Conflict between MacBook pro and one modem only

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Conflict between MacBook pro and one modem only

Can anyone suggest a fix for this? I have a mid-2015 MacBook Pro which I use as a second home computer. It has 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7 with 16 gb ram, and runs Monterey 12.6.6 (it won’t run the newer Mac OS). It works fine except for one problem - for some reason it will only connect intermittently with the web when using the home modem. With Safari, about 50% of the time there is a long wait follwed by the following message: “Safari can’t open the page [XXXXX] because the server where this page is located isn’t responding”. With Chrome the same thing happens, except the message is “the server took too long to respond”. If I try again in a few minutes, the page is sometimes retrieved successfully. The problem comes and goes.

The funny thing is, if I hotspot with my iPhone, the problem disappears completely. The computer works fine and connects straight away. Also, no other computer in the house has any problem with the modem. So it’s just the 2015 MacBook Pro and the home modem that aren’t seeing eye to eye. I don’t know what brand the modem is, it was provided by the ISP (EE).

Email and videoconferencing are fine, BTW. It just seems to be the web.

MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 12.6

Posted on Jun 15, 2023 1:05 PM

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Answer 1

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Tomdbl Author

Level 1

64 points

Jun 18, 2023 6:42 AM in response to Tomdbl

I did something I should have done before, and that was run the wireless diagnostic tool and generated a report. One of the suggestions was that the IPv6 address was configured to "manual" and the address was incorrect. When I checked, it was in fact set to "off". I don't know how that happened. I set it to automatic, and there have been no more problems.

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Answer 2

Jun 15, 2023 6:03 PM in response to Tomdbl

Try power cycling the modem/router. Best to reboot the laptop as well.

Since a hotspot allows this laptop to work Ok, I doubt any of the following tips will make a difference, but may be worth trying.

Try booting into Safe Mode to see if you have the same issue. If this works, then you have some third party software installed which is interfering with the normal operation of macOS. Typical culprits include anti-virus apps, cleaning/optimizer apps, and third party security software....none of which are needed on a Mac.

Another thing to try is create a new macOS user account. Log out of the current user account, then log into the new macOS user account. If this works, then there is something with your main user account which is misconfigured or you may have a login item or browser extension interfering, but at least you know the issue is localized to your user account.

Has anything recently changed with this laptop or OS? Or even something in the house as it may be interfering with the WiFi signal.

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Conflict between MacBook pro and one modem only

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