Unable to add DNS without deleting the others

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Level 1

25 points

Unable to add DNS without deleting the others

MacBook Air 2108, Mojave, has been squirrelly on my home wi-fi network, dropping the wifi connection.

I am sitting less than 6 feet from the router. ISP (Comcast) says nothing is wrong with the Internet service. Router support (Arris) says nothing is wrong with the router.

Changed the router channel but wifi still dropped shortly after that.

Reset the DRAM and SPC a couple of times each.

In System Preferences > Network, I made sure my home network was at the top of the Network list and the System Preferences > Network > Advanced > Preferred Network lists.

In case Comcast's DNS servers were the problem, I wanted to add Cloudflare's 1.1.1.1 public DNS server (offering privacy) and Google's 8.8.8.8 DNS server BUT --

With Wi-FI selected on System Preferences > Network AND my network name selected on System Preferences > Network > Advanced > Wi-fi tab, I cannot add a new DNS to the System Preferences > Network > Advanced > DNS > DNS Servers because

The current list of 4 DNS servers, which were given to me by my ISP's (Comcast's) customer support staff, are grayed out.
When I click on the + to add a DNS server, it deletes the existing 4 DNS addresses. I can add another DNS but all the others are deleted.

According to the support documentation I've been reading, it's not supposed to behave like this. What's going on?

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 10.14

Posted on Jul 23, 2021 1:07 AM

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Answer 1

BDAqua

Level 10

250,253 points

Jul 23, 2021 6:49 AM in response to crabpaws

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

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.

Sys Prefs>Network>highlight the Interface you're using>Advanced>TCP/IP>Configure IPv4: Using DHCP.

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

1.1.1.1

9.9.9.9

Apply.

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Answer 2

BDAqua

Level 10

250,253 points

Jul 24, 2021 3:28 PM in response to crabpaws

A New Location helps because there are a dozen or more files associated with a Location, & they're not documented.

A New Location won't set you back, you can always just select your current Location to return everything to the way it is now

Who knows if it's a corrupted file, a locked file, or what, but a New Location gives you fresh chances for all those settings.

No limit...

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Answer 3

crabpaws Author

Level 1

25 points

Jul 24, 2021 3:14 PM in response to BDAqua

Thanks for your effort, BDAqua. As my original post attempts to explain, after reading the same section of Apple documentation you quoted, I had done all of it except add a new location.

Can you tell me what adding a new wi-fi location means to the system? Why can I not add a DNS to the existing location? Is there a limit on DNS entries per location?

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Unable to add DNS without deleting the others

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