Mac works fine on local wifi but won't connect to internet

Question

Mac works fine on local wifi but won't connect to internet

I was happily helping a friend with her web site when my MBP crashed and restarted. When it came back up, I was connected via wifi to my LAN. I could see devices, mount local servers, ping my router, etc.

But, I could not get outside of the network. Via USB cable, I tried using my iPhone's personal hotspot using both its LAN connection and mobile service. So, there's no problem between it and my router.

All the other devices on my LAN work fine. Any suggestions? It's running Mojave 10.14.16

The only easy thing I can think of doing is upgrading to Big Sur and hope that repairs whatever the problem is. Of course, that will kill some software that I use. I would like to avoid that on a speculation so I'm hoping someone out there has a fix.

Thanks!

MacBook Pro Retina

Posted on Dec 30, 2020 6:48 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Gary Beberman Author

Level 1

69 points

Dec 30, 2020 11:00 AM in response to Ronasara

Thanks, Ronsana. Yes, you are understanding it correctly. Yes, other devices communicating through the same router were accessing the internet. So, it was not the problem.

I found it (after too many hours of other things). At the time of the crash, I was working on a project with a friend who lives abroad, using a VPN to look like we were in the same country. I finally remembered that and it seemed like an ugly crash could have that kind of impact. So, I started and quit my VPN software. BAM. My internet connection was once again perfect.

I'll have to share this story with the makers of that software.

Thanks for helping!

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Answer 2

Ronasara

Level 6

15,519 points

Dec 30, 2020 10:30 AM in response to Gary Beberman

If I understand correctly, your computer is connected to, and can see the Wi-Fi network, so that part is working fine. Have you checked to confirm that the router is actually "seeing" the internet? It sounds like the problem may be with the router. Try resetting it to see if anything changes. Check the physical cable connection. Then you can go to your internet provider's web site to see if everything is working as it should be. Most of them have links there to test and reset the router, verify the internet connection, etc.

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Answer 3

Dec 30, 2020 7:48 AM in response to Lexiepex

Thanks, Lexiepex. That sounds like good advice. But, I don't see how this is a hardware problem and it's the OS that gives me access to the internet, no? I have tried to connect it to multiple networks and using some form of hotspot with two different kinds of devices and connections (USB with an iPhone, Bluetooth PAN with another MBP) I got the same behavior.

Do you have any idea how I start the repair? My assumption is that some file or preference was corrupted. But, how do I find it?

Before upgrading, I was going to reinstall the OS from my recovery partition. How does that sound?

Again, thanks for the advice and for engaging.

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