, you won't need to either.
Thanks for replying. It's very slow to try and load and eventually I get a message something like "Safari cannot find website". This has been happening for several days on my MacBook but I only thought to try on my iPhone 5s earlier this afternoon and it loaded fast enough on that and I have also succeeded in loading it on my ancient iPad. All other websites I have tried to access on the MacBook load satisfactorily.
Any suggestions?
Thanks for your response. I did wonder if it was anything to do with the cache but I don't have the knowledge to clear things out with confidence! However, I've followed your instructions and it hasn't worked so if you have any more thoughts I should be extremely grateful.
Thanks once again. Regards, David
Dear Eric,
You are obviously far more knowledgeable than me on IT but I took the easiest looking option that you gave, started my MacBook in safe mode and, hey presto, it worked. Not only that but after rebooting again normally it still works so enormous thanks to you for sharing your wisdom. I will keep the link to your solutions so that I can refer to it should I need to in the future.
Thanks once again and kind regards, David
It's working fine for me.
What happens when you try? Any error messages?
The IP address (DNS?) is 192.168.0.14.
Thanks but this hasn't worked. Still taking an age for the progress bar to move across and no doubt with the same end result.
You are welcome. Glad to help.
Accessing the website www.gov.uk.
