Safari can’t connect to the server.

Adding Open DNS codes to your Network Preferences, should give good results in terms of speed-up as well as added security:

If you are using a single computer: Open System Preferences/Network. Double click on your connection type, or select it in the drop-down menu, and in the box marked 'DNS Servers' add the following two numbers:

208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220

(You can also enter them if you click on Advanced and then DNS)

Sometimes reversing the order of the DNS numbers can be beneficial in cases where there is a long delay before web pages start to load, and then suddenly load at normal speed:

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2296

If your computer is part of a network: please refer to this page: http://www.opendns.com/start/bestpractices/#yournetwork and follow the advice given.

You could also try these codes as well: 4.2.2.1 & 4.2.2.2

If you use a Router, make sure it has the latest firmware installed.

I am experiencing this same problem with several websites. This is most frustrating and was noticed after installing Snow Leopard OS, and have also noticed more slowness since 5.0. Firefox gave same problem. I just downloaded Chrome and the problem websites came up immediately. Will something be done about this?

Update to Safari 5.0.1.

Then read the reply already given.

Have you updated to Safari 5.0.1?

How exactly are you connected to the internet?

similar problem and will post a question. Will try some of these leads.
Here's a copy of the question I posted to Firefox:

In recent weeks, possibly coinciding with updates in Firefox (running 3.6.10), Safari (5.0.2) and iTunes (10.0.1), I have only received the prompt, "can't find server" when attempting to connect to the site below (kcrw.com). Others can get it on their computers in other places, and my iPhone can access when on 3G, but our network here seems affected because all the computers [All macs, some laptops and some desktops, running on OS 10.5.8] here receive this message. I used to be able to go to this site, a radio station, and stream audio or download podcasts. My ISP ran a ping test to the site's server and said that went through, but the browsers don't seem to be able to make the transformation to anything I can read. What kind of a problem is this? Apple care was no help either.

Hi Alice...

See my reply here: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2609797&tstart=0






Carolyn 🙂

I have the same problem for quite a while now. With certain websites Safari can't seem to connect to the server. I have this problem with websites like:

http://www.salonsocialisten.com/
http://wikileaks.nl/
http://www.zanox.com/

So far I have tried every solution I found on this forum (changed DNS, re-install Safari, rolled back to earlier version etc.) but nothing seems to doe the trick. Maybe it has nothing to do with it, but could it have something to do with IPv4 and IPv6?

A few days ago I installed Adobe CS5 on my machine and suddenly I am able to load the websites in Safari again and I had no more problems.

Could the problem have been in Adobe CS4?

Did reloading Safari do the trick for you? Or did the problem come back?

My Wife's i-Mac has the same issue and I have been waiting for Apple Support to phone me back.

It seems like Safari oas well as Google Chrome hangs up when trying to display certain pages . This is not always a problem but is fairly frequently. It is as if the browsers time out or are being re-directed to a page that can not be displayed."Safari can not find the server"

Looking for someone with similar issue who had success correcting it.