MacOS 10.8 Mountain Lion can't connect to external services (App Store, iLok, Avid, etc)

Hello there,

I have an old Mac Pro 4.1 with MacOS 10.8 Mountain Lion installed. It is a fresh installation - it was an old system and I wanted to make a hard clean-up of it. I thought this would fix the issue as described in the title, but it still persists. Namely - I can't connect to any app-related network service. What I mean by that - I have Internet connectivity, the browser works just fine. However, all the programs such as iTunes, App Store, and most importantly: iLok Manager and Pro Tools - all throw "server unreachable" messages (in Pro Tools it's where I am trying to browse anything related to my Avid account).

My network setup is just plain router and Ethernet cables; still, I have checked the router's configuration to make sure. I have also checked another networks such as mobile hotspot from my phone, all with the same result. My guess is that I have some setting missing perhaps? Or network component set up in some old way. I tried all the fixes found on the Internet, such as clearing caches or databases of App Store, some proxy settings in the Internet options, but without any luck.

I would highly appreciate all the help - I have spent quite a few hours trying to fix this by myself, which only ended up with so high frustration...

Earlier Mac models

Posted on Sep 13, 2023 6:49 AM

Top-ranking reply

Grant Bennet-Alder

Level 10

140,123 points

Posted on Sep 13, 2023 7:28 AM

SSL to TLS:

In 2015, researchers discovered that Secure Socket Layer (SSL) Internet encryption was not nearly as secure as was thought, and needed to be replaced. Internet encryption quickly moved to Transport Layer Security (TLS) which was rapidly deployed across the Internet. Over time, sites tightened requirements for what was acceptable for encryption.

Apple issued Safari version 9 in 10.11 El Capitan version of MacOS, which included TLS encryption. It was later provided by retro-fit into the two previous versions of MacOS as a Security update. 10.10 Yosemite and 10.9 Mavericks, PROVIDED you applied all available software updates.

MacOS versions older than those can not make a lot of secure [httpS:] connections on the Internet, because by todays standard, your proffered SSL encryption is considered inadequate.

Mac Pro 4,1 42 lb silver tower is supported to run 10.11 El Capitan.

MacBook Ppro 4,1 from 2008 can run 10.11 El Capitan if it has at least 4 GB or RAM. 6GB is possible, but requires just the right chips.

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MacOS 10.8 Mountain Lion can't connect to external services (App Store, iLok, Avid, etc)

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